MAN CHARGED WITH MURDERS AFTER 10 DIE IN ‘SENSELESS ATTACK’ IN TORONTO
▶ Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau rules out terrorism as van rampage suspect Alek Minassian appears in court
A Canadian man was charged yesterday with 10 counts of premeditated murder after 10 people were killed and 15 injured in a driving rampage in Toronto.
Alek Minassian, 25, from the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, stood in the dock wearing a white prison jumpsuit, his head shaved, his arms behind his back.
He was also charged with multiple counts of attempted murder after Canada’s worst mass killing in almost three decades.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged the nation not to live in fear after the “senseless attack”, which took place on Monday afternoon in the country’s most populous city.
“We must not start living in fear and uncertainty every day as we go about our daily lives,” he said in Ottawa yesterday. “We must remain a country that is open and free and comfortable with its values, and we will continue to do that.”
The prime minister said that “there’s no connection to national security”, effectively ruling out any terrorist attack.
Police chief Mark Saunders on Monday night said that the attack appeared to have been deliberate. Police said they were still searching for a motive.
“I open all the lanes right now. I don’t close anything until the evidence closes it for us,” Mr Saunders said.
At least one witness described the driver of the white Ryder rental van deliberately aiming at pedestrians on his 1.6-kilometre rampage through the busy Toronto streets.
A police officer who faced down the driver was declared a hero.
“Shoot me in the head,” Minassian was reported to have shouted at the officer, jabbing his hand in the air as if firing a gun.
But the officer refused to fire. Soon after, Minassian gave up, dropping an item in his hand and falling to his knees.
He was arrested without a shot being fired.
Toronto is Canada’s largest city, with a population of 2.7 million. A witness described the aftermath along Yonge Street.
“We saw the last few people get hit,” a witness named Diego told Sky News.
“That’s when we were driving north on Yonge Street, which is one of the busiest streets here in Toronto. I’m still a bit shaking. Sorry if I cannot speak properly.”
Diego followed the trail backwards and described people lying on the pavement.
Video from a helicopter showed blood-soaked clothing strewn across the pavement. “From what I witnessed, I think that’s what happened,” he said.
“It was deliberate. It was on purpose. I don’t know if he was drunk. I don’t know if he maybe had a medical condition.”
Police were called to the scene at 1.27pm. Television footage showed first responders treating people and an ambulance on standby.
Another witness described a white van swerving through crowds of pedestrians near Finch Avenue, a mainly residential area north of Toronto’s centre.
The largely affluent neighbourhood is filled with condominiums and high rises.
An underground station near the cordoned-off stretch of road was also shut by police.
Possible acts of terrorism are investigated by national security squads led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the Canadian province of Ontario.
“At this point we are still gathering information on the incident,” said police Insp Don Halina, of the Ontario Integrated National Security Enforcement Team.
The incident was the worst mass killing in Canada since Marc Lepine murdered 14 women at a Montreal engineering school in 1989 before shooting himself.
There has been a series of deadly rammings around the world in recent years.
They include a van attack last year in Barcelona that killed 13 people, one in a Berlin Christmas market that killed 12 in 2016, and the armed man who drove his lorry into a crowd in Nice in 2016, killing 80 people.