Police are saying it was “mental illness.” Maybe it was, but Minassian’s actions seem calculated. Is there another name he goes by? His photo is noteworthy in itself. We simply do not have enough information to be sure of what happened here.
“Alek Minassian: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know,” by Stephanie Dube Dwilson, Heavy.com, April 23, 2018:
Alek Minassian, 25, has been identified by CBS News as the person arrested by police on suspicion of driving a white Ryder van into a crowd of pedestrians in Toronto this afternoon, killing multiple people. Witnesses said the driver was traveling fast when he jumped a curb and hit “everything in his path.” When police arrested him after he fled the scene, he approached them with what appeared to be a gun in his hand. Officials are saying that the act was deliberate. The motive in the crash is not yet known, but early reports indicate the driver hit the pedestrians deliberately.
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Here’s what you need to know about Minassian and what happened in Canada today. This is a developing story and more details about Minassian will be added as they are available.
1. Minassian Was Known to Law Enforcement and May Have Previously Researched Killings in Isla Vista, California
Alek Minassian was named by CBS News sources as the suspect who was arrested in connection with the horrific van accident. He is 25 years old. The suspect was previously known to law enforcement in Toronto, CNN reported.
Jonathan Dienst of NBC News reported that Minassian had allegedly researched and chatted online about the Isla Vista killings in California in 2014. The Isla Vista massacre occurred when 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured 14. He stabbed three men in his apartment, and then drove to a sorority house and shot three female students outside. Then Rodger drove to a deli and shot a male student, and then began driving through the city, shooting pedestrians and hitting some with his car. He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Toronto police confirmed that nine people died after a white van struck a crowd of people at Yonge Street and Finch Avenue East around 1:30 p.m. CBS News sources revealed that Minassian is the person suspected of driving that van. The van was traveling southbound and mounted the curb, hitting numerous people who were on the sidewalk, CTV News reported. Witnesses said the man drove onto the sidewalk multiple times.
Alex Shaker, who witnessed the crash, said he believed the driver hit someone with a stroller, CTV reported. “He just destroyed so many people’s lives; every single thing that got in his way,” Shaker said.
Police said that 16 other people were injured in the attack.
This is a busy area north of downtown Toronto. Yonge Street is one of the main thoroughfares in Toronto.
2. Minassian, 25, Was Arrested after Fleeing the Scene and Pulling What Looked Like a Gun on Police
Witnesses said the vehicle drove up to a half-mile to a mile while it was hitting people, CNN reported. The driver of the van fled the scene and residents were urged to avoid the area. Subway service in that area was suspended. Minassian, 25, was later arrested, according to CBS News. You can see a video of Minassian’s arrest below.
The suspect was arrested just moments after a white van hit multiple pedestrians. Peter Akman with CTV National News said that it looked like he pulled a gun on the police, but he was arrested without any shots being fired.
3. Not Much Is Known About the Suspect, and Social Media Profiles Have Not Yet Been Confirmed
At this time, not much is known about the suspect, and possible social media profiles have not yet been confirmed. A Steam profile under the name Alek Minassian has been found, but it hasn’t been used in years. A screenshot of the profile is below, but again, it is not known if this profile belonged to the same person who was arrested today.
SteamSteam profile belonging to an Alek Minassian in Canada. It’s not yet known if this is the same person as the suspect.
The Steam profile was last used in 2010. The profile reads: “I love the Halo games. My favourite game is Halo 3 because it has matchmaking. My next favourite is ODST because Firefight is awesome! Halo Wars has matchmaking but I’m better at FPSs than RTSs. Halo 2 is a nice game even though Xbox Live Original has been discontinued. Good thing I downloaded all the maps! I also like Halo: CE because it is an EPIC classic. I also can’t wait for the release of Halo: Reach on September 14!”
A LinkedIn profile and an app developer profile have also been found under the name Alek Minassian but Heavy has not confirmed if those belong to the accused driver.
4. Officials Said the Crash Was Deliberate, But Mental Illness May Be the Leading Theory Right Now
At this time, officials have not determined a motive for the horrific crash. But U.S. law enforcement officials told CBS News that the incident appeared to be a deliberate act. Bill Bratton, a former New York City police commissioner, told MSNBC that his sources said that driver was known to police and it was being considered a terrorist attack.
