• Mile End staple Fruiterie Milano lost an employee on Sunday morning.
• Fellow employees found the man unresponsive in the store refrigerator.
• Urgences-santé pronounced him dead on the scene.
• Visit MTLBlog for more headlines.

Fruiterie Milano, the long-running Italian grocery store located on boulevard Saint-Laurent suffered a loss Sunday morning when an employee was found unresponsive in the store's large refrigerator. Urgences-santé told CTV News and the Montreal Gazette that employees found the man after 7 a.m. as they prepared to open for the day. When paramedics arrived at Milano, they determined that he had experienced a cardiac arrest and although they tried to resuscitate him, their attempts were sadly unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

We have reached out to Urgences-santé for further details and will update this article as information becomes available.

"The death was not related to any acts of violence," the SPVM told MTL Blog. 

Officers further suspect "no foul play" involved in the death and stated that there will "not be a police investigation."

An SPVM spokesperson also informed us that this case has been "passed on to the coroner."

Police have not confirmed the name and age of the employee, but Milano identified him as Richard Perreault in a Facebook post sharing news of his death with the community.

"It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Richard Perreault today; a dear and valued employee who has been a member of our Milano family for the last 40 years," the post reads.

"We offer Richard's family our deepest condolences as they go through this difficult time."

The store was closed Sunday "in his honor," but has since reopened to customers.

Employees in the store declined to offer a comment on the situation.

On social media, customers are offering their condolences.

Fruiterie Milano describes itself as "the first supermarket for Italian specialties in Quebec" on its Facebook page.

65 years after its opening, "Italy's gastronomic brilliance shows no sign of waning and likewise, Fruiterie Milano shows no sign of decline." 

You can find the store at 6862 St-Laurent blvd.