Family members of a 15-year-old girl killed in a drive-by shooting in Montreal in 2021 delivered emotional victim impact statements today at her killer’s sentencing hearing.

Salim Touaibi bowed his head as Meriem Boundaoui’s parents, siblings and other family members described their loss and pain in letters read in court.

A jury found Touaibi guilty last week of murdering Boundaoui, and also convicted him on four counts of attempted murder.

Touaibi’s co-accused, Aymane Bouadi, was acquitted of all charges.

The victim’s sister, Safia Boundaoui, told the court that Meriem was not only a beloved daughter, sister and aunt but also the symbol of her family’s hopes for their life in Canada.

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She said her sister was a person full of hopes and dreams whose smile was extinguished the day of her murder.

“We will always live with this absence that can never be filled,” she said.

The Superior Court trial heard that Boundaoui was sitting in the passenger seat of a Volkswagen Jetta in Montreal’s St-Léonard borough on Feb. 7, 2021, when a white Mercedes with two men inside pulled up and one of them opened fire.

Touaibi testified to being the shooter, but said he didn’t realize Boundaoui or anyone else was in the Jetta when he shot at it with the intention of scaring those nearby.

He automatically faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years. But the judge still needs to determine Touaibi’s sentence on the four counts of attempted murder related to the several people who were standing near the Jetta when he opened fire.

Prosecutor Simon Lapierre suggested Touaibi should be given a life sentence for the attempted murders given the violent nature of the crime, the number of victims and his criminal history.

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