“It was reported that a van had mounted the curb and a number of pedestrians had been struck”, the Toronto Police said in a statement.
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The rampage shattered a peaceful Monday afternoon when a white Ryder rental van roared down Yonge Street, a main Toronto thoroughfare, and plowed into pedestrians along a almost 1-mile stretch.
He then separated the men from the women, told the men to leave and opened fire, killing 14 women before killing himself.
Their sick glee was only exacerbated by the fact that most of the victims of the Toronto attack were women, including an 80-year-old grandmother who was an avid fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and Maple Leafs. Graham Gibson said at a news conference, without providing details.
Authorities did not release a list of victims. Whether intended or not, the ensuing conversation often becomes about what women could have done to prevent men from snapping when it should be about how we can solve the problem of a men who see women as vaginal portals through which their masculinity can be fully realised.
The closest we have to any indication of a motive comes in the form of a Facebook post that appeared to be written shortly before the attack which links Minassian to the online community known as “incels” and heaps praise on mass murderer Elliot Rodger. Rodger, 22, went on a rampage in Isla Vista near the University of California at Santa Barbara campus, stabbed three people to death at his apartment before shooting to death three more in a terrorizing crime spree through the neighborhood. It’s him that Minassian promoted when he wrote, “All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger” in the Facebook post.
“Incel” is short for “involuntarily celibate,” which started as simply a term for an individual, regardless of gender or sexuality, who wanted to have sex but couldn’t find a sexual partner.
For members, women and feminism are to blame, and their most extreme members call for women to be attacked and raped for denying what they claim is their right to sex.
Other posts there mock and insult the “normies” who have flocked to the board to see the comments they read about in the news.
“Not a single Toronto police officer wakes up in the morning and says ‘I want to be a hero.’ We come in and do our jobs and incidents like this have a way of finding us rather than us finding them”.
The victims are “predominantly female”, police have said but have not elaborated on whether the victims were targeted. “All those girls that I’ve desired so much, they have all rejected me and looked down upon me as an inferior man”, he said. The officer, who grew up in Toronto, joined the force after spending years as an engineer.
While he appeared to be skilled at computers, he did not take to military life.
The moderate elements of the movement have taken care to distance themselves from Minassian’s extreme actions.
Forsyth was a resident of a Toronto Community Housing complex in the area where the van attack occurred. Seven uniformed police officers surrounded him in the hearing room.
Lam calmly holstered his service weapon, held up his baton and handcuffed Minassian as he lay on the sidewalk.
McCormack said while additional training is a factor, he knows Lam well enough to say his personality factored in.
Dorothy Sewell was “the best grandmother anyone could have asked for”, her grandson, Elwood Delaney, said.
Most of the charities began the campaigns before the identity of the attacker was confirmed and said social media speculation that he was Muslim had little bearing on their decision to raise funds.
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“Toronto is a safe city but things could happen anywhere”. He said the attack had destroyed the “innocence” of the city.
