Van attacker Alek Minassian made his first court appearance in Toronto, less than a day after he mowed down pedestrians.
Van attacker Alek Minassian made his first court appearance in Toronto, less than a day after he mowed down pedestrians in a busy pocket of the city, killing 10 people.
The suburban Toronto resident drove a rented Ryder van roughly a mile down the crowded Yonge Street, prosecutors said, also injuring 15 people and creating what witnesses described as a “warzone.”
He was charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder Tuesday morning, along with 13 more for attempted murder, the CBC reports.
The 25-year-old Minassian reportedly wore a white jumpsuit with his hands cuffed behind his back, and sat stone-faced in the defendant’s box.
A Toronto judge ordered him held until May 10 when he’s due for a bail hearing via video. He was told not to contact any of the people he’s charged with trying to kill in the melee.
Bodies were thrown after being slammed by the van, as first responders flooded the area.
“It was like a movie scene,” witness Diego DeMatos recalled Tuesday on CNN. “I couldn’t believe what was happening in Toronto.”
DeMatos pulled his car over to help a bloodied man in the middle of the street. He tried performing CPR on the man, but he and others quickly realized it was fruitless.
“He basically just passed away in our arms,” DeMatos said on CNN.
Minassian, dressed in dark clothing, was arrested after a tense standoff with police captured on video. He was seen repeatedly pulling a black object from behind his back, pointing it at a cop and barking “shoot me in the head.”
The arresting officer remained calm as he stared down Minassian, telling him “I don’t care” when the attacker claimed he had a gun in his pocket.
“It was a heartening example of courage and good training,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said Tuesday morning.
Mike McCormack of the Toronto Police Association said to CTV that the unidentified officer thought his response was “no big deal.”
Unclear at this time is why Minassian plowed through the crowded street before trying to bait cops into shooting him.
“We do not have all the answers…and they may not come for some time,” said Tory, who addressed Toronto’s City Council Tuesday morning.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau downplayed concerns the attack threatened the nation’s national security, especially as it comes less than two months ahead of the G7 Summit in Quebec.
“We cannot as Canadians choose to live in fear every single day as we go about our daily business,” Trudeau said Tuesday at a news conference. “We need to focus on doing what we can and we must to keep Canadians safe while we stay true to the freedoms and values that we all as Canadians hold dear.”
Anne Marie D’Amico, who worked at the Canadian branch of Invesco, was the first of the 10 killed in the attack to be identified, the CBC reports.
