Nicolo Rizzuto, an 86-year-old Italian-Canadian of Sicilian origin and long described as the patriarch of the Rizzuto crime family, was killed on November 10, 2010 inside his home on Antoine-Berthelet Avenue in Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville district. Shortly before 5:45 p.m., a gunman concealed in the wooded area behind the property fired a single, carefully aimed shot through the rear windows, striking Rizzuto in the head. He was with his wife, Libertina, and his daughter; neither woman was physically injured though both were treated for shock. Rizzuto was taken to Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal and died shortly after arriving.

Investigators treated the killing as a sniper-style assassination, searched the wooded area where the shooter had been positioned and examined recently installed surveillance equipment at the residence. Police said Rizzuto had received threats in the months before the killing and tied the assassination to a period of intense violence against the Rizzuto organization, but no specific motive or ordering party was publicly proven. Salvatore Sam Calautti emerged as a person of interest in police reporting, yet he was never arrested or charged in the murder. Other later statements from underworld figures claimed knowledge of the shooter and the weapon, but no one has been convicted and the case remains officially unsolved.

Did anyone in Montreal around November 2010 see suspicious activity near Antoine-Berthelet Avenue or the wooded area behind the Rizzuto home?