Montreal hockey celebration turns to looting

Here's how a night of hockey celebration in Montreal turned to looting, after the Canadiens eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins on May 12, 2010. (As seen in footage from a Canadian Press video)

There's jubilation inside the Bell Centre after Mike Cammalleri's goal. Cheers at the end of the game as the Canadiens eliminated Pittsburgh. And, a little later, people smashing store windows to loot.

A city of millions partied, and 21,000 inside the Bell Centre spilled into jam-packed streets.

Then a few dozen, maybe a couple of hundred, wrote a messy end to the story.

By the time most of the crowd had gone home, some people started tossing bottles. Then police backed away into line formations. And that's when the looting happened. A few dozen people smashed store windows and ran in to steal some items.

The cops let it happen for a while, then came in swinging batons and pumping tear-gas canisters into the crowd to disperse the unruly few left behind.

Since I was shooting this video, I was kind of stuck between them and the looters. Don't have great shots of the crowd dispersal; because the police batons hurt ;-)

On a brighter note, about 2 million people in this city are on Cloud 9 today because of a miraculous playoff hockey run.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Montreal
• Canadiens
• looting
• rioting
• Habs
• Pittsburgh
• Penguins
• police
• riot
• Bell
• Centre

[Kayz450]

@louie77 Fuck Ur self

[louie77]

piece of crap montreal fans. GO BRUINS!!!!

[creat3d]

@Denatureal Si t'es pour juger une ville par une poignée de sa population, qu'est-ce qu'on peut dire de ta ville si on prend les Nordiques comme échantillon?

[maxkila]

funny flyers are kicking there ass

[seansome17]

@Arman10701

Yeah, see you in the eastern finals hahaha

[tomroller1]

@Denatureal ta mere aussi est une sale croter pis pourtant ont fait pas chiez pour sa ;)

[pierresiorac]

yen a une couple de cave dont on voit très bien le visage

[lucania67]

LOOSERS!

[Arman10701]

Dang yall get crazy for your hockey. Mad funny. Youd never see that many black ppl running around celebrating a Bruins Championship, nevermind a series. i guess we in Boston are use to championships though thats why we only celebrate Championships not winning series. See you canadiens in the Eastern Finals!

[frozencakelife]

same SAQ got rubbed like in 2007 hahahaha