Quebec City mosque shooter pleads guilty
Seeks forgiveness for murdering six; says he’s neither a terrorist nor an Islamophobe
QUEBEC — The man who entered a Quebec City mosque last year and fatally shot six Muslim worshippers in an attack that shook Canada sought forgiveness Wednesday as he denied being a terrorist or an Islamophobe.
“Every minute of my existence I bitterly regret what I did, the lives I have destroyed, the pain and suffering I have caused to so many people, without forgetting the members of my own family,” Alexandre Bissonnette said as he read out a letter in court.
“I am ashamed. Ashamed of what I did.”
Bissonnette, 28, spoke to the court shortly after a judge accepted his guilty pleas on six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder in connection with the attack on Jan. 29, 2017.
Many people in the courtroom burst out sobbing and held hands as the judge confirmed the guilty pleas, while widows of the victims cried when Bissonnette read his letter.
The fact Bissonnette was never charged with any terrorismrelated counts riled many.
On Wednesday, the accused addressed the terrorism angle.
“Despite what has been said about me, I am neither a terrorist nor an Islamophobe,” he said.
“Rather, I am someone who was overcome by fear, by negative thoughts and a sort of horrible kind of despair.”
The president of the mosque where the killings occurred appeared skeptical.
“That he’s not a terrorist — those are his claims,” Boufeldja Benamdallah told reporters. “The damage has been done.” Bissonnette pleaded not guilty to the 12 charges on Monday morning, but said that afternoon that he wanted to plead guilty.
Superior Court Justice François Huot originally refused to accept the pleas pending a psychiatric assessment of the accused to ensure he understood the consequences of his decision.
Huot placed a publication ban on Monday’s proceedings, but agreed Wednesday to accept the guilty pleas.
Mohamed Labidi, a former president of the mosque, said Bissonnette’s comments left him wanting a fuller explanation of why he did what he did.
The charges against Bissonnette were related to the shooting attack at the Islamic Cultural Centre in which he killed six worshippers: Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Azzeddine Soufiane, 57; and Ibrahima Barry, 39.
The counts of attempted murder involved five people who were struck by bullets and a sixth charge encompassing the other people present at the mosque.
Bissonnette told Huot Monday afternoon that he understood he would be getting a life sentence by pleading guilty.