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Suspect in Toronto Van Rampage Is Charged With Murder Suspect in Toronto Van Rampage Is Charged with Murder
(35 minutes later)
TORONTO — The 25-year-old driver of the van that careened down a busy Toronto street in a deadly rampage was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday and 13 counts of attempted murder.TORONTO — The 25-year-old driver of the van that careened down a busy Toronto street in a deadly rampage was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday and 13 counts of attempted murder.
The charges were announced at a Toronto court hearing for the driver, Alek Minassian, a resident of Toronto’s Richmond Hill suburb. The charges, announced at a Toronto court hearing for the suspect, Alek Minassian, came a day after the van rampage, which appears to have been the deadliest deliberate vehicular assault in modern Canadian history.
Mr. Minassian shattered a peaceful Monday afternoon in Toronto by driving a white rental van down busy Yonge Street and plowing into pedestrians. At least 10 people were killed and 15 injured. Mr. Minassian, a resident of Toronto’s Richmond Hill neighborhood, was identified by the police as the motorist who shattered a peaceful Monday afternoon in Toronto by driving a white Ryder rental van down Yonge Street, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, and plowing into pedestrians along a nearly 1-mile stretch. At least 10 people were killed and 15 injured.
He stopped the van on a sidewalk after the killings and surrendered to the police following a tense standoff in which he dared officers to shoot him in the head. He stopped the van on a sidewalk after the killings and surrendered to the police following a tense standoff in which he claimed to be armed and dared officers to shoot him in the head.
Canadian officials have said the killing spree does not appear to be terrorism-related, although the driver’s actions seemed intentional. Canadian officials have said the killing spree does not appear to be terrorism-related, although the driver’s actions seemed intentional. Mr. Minassian’s motive for the rampage is not clear.
Still, the killings raised fears about Toronto’s vulnerability to a terrorist attack. The marauding van evoked memories of deadly vehicle rampages carried out by extremists that have hit a number of major Western cities in recent years, including New York, London, Stockholm, Berlin, Barcelona and Nice, France.
When asked by the judge, Stephen Weisberg, at the court hearing whether he understood the conditions of a court order not to contact any survivors, Mr. Minassian replied in a clear and loud voice, “Yes.”
He was dressed in a white jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back. Seven uniformed police officers surrounded him in the hearing room.
Mr. Minassian was represented at the hearing by a court-appointed lawyer with whom he had an extended, whispered conversation from a prisoners box.
He is being held without bail.
A man who appeared to be Mr. Minassian’s father attended the hearing but offered no comment to reporters other than saying he had not spoken with Mr. Minassian.
Witnesses and amateur cellphone videos that captured the Monday rampage and the suspect’s arrest depicted a horrific scene that traumatized Toronto, a showcase Canadian metropolis.
David Alce, a 53-year-old network engineer, was waiting at a traffic light at Yonge Street and Finch Avenue on his way to the park to enjoy a sunny day off when he saw a white van careening across the intersection.
Around 1:20 p.m., Mr. Alce said, his initial disbelief turned to shock and then horror as the speeding van cut through the intersection, mounted the curb, began to swerve and mow people down. He said he saw the driver ram four people. Then another four. One woman was thrown several feet into the air. A man was hit midsection before falling. Another was smashed in the head. The van made a roaring sound.
“At first I thought the driver was having a heart attack before I realized what was happening,” Mr. Alce said.
“I watched the car for a good two blocks. I didn’t see the driver’s face,” he said. “There was a loud bang as he hit the curb. There was confusion. Some people tended to the wounded. Others were on their cellphones. One woman was sobbing uncontrollably on the corner.”
Mr. Alce, for his part, went to see whether could help, rolling over some of the bodies to see whether they were alive and administering CPR.
Mr. Alce, an Ottawa native, said he had moved to Toronto about 20 years ago, drawn by the city’s peaceful atmosphere and lack of crime.
He said the marauding van had destroyed the innocence of a multicultural humanistic city. “This is the first time I have seen something this horrific,” he said. “It is a loss of innocence. Toronto is peaceful. That is why I love it here.”
Other Torontonians, still in shock, were adamant that the city would quickly recover. On Tuesday morning, commuters could be seen heading to work, hunched over their newspapers. “Carnage in Toronto,” said the front-page headline of The Globe and Mail newspaper.
Nancy Brooks, 56, who works in human resources for the Ontario government, often jogs through the area where the episode occurred. She said that in Canada, which prides itself on diversity and a spirit of tolerance, it was particularly jarring.
“This is not something that happens here,” she said. “We always think we are insulated from this kind of thing. We like to think we are like Switzerland.”