Three men were all apparently shot dead over the last day in the Montreal area in separate incidents.

The most recent discovery came Saturday afternoon, when a man in his thirties was found lifeless in a penthouse in the area of Côte-des-Neiges Road and Summerhill Avenue, part of downtown Montreal's Golden Square Mile neighbourhood.

He was suffering from at least one gunshot wound, police said. The victim's friend found the body and called police.

Early Saturday morning, a 42-year-old man was gunned down outside his apartment block on Samson Boulevard in suburban Laval. The victim's bullet-riddled body was found outside the front of the building at about 2:20 a.m., while his car was discovered parked behind the apartment, one of its window shattered by a bullet.

Quebec's provincial police force is taking over the investigation of that homicide. Sûreté du Québec spokesman Gregory Gomez del Prado said it appears the shooting is linked to organized crime, and since the Laval police department doesn't have the expertise to investigate this type of shooting, it's being transferred to the SQ.

In the first of the three shootings, someone walked up to a car in the parking lot of the Galeries d'Anjou mall in Montreal's east end just before 7 p.m. Friday and opened fire on two men inside the vehicle.

One of the wounded men got out of the car and walked into the bathroom of a nearby Baton Rouge restaurant outlet, shocking customers and staff.

"I was having a meal and I saw waiters running, running, running," patron Agathe Odette said.

Line Durand also witnessed the man come in.

"He had blood all over the side of his body," she said. "It all happened so quickly. He came in, he didn't even look around — he was in a state of shock. You could see he was in shock because he was wild-eyed."

That man, age 32, is in stable, non-life-threatening condition in hospital.

The other man, a 35-year-old, received emergency first aid outside the mall from paramedics but died on the way to hospital.

Police are looking for two suspects who witnesses say fled the scene.