However, not everyone has agreed with this assessment. Toronto police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray said, “At this point it’s too early to tell what if any motive there was.”
But witnesses felt certain it was an intentional act. Nick Sanka told Global News that the driver appeared to be in control. “He did seem to have control over what he was doing,” he said. “So it wasn’t some sort of impairment where he was swerving. He just (drove) straight through — and he managed to make a perfect turn at that corner as well.”
A witness to the crash, Alex Shaker, said the van was traveling at a high rate of speed when it hit the pedestrians, CTV News reported. Shaker said: “He started going down on the sidewalk and crumbling down people one by one.” Another witness said who drove past and saw shoes and hats everywhere.
The van that the suspect was driving was a rented Ryder vehicle.
Henry Miller, who witnessed the crash, told Sky News that he thought the van was driving 60 to 70 km/h and was swerving in and out of traffic. “I would say (it) fairly deliberately hit pedestrians … before eventually careering off into one of the other side streets and out of view.” He said he saw the van swerving across four lanes at a high speed.
Mark Dukes, who works at Procter and Gamble near where the suspect was arrested, told CNN that he looked outside and saw a van surrounded by police officers….
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R. Arandas
6 years ago
Apparently it was because he was an Armenian guy who was purportedly rebuffed by women or something, according to some media sources.
But who knows? He could very well have been a secret convert to Islam, they come from all backgrounds and all walks of life.
Zavrzlama
6 years ago
I´m sure Trudeau is having multiple orgasms today.
Drew the Infidel
6 years ago
This article has its own degree of deception. It makes constant reference to “the van” without pointing out that it was a rental, a jihadi murder weapon of choice.
In instances such as this, you should automatically label it raghead terror. Then work your way backwards through the evidence and media distractions, such as “mental illness”, “known to authorities”, etc. to see if anything discounts your theory. Nine times out of ten your original assessment will prove correct.
Pretty coincidental that he acted like one, don’t you think?
Anarchy and rebellion!
6 years ago
If islam was not the motive like Anders Breivik terrorist act was, CNN and all the mainstream media will breath a sign of relief that islam was not involved. But I have my doubts. There is still some mystery about this “Armenian” suspect.
That’s right. Because everyone knows, there are no Armenians in Canada. They’re all in So. Cal.
Anarchy and rebellion!
6 years ago
If islam was not the motive like Anders Breivik terrorist act was, CNN and all the mainstream media will breath a sign of relief that islam was not involved. But I have my doubts. There is still some mystery about this “Armenian” suspect.
MAS
5 years ago
No matter the artificial descriptors and limits a government spin artist choses to use this was an act of terror thus it’s terrorism. He may indeed be mentally ill but it’s still terrorism. He may or may not be a Muslim, it’s terrorism anyway. If he’s lucid enough to rent a van and target people he’s lucid enough to be responsible and thus eligible for capital punishment (a life for a life). It’s past time to quit playing semantics and start protecting our own…
Ken Kruger
6 years ago
I find it interesting that perhaps the least diverse (by the progressive definition) society on the planet is Japan. But their culture is so rich in diversity (science, the arts, innovation, harmony, etc), yet thriving….and race has nothing to do with it…just a people who share common goals to achieve the best that they can be in so many different ways; and yet they respect and complement all other cultures. Mass murder is inconsistent with their values and I praise them for the civilized society that they have built. The West (especially the Canadian ballerina, Herr Merkel, and the Stockholm Syndrome Swedes) could learn a thing or two from the Japanese model.
the poor Herr Merkel…he was Angela’s (née Kasner) first husband who divorced this ugly Vettel (slattern) many moons ago. Her current husband’s family name is Sauer (German for “sour.”) She kept Merkel’s last name because it sounds/sells better. Herr Sauer on the other hand benefits from the situation,only a few know whom he’s married too, otherwise he would be the laughing stock of all Germany and the world for being a “Pantoffelheld…” (henpecked husband)
And as far as Canada’s PM is concerned, it is beyond me that such a fool was elected!
The Japanese and the Chinese laugh at the west and so they should as they see us as suiciding thanks to the lunatic Left.
