He Filmed Himself Doing It, Which Is Why Laval Police Have Both a Video and No Name: the SPL Releases Footage of a Honda HR-V Being Doused and Set Alight at Voltaire and De Véronne in Chomedey (September 9, 2026)
CHOMEDEY, LAVAL — The Service de police de Laval published this appeal on Wednesday, September 9, 2026. The fire itself is from Sunday, August 2, 2026, and the reason there is anything to look at thirty-eight days later is that the man who set it stood in the street holding his phone in his left hand and filmed himself doing it. Surveillance cameras in the area filmed him back. Laval police now have video of an arson from two angles, stills pulled from further sequences — and no name.
The fire was set at approximately 6:15 a.m. at the intersection of rue Voltaire and rue De Véronne, in the Chomedey sector of Laval. The vehicle was a black Honda HR-V, parked.
What the Footage Shows
- The SPL describes the suspect as « un jeune homme au teint basané et vêtu en noir » — a young man of dark complexion, dressed in black.
- He loitered around the vehicle for several minutes before doing anything.
- He held a transparent bottle in his right hand and his cellphone in his left, filming his own act.
- He doused the Honda methodically, then ignited the liquid after a few seconds.
- La Presse reports he appeared surprised by the violence of the flames and fled at speed.
- Additional photographs of the suspect were extracted from other video sequences and released alongside the footage.
The Number That Is Missing
The SPL has published a file number, LVL260802-015, and a tip line, 450-662-INFO (4636). It has not published a name, a description of the vehicle’s owner, a motive, a damage estimate, or any statement about whether the Honda was targeted or chosen at random. No arrest has been made.
It has also not said why the appeal came thirty-eight days after the fire. That gap is not explained anywhere in the release or in the reporting on it.
The Backdrop, and the Line That Should Not Be Crossed
La Presse sets the appeal against the SPL’s own 2025 statistics, released in June 2026. Laval counted 113 arsons in 2025, eight more than the year before. The same report counted 100 extortion files opened, and noted that extortion events had “practically doubled” between 2022 and 2024, rising from 34 to 61. The force wrote that extortion aimed at Laval businesses, particularly in certain sectors of Chomedey, had caused serious concern within the business community.
That is context about a neighbourhood, and it is worth having. It is not evidence about this car. The Service de police de Laval has not connected the August 2 fire to extortion, has not named an organization, and has not said the vehicle belonged to a business or to anyone associated with one. Chomedey is where this happened; it is not, on the strength of anything published, why.
Why a Self-Filmed Arson Is Its Own Category
An arsonist who records himself is either documenting the work for somebody or documenting it for himself, and those are very different files. Nothing in the SPL release indicates which. Police have not described the recording as proof of payment, have not said the phone footage was recovered, and have not suggested the fire was contracted. The only thing the filming establishes on the public record is that the suspect stood still long enough to be captured clearly — which is precisely what the SPL is now trying to convert into an identification.
No charge has been laid in this file, and no person has been accused.
Voltaire and De Véronne — SPL File LVL260802-015
Primary Sources
- Service de police de Laval communiqué and released video and stills, published Wednesday, September 9, 2026. File LVL260802-015. This release is the source for the location, time, date, vehicle, suspect description and tip line above.
- La Presse, Karim Benessaieh: « Laval | Un incendiaire filmé en flagrant délit », published September 9, 2026 at 10 h 47. Source for the sequence of the suspect’s movements and for the SPL 2025 arson and extortion statistics.
- CTV News Montreal, Marisela Amador: “Vehicle torched in early-morning Chomedey arson”, published September 9, 2026 at 10:39 a.m. EDT.
- The suspect description quoted in French is the wording used by the Service de police de Laval in its own communiqué.
- The 2025 arson and extortion figures come from the SPL’s annual statistics released in June 2026. Police have drawn no link between those figures and this fire. No criminal organization is named by the SPL in this file and none is named here.
- No arrest, no name, no charge, no motive, no damage estimate and no owner information has been released. Nothing in this file has been tested in court.
