Suspect in van attack stated anger for women
TORONTO — The man identified as the van driver who traumatized Toronto was a socially troubled computer studies graduate who briefly joined Canada’s military last year and posted a hostile message toward women on Facebook moments before his deadly rampage, according to accounts by police and his acquaintances on Tuesday.
The suspect, Alek Minassian, 25, was charged Tuesday in a Toronto court with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder one day after the van rampage along the sidewalk of a busy Toronto street.
Police have said that Minassian, a resident of the Richmond Hill suburb of Toronto, appeared to have intentionally struck the victims in what was likely to count as Canada’s deadliest vehicular assault. Government officials have said the attack did not appear to be an act of terrorism but have not ruled it out.
The rampage shattered a peaceful Monday afternoon when a white Ryder rental van roared down Yonge Street, a main Toronto thoroughfare, and plowed into pedestrians along a nearly 1-mile stretch. Ten people were killed by the van, which police said Minassian had rented that morning.
Toronto City Councilor Cesar Palacio identified one of the victims as Anne Marie D’Amico, who worked at an investment management firm near the scene of the incident. Palacio said D’Amico, 30, was a friend of his daughter, and he remembers her as “a brilliant young girl” who was interested in improving society.
Others killed included 80-year-old Dorothy Sewell; Munair Najjar, a citizen of Jordan who was in Toronto visiting family; two South Koreans, and a female student from Seneca College. The college declined to identify her, citing privacy reasons. Names of other victims weren’t immediately released.
Detective Sgt. Graham Gibson of the Toronto police said 14 people were hurt — not 15 as authorities had earlier reported — with wounds ranging from “scrapes and bruises to terrible injuries.”
The driver stopped the van on a sidewalk and engaged in a tense standoff with the police, claiming to be armed and daring officers to shoot him in the head. He surrendered seven minutes after police received the first emergency call.
Former classmates who knew him at Thornlea Secondary School in Thornhill, a Toronto suburb, said Minassian had displayed extreme social awkwardness.
“He was an odd guy, and hardly mixed with other students,” said Ari Blaff, a former high school classmate. “He had several tics and would sometimes grab the top of his shirt and spit on it, meow in the hallways and say, ‘I am afraid of girls.’ It was like a mantra.”
Josh Kirstein, who took a photography class with Minassian in high school, said Minassian had difficulty communicating and expressed fear that women could hurt him.
Minassian was being held without bail and the next hearing is on May 10. It is unclear when he will enter a plea.