Hooper Croton
5 years ago
The arab who happened to be following him is Very suspicious. I hope he is investigated. His story of speeding along behind the van to ‘see if he could help’ makes No sense. He may well have been there to film the carnage for ISIS, to be sure Minassian did the ‘job,’ or as part of a setup to help Minassian escape after the fact. There’s More to the story and that Van driver is involved.
why do western hating mozcums keep going to the west – to kill us! or mow us down all in the name of allahu akbar – go back to your own countries!! and stay there!!!!
Were you born congenitally retarded or is your pathology the result of the merciless beatings about the head you received as a child from the feral first cousins who spawned you?
Sounds like nice projection, sorry for your life it had to be this way but please it’s yours not mine so don’t try put it on me and own your headwounds.
How pathetic is that question? You Gyuish lacheys really make me sick. Your masters and Muzzers are just as bad terrorists, both destroying the West with Middle Eastern poison. Yuck!
If you believe that the holocaust didn’t happen, you are a fool. My father was a World War 2 veteran who saw the ovens with his own eyes. There was a reason that then General Eisenhower had as many people as possible go and view the concentration camps, it was so that fools like you could never get away with your ignorant denials
Are you retarded? The existence of ovens do not prove holohoax and your father is an idiot to buy into it just by seeing an oven. Obviously there were ovens because inevitably some people died at concentration camp and they had to be buried. Burning the bodies was the best and least infection spreading method for that. In order to holocaust to be true there must’ve been a whole lot more ovens due the huge numbers of alleged deaths, the few that exist could’ve never been enough to deal with the dead.
Furthermore it’s not ovens that are the focal point of the myth, it’s the ”gas chambers” which do not exist. Only small chambers for delousing the clothes were built because typhus was the main killer of inmates and that’s also why ovens were the mechanism chosen to deal with the dead so that typhus wouldn’t spread all over the camp and kill more people. But you’d have to be having some sort of sense to actually think this thru instead of emotional garbage reactions like you got.
By the way, Eisenhower was a Jew himself and had a reason to paint Germans in as horrible light as possible because he himself put Germans in actual death camps where millions died exposed to the elements and famine. That’s the way people are murdered not by housing them and taking care of them like Germans did. There was a lot of activities available for the inmates in German camps including hospital, brothel, post office, cantine, swimming pool, football fields, theatre and even a damn symphonic orchestra at Auschwitz.
You are a fool, the gas chambers existed. The largest problem with your lies is that the Nazi’s were meticulous record keepers and documented the fates of a huge number of their victims. the documents were taken to a town in the middle of Germany, called Bad Arolsen, where they were sorted, filed and locked way, never to be seen by the public until 2007.
The storerooms are immense: 16 miles of shelves holding the stories of 17 million victims – not only Jews, but slave laborers, political prisoners and homosexuals. To open the files is to see the Holocaust staring back like it was yesterday: strange pink Gestapo arrest warrants as lethal as a death sentence, jewelry lost as freedom ended at the gates of an extermination camp. Time stopped here in 1945. There is way too much evidence, most from the Nazi’s themselves, of the murder of those considered inferior to the master race. In 1853, my Great Grandfather left Baden Germany and came to the United States, I have Cousins who visited relatives and stayed for 7 months in 1925. The Holocaust happened, no amount of denials will change that history. Films exist of Jews being put in trenches and shot, bullets cost money and those doing the shooting were having breakdowns from the number of executions, hence the gas chambers and industrial scale murder.
In early 1942, Zyklon B emerged as the preferred killing tool of Nazi Germany for use in extermination camps during the Holocaust. The chemical was used to kill roughly one million people in gas chambers installed in extermination camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and elsewhere.
Canadian diversity and multiculturalism is a pile of dung. What we have is thousands of strangers mostly co-existing peacefully enough, but with little or nothing in common are – as Archie Bunker once said – “like “sheeps passing in the night” with little understanding between them. So often you stand in a store line-up and wait endlessly while Third World peoples haggle over prices – almost always turning out wrong! And they are oblivious to inconveniencing others. To them you’re not even there. Seldom do you end up talking or joking with strangers because if you do, you mostly get a blank stare. The standard of driving is rapidly going to hell as drivers make up their own rules and the police are just slack. ‘Diversity’ is not strength and only a brainwashed or politically correct moron thinks and says it is. Unity is strength and there is little unity in diversity.
