Hundreds of lives shattered in Toronto van attack
An 83-year-old Avon representative who was still making sales, a 22-yearold Korean student and a 33-year-old account executive at an international firm were identified by police on Friday as the last remaining victims of this week’s van attack in Toronto.
Seven other victims had previously been identified by family or friends.
The eight women and two men, ranging in age from 22 to 94, had all been going about their day when a rental van allegedly driven by 25-year-old Alek Minassian came careening down the sidewalk, hitting them in a murderous rampage.
Toronto Police Insp. Bryan Bott told reporters that Minassian, who was previously charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, was expected to face three additional counts of attempted murder at his next court hearing, set for May 10. Police have not determined a motive for the attack.
To date, police have interviewed 170 witnesses and still have more than 100 to talk to.
Dirk Huyer, Ontario’s chief coroner, explained that the decision to use dental records to confirm the identities took time and acknowledged that the process frustrated some families.
In addition to the 10 who died, the number of injured grew from 14 to 16 after two people, who didn’t require transport to hospital, came forward. As of Friday, 12 remained in hospital.
Even at the age of 83, Geraldine Brady — “Gerry” to her friends — was still delivering Avon products to her customers. She had been a representative of the company for 45 years, said friend and Avon colleague Feanny Xu.
Xu describing Brady, a grandmother, as the “most honest and kind person I ever met.”
Andrea Bradden, 33, worked as an account executive at Gartner Canada, an information technology market research company with an office on Yonge Street just north of Sheppard.
“Andrea’s joyful energy brought smiles, happiness and laughter to everyone who was privileged to work with her and call her a friend,” wrote Alex Falkingham, a colleague at Gartner, in a public post that has since been taken down. “She had the uncanny ability to make any room she walked into a more positive place, with laughter filling the room. When Andrea smiled, everyone smiled with her.”
Ji Hun Kim, 22, a student from South Korea, was one of two foreign nationals killed in Monday’s van attack (the other was Munir Najjar, a Jordanian national who was in town visiting his son).
Earlier in the week, Seneca College president David Agnew, without mentioning Kim by name, confirmed that a female student was “an innocent victim of this tragic act of violence.”
No additional information on Kim was available Friday evening.