He said that officers from Peel Regional Police and York Regional Police were also brought in to assist Toronto police with processing evidence on Yonge Street. The arrest was filmed by two bystanders and the officer was praised for not opening fire.
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Other victims include two unnamed Korean nationals, an unidentified female Seneca College student, an investment company worker with a love of volunteering and an 80-year-old grandmother who was passionate about local sports.
On Wednesday, authorities in Toronto worked to formally identify victims, a process they have said will take a number of days.
After Alek Minassian was detained, and ordered to return to court on May 10, his father left the court looking distraught.
A message posted on the account earlier Monday read: “All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
The suspect’s post also referred to the “Incel Rebellion” – “incel” is short for “involuntarily celibate” and is often used in connection with online groups of sexually frustrated men who are known to rant against women.
Mr Minassian wore a white jumpsuit, with a shaved head and his hands behind his back.
The next hearing was scheduled for May 10.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Ottawa: “Our hearts go out to anyone affected”.
The incident happened while foreign ministers of the G7 leading industrialised nations – Canada, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – were holding talks in Toronto.
But he say he has no indication yet that suspect Alek Minassian was directing his rented van into women as he plowed into pedestrians in a north Toronto neighborhood on Monday.
“Canadians across the country are shocked and saddened by this senseless attack”.
“We’re all putting our pieces together to see exactly what we have”, Saunders told reporters.
The driver was heading south on busy Yonge Street around 1.30pm and the streets were crowded with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped on to the pavement.
“He started going down on the sidewalk and crumbling down people one by one”, Ali Shaker, who was in the vicinity of the incident, told CTV News. “Anybody in his way he would hit”.
“If it was an accident he would have stopped”, Kang said. “She would just be a buddy to people who needed a buddy”. A 14th charge of attempted murder is expected, police said Tuesday. But he’d “never noticed anything violent” – the suspect just “made people feel uneasy around him”.
One witness, Diego DeMatos, said he saw several pedestrians on the ground, surrounded by crowds of “screaming and crying” people.
“I realized then that something is wrong”, he said, adding that the van didn’t slow down and hit a pedestrian right after. “It was very bad. Brutal”.
Trudeau on Monday expressed his sympathies for those involved.
“All too soon, we find ourselves once again offering condolences for the tragic and unexpected loss of life many of our fellow citizens have had to bear”, said Regan, an apparent reference to the deadly bus crash on April 6 that killed 16 people in Saskatchewan. “Thank you to the first responders working at the scene – we’re monitoring the situation closely”.
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Police remain on the scene investigating the incident, though officials said some of the streets closed since the attack will reopen by day’s end.
