Robert Ménard

Robert Ménard (10 June 1934 – 16 August 2016), better known as "Shotgun Bob", was a Canadian policeman. In 2016, the journalist Tu Thanh Ha described Ménard as a "legendary" policeman in Montreal famed for his intelligence and toughness.

From delinquent to policeman Ménard was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec into a working class French-Canadian family, the son of Hector Ménard and Cécile Robidas, and grew up in Cookshire. After starting suspiciously at Ménard, Violi agreed to rent the apartment to him largely because he liked his "wife".

The Night Squad After the Violi assignment was completed, Ménard was assigned to the Night Squad. During his time with the night squad, Ménard was involved in a brawl with Normand Dubois, one of the 9 Dubois brothers at 4: 30 am in a back ally. The journalist Tu Thanh Ha wrote: "... the police had no qualms about meting out violence when dealing with career criminals. He [Ménard] recalled clearing outlaw bikers from a bar by approaching the leader and smashing his flashlight on the man's face." As a member of the Night Squad, Ménard played a key role in bringing down the Dubois brothers, though as Langton noted that methods used by the "notorious Night Squad" were quite ruthless and "... would not necessarily be approved of by outsider observers." Ménard's partner André Kourie stated: "When there were night club raids, Bob would come up on stage with his .12 [shotgun] and yell, 'Nobody move, your hands on the table!' It did not persist!" The fact that Ménard always had a shotgun with him during his Night Squad work led to him having the nickname "Shotgun Bob".

The Homicide and Robbery Squad Ménard was then assigned to the homicide and robbery squad in 1980. During one robbery which he was only supposed to observe, Ménard chased, took down and arrested the thieves as they fled. Kourie recalled: "He couldn't help himself. Each time he saw a bad guy he had to run after him. It was tiring for us." In September 1984, Ménard used his shotgun to wound a bank robber during a shoot-out. On 31 January 1985, Rock Blais, a thief who had robbed a Steinberg's grocery store, pointed his rifle at Ménard, who used his shotgun to kill Blais. A judicial review ruled that Ménard was justified in killing Blais, a violent career criminal, who had pointed his gun at him.

On 28 March 1985, Ménard was involved in a shoot-out with two bank robbers in LaSalle. A bank had been robbed of $13, 232 at gunpoint by two thieves, Christian Bouchard and Marc Lorange. Ménard responded to the robbery call and a shoot-out ensured where some 143 bullets were fired. During the shoot-out, Ménard killed Lorange with his shotgun. In the course of the shoot-out, Ménard was shot in the chest and in both legs. He recalled: "It felt like I was hit by a baseball bat. I saw the blood come out like a fountain." Ménard said of the robbers who shot him: "Look in their eyes. What do you see? You see hatred. You see no fucking soul. You know what I see? I see an animal."

Retirement Ménard was forced into a desk position because of his wounds. At the same time, his son Marc died of brain cancer, which greatly saddened him. Marc Ménard had followed his father into police work and had just joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In 1989, Ménard retired after 30 years on the police force. Ménard settled in the Pointe-Claire district. The information collected by Ménard between 1970 and 1975 in Montreal was so useful to the police that he was declared an honorary citizen of Agrigento to honor him for his anti-Mafia work. The information collected by Ménard led to several convictions of Mafiosi in Italy. In his acceptance speech given in Agrigento in Italian in 2005, Ménard stated that the honor was not due to him, but rather all his colleagues on the Montreal police force. In 2016, he was the subject of the documentary Shotgun Bob. Ménard died of a heart attack in 2016.

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