Ron rockit
5 years ago
I don’t know if this boy was a moslem or not. But, you can bet he was inspired by Islamic terror.
why do govts lie to the people? “not terrorist related” “perpetrator is not affiliated with any terrorist organisation” really?! this lone act is happening all over the world. he is middle eastern, a van is involved, knocks people down and/or kills them how many other unknown people of non-miidle eastern muscum background has done this?! hmmm? really, don’t dumb us down thank you very much, we the know the facts and the truth.
SNOWDIN
6 years ago
He did it because he is a mudscum/mudslime terrorist. The stupid Canuk authorities do not have to dig any further. The answer is in front of their face.
felix1999
5 years ago
Time to get out the candles, crocodile tears, teddy bears, flowers and plan some vigils. Pictures of the victims would be helpful too!
Of course, prayers are welcome too! As God hears these prayers, He must be shaking His head in disbelief at SHEEP being more intelligent than human beings.
Ken Kruger
6 years ago
Of course the motive was mental illness. Islam and its staunch ally, progressivism, are sadly both a mental disorder.
25% of leftists are on psych medications. The frightening thing is that means 75% are off their meds…
lostlegends
6 years ago
Name sounds Armeian to me. Caucasus region. 19 out of 20 chances says he a muslim.
Nabi Rasch
6 years ago
Never had to deal with this S before Muslims dreamed it up.
Madmotorman™ ® The Mad Hatter
6 years ago
Update 10 dead now 15 injured. 🙁
J-Rene'
5 years ago
Whether this fiend was disciple of Jihad, or deranged influenced student, clear he was “inspired” by its modus operandi slaughter-method.
“This is a time when this community should come together… [ then come heart-warming vigils cast in candlelight; teddy bears…, with balloons rising in air — as innocent slain are lowered into their graves! ] we are admired around the world for being inclusive, accepting and understanding.” — John Tory, Mayor of Toronto.
Yes, only liberal fools in ontario are inclusive, accepting and understanding of psychopathic mass murders. Fortunately for ontario, they have them by the thousands.
Bill Dumanch
6 years ago
GELLERS FAULT!!! You didn’t warn of the free-range Amish and their hatin on Backk Bacon bros from U P Dere
I see that Canada too has a problem with imported goat-molesters.
santashandler
6 years ago
“The motive in the crash is not yet known, but early reports indicate the driver hit the pedestrians deliberately.” Well, let me be the first to say, IT WAS DELIBERATE! Maybe that’ll help the police with their investigation.
hangar2247
6 years ago
Like every other western city ,they needs concrete barriers of peace.
johnnie anon
6 years ago
we just need more diversity to get through the hate together
Trudeau the Retard
6 years ago
I previously thought Trudeau was retarded…now it has been confirmed.
Thurston Howell III
6 years ago
Canada’s pussy-in-charge will blame anyone BUT a “welcomed migrant”.
Kate Maxon
5 years ago
Justinidiot Trudeau is destroying Canada with his Globalist buddies. Most of what is in the thread below does NOT EVEN REFER to what happened up here in Toronto!
This whole episode is suspect because on the VERY day it happened the press (MSM) was ready with a BIG LONG article….in which Ralph Goodale (who is SUPPOSED to be the Minister in charge of keeping CANADIANS SAFE!! lol!) said..oh no ties to Terrorists. Yeah Likely fuckin story.
I have NO DOUBT in my mind this was a jihad attack!
I read he was Armenian descent. Armenia is mooslime. 1.5 or more Christians and other non-mooslimes killed, Armenian genocide. Recent movie “The Promise”.
You’re correct. And,I believe, it took place mostly in Turkey. I was referring to the ottomans who were in control. But now the reason has been said to be sexual frustration.
CanadaGoose1
6 years ago
Armenian or more likely Syrian name. On police radar for all the good it did. Another poverty stricken oppressed person going to community college.
“Studying?” I’d like to know what that lesson is all about.
Gunter
5 years ago
Round things in general are leading to the death of millions the world over.
Think about it:
Bullets..
