Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, said he does not have a clear motive, even after the odd Facebook posts.
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A message posted on the account earlier Monday read: “All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
There has been worldwide amazement that Toronto Police did not shoot the suspect in Monday’s vehicular attack. The full post also says “the incel rebellion has already begun”.
Investigators said Rodger was motivated to carry out his attack by a personal grievance related to his immersion in the extremist ideological subculture of men’s rights activists, who believe women don’t actually want gender equality and have been brainwashed by feminist propaganda.
Rodger, who posted on SlutHate, which was then called PUAHate, was rapidly held up as a hero for the incel community, with the anniversary of the killings marked annually on the Incels subreddit, and people across the community expressing hope that someone else would follow in his footsteps.
It took place in broad daylight around 16 kilometers (10 miles) from a conference center hosting a meeting of G7 ministers, but officials said they had no evidence of a link to the event.
He declined to comment when asked whether the suspect may have been frustrated over his relationships with women.
Police have said that Minassian, a resident of the Richmond Hill suburb of Toronto, appeared to have intentionally struck the victims in what was likely to count as Canada’s deadliest vehicular assault.
Speaking to Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear, Chris Black, an global criminal lawyer who is on the List of Counsel before the worldwide Criminal Court, suggested that such quick branding follows a “very risky path”.
A courtroom sketch showing duty counsel Georgia Koulis, from left, Alek Minassian, Justice of the Peace Stephen Waisberg, and Crown prosecutor Joe Callaghan in court in Toronto yesterday.
In 2014 a Muslim-Canadian gunman killed a member of the honor guard at Ottawa’s national war memorial, then stormed Parliament, where he was shot dead by a sergeant-at arms.
Dorothy Sewell was identified as one of the victims by her grandson in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
She was an avid sports fan and loved to watch the Toronto’s Blue Jays and Maple Leafs.
Tennis Canada said long-time volunteer Anne Marie D’Amico was among those killed. “He had several tics and would sometimes grab the top of his shirt and spit on it, meow in the hallways and say, ‘I am afraid of girls.’ It was like a mantra”. The investment firm worker had also gone on volunteer trips to the Dominican Republic. “Out of respect for her and her family, we will not be providing any further comments”. “He would cower and avoid eye contact when he saw a girl”, he said. Police said the incident during the busy lunch hour Monday appeared to be deliberate, but that they had not identified a terror link. Five patients there were in critical condition. The Facebook post appears to have been made by Minassian’s account, a Facebook spokesperson said. According to official data, one person died and 7 were injured. The shooting by Justin Bourque is the deadliest attack on the RCMP since four officers were slain by a gunman in the western province of Alberta in 2005, an attack that remains the deadliest on Canadian police officers in 120 years.
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Notably, unlike most terrorist suspects, he repeatedly performed furtive movements in an apparent attempt to draw a lethal response from the officer.
