10 killed by van driver in Toronto

TORONTO — At least 10 people were killed and 15 others injured after a van driver plowed into a number of pedestrians on Monday. The suspect was in custody after the attack.

Witnesses described that on the sunny day around 1:30 pm, a white van mounted the sidewalk at the busy Yonge Street and Finch Avenue intersection. From there, the van was traveling at a speed of up to 70 kilometers per hour (44 mph) and intentionally hitting people on the sidewalks.

It has confirmed that Alek Minassian, a 25-year-old Canadian man, is the alleged driver in the attack. His LinkedIn profile identifies him as a student at Seneca College. On a video of the arrest posted on social media, the suspect in custody could be heard saying, “Kill me.”

Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not seem to make any effort to stop. “If it was an accident, he would have stopped,” Kang said. “But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have stopped.”

Amir Bahmeyeh, a student, was in the area at the time of the attack.

“I saw the crazy van, like a rental van, hitting the people … one after one,” he said. “I’m sure it was like a terrorist attack because he drove really fast, like crazy.

Photos showed the van bore Ryder rental lettering.

“I almost had a heart attack. When I came here people told me it was a safe country and that’s why I stayed here,” said the student, who said he’d come from Iran. “Now, I saw the accident, maybe I go back to my country,” he said.

Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast outlet CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd.

“He just went on the sidewalk,” a distraught Shaker said. “He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the sidewalk. Anybody in his way he would hit.”

Video broadcast on Canadian outlets showed police arresting the driver after officers surrounded him and his rental Ryder van several blocks from where the incident occurred in the North York neighborhood of northern Toronto. He appeared to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his hand just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.

Witness Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw police arresting the suspect and people “strewn all over the road” where the incident occurred.

“I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by bystanders and by ambulance drivers,” Zullo said. “It was awful. Brutal.”

Speaking at a news conference Monday evening, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said there appeared to be no national security connection in this case.

“The events that happened on the street behind us are horrendous, but they do not appear to be connected in any way to national security based on the information available at this time,” said the federal public safety minister, in Toronto for the G7 foreign and security ministers meeting.

Toronto Chief of Police Mark Saunders, who was in New York City when he heard the news, the Globe and Mail reported, told the media that terrorism hasn’t been dismissed as a possibility, but that there is currently no evidence to support that notion.

The suspect’s motivation is still being investigated, but he said there’s nothing to suggest the case affects the “nationalsecurity footprint”.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said the city is “united in grief” but is “in safe hands”.

“Our hearts go out to everyone affected,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Ottawa upon learning of the incident.

If it was an accident, he would have stopped. But the person (driver) just went through the sidewalk.”

Peter Kang, witness

SAUL PORTO / REUTERS A damaged van seized by police is seen after multiple people were struck at a major intersection northern Toronto on Monday.