Alive but unwell

>> Shot by bikers, waitress sues man for using her as a "human shield"

by CRAIG SEGAL

Hélène Brunet, 32, tells me to touch her shin where the metal rod connects to bone. It is a strange sensation, skin covering metal. I ask her if it hurts.

"Yes," she answers without flinching.

For a year Brunet served greasy spoon dishes at Eggstra restaurant, at 6150 Henri-Bourassa E., in Montreal North. She was the only waitress who refused to serve the bikers who dined there several times a week. Maurice "Mom" Boucher, a Hells Angels boss, sometimes joined them. That was just fine with the other waitresses, who liked the bikers as much as their big tips. They even had a nickname for the bikers: "Five dollars."

The morning of July 7, 2000 was different. Brunet was working the smoking section. She was stuck serving two guys she had always avoided: Robert "Bob" Savard and Normand Descôteaux, both supposed high-ranking Hells Angels. She kept her eye an another man with long hair and moustache sitting in the non-smoking section. He took his time with his fruit salad and orange juice. As Brunet arrived at the bikers' table a tall man entered the restaurant. He yanked on a ski mask and gloves, pulled a .357 Magnum from his waistband, and walked with the now-armed fruit salad guy to the bikers' table in the smoking section.

"I thought it was a joke," says Brunet at an East End restaurant. "You see that on TV. You see that in the States. I didn't think it was a real gun."

The gunmen pumped three bullets into the back of Savard's head and he flopped forward onto his table, dead. Descôteaux stood up and grabbed Brunet by the shoulders as burning bullets tore into her leg and arm. "He used me as a human shield. I was screaming, 'Let go of me! Let go of me!' The shooting lasted an eternity."

Brunet took four bullets, three in her right leg and one in her right forearm. She is suing Descôteaux for $500,000 for holding her between him and the attackers, who were never caught. Brunet said she had to go through 10 lawyers before she found one who would accept her case. Her lawyer refuses to speak to media.

Surviving the biker war

Between physiotherapy, post-traumatic stress therapy, doctors appointments, acupuncture and the gym, Brunet spends as much time recuperating as she did working. "It's like I'm working full time," she says. She is recovering, but still has nightmares and flashbacks.

Brunet also speaks regularly with the media and volunteers as a speaker for victims' rights; she spoke at the National Association of Professional Police earlier this month. She will study communications at university this fall, and is writing a book about her ordeal.

Workers Compensation--the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST)--financially compensates Brunet since her injuries were sustained at work. They give her 90 per cent of what she would have made at the restaurant, where she earned around $400 a week. She does not understand why Victims Compensation--the Indemnisation des victimes d'actes criminels (IVAC)--does not also compensate her since her injury her did not come from her work.

In 2000, IVAC compensated 2,637 victims of violence, 277 more than the previous year. In 1999 the CSST compensated 1,878 victims of violence at work.

Another victim of the biker war says Brunet's court case against Descôteaux is important for her recovery. "That will help her for sure," says Michel Auger, the Journal de Montréal reporter who was shot five times the day after his paper published his exposé of the biker war. "She needs that to get rid of the pain, to get rid of the fact that she was in between a killer and a victim. In my case, I knew the risk. Even if I was not expecting to get shot, I knew it was risky to be writing about criminals."

Auger says he knows of no other victims like Brunet who ever tried to sue their attackers. Usually victims are dead. Survivors are usually too scared.

"It's courageous what she's trying to do because often the victims are afraid of their aggressors," says Monique Gauthier, of IVAC.

Descôteaux said he is innocent in the April 20, 2001 issue of Allô Police. "I pushed her to the ground, probably saving her life," he is quoted as saying. In a separate case, Descôteaux faces charges of extortion, illegal moneylending and possession of illegal weapons. The shooters were never apprehended.

Eggstra restaurant has since been destroyed by fire. One hundred and sixty people have been killed in the biker war since 1994. According to journalist Auger, another 20 innocent victims have either been killed or wounded.