Somali arrested over Canada terror attack

EDMONTON (AP) — A car-and-knife attack on a police officer outside a football game and a high-speed chase of a moving van that left four people injured was the work of a single suspected terrorist, a Somalian refugee who was known to police, Canadian authorities said Sunday.

Marlin Degrand, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said officers took a 30-year-old man into custody.

Police declined to identify the man because he had not yet been charged, but said pending charges included terrorism and five counts of attempted murder.

Edmonton Police Chief Rod Knecht said an Islamic State group flag was found in the car that hit the officer, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it a terror attack.

The suspect was known to both Edmonton police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Degrand said he was flagged in 2015 for extremist ideologies and police interviewed him at the time, but he said charges were not warranted after an “exhaustive investigation.”

Degrand said the suspect is from Somalia and had applied for refugee status.

“To the best of our knowledge, this was a lone wolf attack,” Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said.

The incident took place outside a Canadian Football League game at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.

Police released a graphic video showing a white Chevrolet Malibu ramming into a police officer standing in front of his cruiser. The officer flies into the air and the Malibu then crashes into the police car.