Van attacker acted like school shooter, court told

Crown psychologist testifies Minassian’s actions weren’t typical of someone with autism

Alek Minassian’s fantasies of mass killing and lack of emotion about his victims have more in common with those of a typical school shooter than someone with autism spectrum disorder, said a forensic psychologist testifying for the Crown.

Dr. Percy Wright said there are other factors than Minassian’s high-functioning autism — which he viewed as less severe than the defence’s key expert witness — which could account for Minassian renting a van and running down pedestrians, killing 10 people and injuring 16, on Yonge Street on April 23, 2018.

“I think there is a very real risk of just overusing the ASD (autism spectrum disorder) lens. This is an individual who for many years has thought about killing people,” said Wright, who is based at the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, on Tuesday. “And you don’t have to be ASD, in my opinion, for that cognitive process, especially as a way to cope with your anger and sort of feeling powerless, (to result) in you not having the same emotional reaction to discussing killing.”

While Minassian has been described as cold and lacking emotion when discussing his victims, “this is how school shooters are typically described, cold and callous, when they describe their shooting victims,” Wright said.

Minassian is seeking to be found not criminally responsible for 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder, which would mean he would be sent to a hospital indefinitely rather than to prison.

In a legal first in Canada, Minassian is arguing that his autism spectrum disorder rendered him unable to know what he was doing was morally wrong. His defence lawyer, Boris Bytensky, has said he will argue Minassian was unable to make rational decisions.

“I don’t understand how ASD can somehow sort of surgically strike and render someone unable to know killing is wrong,” Wright testified Tuesday, noting that Minassian was still able to function well in other areas of his life.

He said Minassian was “haunted” by things including his failures in school and was an extremely harsh critic of himself, but in stark contrast to autistic people who can’t understand the perspectives of others, Minassian was able to take responsibility for his actions. He internalized his anger rather than expressing it toward the people he felt it toward, Wright said.

Wright also said he does not understand defence-retained forensic psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Westphal’s focus on Minassian’s lack of empathy, because empathy has little to do with a not criminally responsible (NCR) assessment.

“Do you have a disorder that prevents you from knowing that the action was wrong, is the issue … I think this is really taking the trial away from the key concepts of NCR,” Wright said.

Wright said Minassian had three or four close friends growing up, enjoyed their shared interests and described his family members as individuals with their own experiences. He was also able to express that killing is wrong and would have an impact on the families of the victims.

“People without disorders have done horrible things and have not had empathy for the people they’ve done that to,” Wright said. “(Minassian) certainly has the capacity to understand these sorts of non-literal issues like empathy.”

Wright conducted several tests on Minassian and found him to be highly intelligent. Wright said he was “amazed” that Minassian was able to get 22 of 25 extremely complex questions right in one test, something most of his graduate students and psychiatric residents cannot do.

Some of Wright’s conclusions clashed with those of Westphal and his team, who found Minassian to show concrete, inflexible thinking and to be unable to see things from the perspective of another person, or understand how they would feel.

In Wright’s testing, Minassian was slow in answering questions but his answers were carefully thought through, he said. They show he was capable of understanding the perspectives of others and that he was capable of flexible and abstract thinking, Wright said.

One test done by Wright involved asking Minassian to consider dating and sexual scenarios and make judgments about what is appropriate, expectations and consent.

Minassian took his time in answering the questions but he got all of them right despite having no personal dating experience. The test showed his ability to understand that other people think differently from him, Wright said.

He talked through “what a woman might think if a person made a sexual advance early or later, their cultural background … that the person might have a history of sexual assault which might make them more hesitant,” Wright said.

“It was one of the more telling tests for me,” Wright added.

The trial continues Wednesday.