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Police release man arrested in connection with hotel parking lot shooting in Quebec's Laurentians region

The Sûreté du Québec is investigating a shooting at a lakeside resort's parking lot about 100 kilometres north of Montreal. (Kate McKenna/CBC - image credit)
The Sûreté du Québec is investigating a shooting at a lakeside resort's parking lot about 100 kilometres north of Montreal. (Kate McKenna/CBC - image credit)

Provincial police have released a man arrested in connection with the shooting in the parking lot of a hotel complex in Estérel, Que. on Friday, about 100 kilometres north of Montreal in the Laurentians.

After assessing his account of events, police did not charge him. The man, 53, was released on promise to appear in court.

Valeriy Tarasenko was injured during the shooting, according to Estérel Mayor Frank Pappas and Radio-Canada's police sources. He is being treated in hospital for serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, police say.

Tarasenko is an entrepreneur of Russian-speaking Ukrainian origin who holds assets in several companies, notably in Quebec and Florida, Radio-Canada reports.

He is known for having ties to Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian who recently made headlines for infiltrating the Mar-a-Lago estate and the entourage of former U.S. president Donald Trump by posing as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

Radio-Canada learned soon after the shooting around 1 p.m. that there were three victims, one of whom suffered a serious head injury. But the Sûreté du Québec later released a statement saying only one person suffered what appears to be a gunshot wound.

The shooting occurred at the Estérel Resort, which is just off Fridolin-Simard Road on Lac Dupuis.

Radio-Canada reported that three people opened fire on three others in the parking lot, and that the shooters then fled in a black SUV.