A man accused of using a rented van to plough into a busy Toronto sidewalk has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and 13 counts of attempted murder as Canadian authorities attempted to make sense of what is thought to be one of the deadliest incidents of violence in the country’s history.
Alek Minassian, 25, from Richmond Hill, near Toronto, showed little emotion during a brief court appearance on Tuesday. A grey-haired man, believed to be Minassian’s father, sat in the first row of the courtroom and wept quietly as the charges were read out.
The “horrific and deliberate attack” has left Toronto in mourning, Toronto’s mayor, John Tory, said on Tuesday. It took place around lunchtime on Monday, as crowds were out basking in the sun of one of the first warm days of the year.
Shocked witnesses described watching as a van jumped the kerb of one of the city’s main arteries, zig-zagging as it barrelled into pedestrians and oncoming traffic.
“People started flying in the air,” Henry Yang, who was driving behind the van as the incident unfolded, told the Toronto Star. “I started honking my horn, making noises, trying to make a commotion, trying to make people aware that something was going on. I rolled down my windows and started yelling at people. I wanted them to get out of the way.”
The van crashed through crowds, fire hydrants and a bus shelter. “It was like he was playing a video game, trying to kill as many people as possible,” Panna Patel told the Associated Press. “He was looking people directly in the eye, making eye contact. It was so scary.”
Canadian authorities have yet to suggest any possible motivation for the attack.
Prime minister Justin Trudeau described it as a “senseless attack and a horrific tragedy”.
He downplayed any possible link to terrorism, saying that at the moment there was no evidence to suggest there is a “national security element” to the situation.
While police have not yet released the names of those killed in the attack, Anne Marie D’Amico has been identified as one of the victims. She was remembered by her family as someone with a generous heart “who always did big things for people”.
Two South Koreans were also among those killed, officials in Seoul told Agence France-Presse, and another of its citizens was seriously injured.
On Tuesday, a portrait began to emerge of Minassian, the young man alleged to have carried out the attack. A computer software student at a Toronto college, he had handed in his final project weeks earlier.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