Gun barrels..
Nuclear missiles..
The steel stock that they make knives out of..
The wheel..
Drinking straws..
Luddites of the world, unite!
Manual Paleologos
5 years ago
It doesn’t really matter if he was affiliated or self-identified with ISIS or Al Q, or if he is even a moslem.
The strings of jihadi attacks can inspire the mentally unstable to attempt at self validation by copying moslem terror attacks. The mope thinks, by screaming Aloha Snackbar while committing mayhem, he suddenly becomes somebody. In fact, he is still the loser he was before, but he is inspired. This is a dangerous aspect of islam.
Steve Edward
6 years ago
Will Trudeau give $ millions to the victims and their families as he gave the Muslims of Canada? After all, he and his administration only 4 to 5 days ago refused to give 27 million to the Canadian Muslim released from and Ethiopian Jail.
It’s called: jizya, which Muslims impose as a ‘submission tax’ on non-muslims. If not paid. The penalty is death. And so, a few days after Trudeau refused to pay anymore jizya to Canadian Muslims, Canadian non-Muslims get crushed beneath the wheels of a van.
Learn the word you naive Canadians. It’s called JIZYA, again: it’s called: JIZYA. One more time, it’s called: JIZYA. Learn it, study it, and defend your lives against it.
Your Prime Minister Trudeau continued to pay your tax dollars as JIZYA to Canadian Muslims, until Trudeau finally refused. So, the death brought to you on Yonge street in Toronto is on the head of your Prime Minister Trudeau whose craven payment of your tax dollars to Muslims, whose payment has now stopped, is now paid in blood, and death, by you Canadians.
Your enemy is your ignorance of your own Prime Minister Trudeau, and who he stands with, and who he stands against.
I’m with you, I’m sick of the lying and covering up. My real problem is the people who are doing exactly that. They are our own people, those we pay to do a job to protect us and they lie to us and don’t treat us with any respect. And they are quick to persecute us if we speak the truth. This is why I have no respect or trust in the police or government officials, they are as much the enemy as the actual attackers.
And don’t forget all the MSN outlets, particularly the ones Trudeau has given oodles of extra tax dollars to so that they can be sure to get the ” right facts “, as if. The Edmonton attacker was never charged with terrorism yet had ISSI material in his car. I think he too had ” mental ” issues, the poor lad.
If you think it’s bad here now, how are you going to feel when the authorities start treating us like they do the Brits because Mr. Mealy Mouth is bringing it all here in spades.
You know when the muzzies did their two step on Charlie Hebdo’s people, the rest of the media world fell in line right quick. Are they saying that they will piss on those who just yap yap yap ( because they wont print ” letters to the editor ” if they don’t conform ) but play hardball, and we will shape up lickityspit. Of course Trudeau and his band of clapping seals have legislation just waiting for the right moment to come down like a sledgehammer on us all at the first sign of any vigilantism.
These aiders and abetters are worse than the enemy at the gate. They are capable of inflicting much more serious damage because they are an insidious force working often behind the scenes using subtleties and clever word games to disguise their intentions, but also out in the open trying to shame people through their hateful labeling. And yes, I too am thoroughly sick and tired of the BS.
Well said James, always a pleasure to hear the truth.
felix1999
6 years ago
ISLAM strikes again!
Islam is mental illness but lets call it by it’s formal name – ISLAM!!!!!
Let’s stop hiding behind mental illness.
How many CHRISTIANS, JEWS, BUDDHISTS, HINDUS etc. take the advice of ISIS and intentionally run the infidel over with a vehicle? Notice how MUSLIMS are NEVER targeted with vehicular attacks. NEVER! Who was the last MUSLIM run over by a car in an attack like this? I can’t think of one!
THE blood is on the hand of Trudeau who Canadians must DEMAND the little boy obsessed with his perceived idea that Canadians MUST be punished for seeing his mother’s naked bits. Yes, I’m quite sure it is mental illness and the boy should be arrested and stand next to the other guy that has mental illness, called Islam.
Sing On
6 years ago
Waiting for the results of the police investigation. Funny how no terror groups have claimed responsibility.
They don’t need too.
It’s obvious what the motive is.
ISLAM!
Iftikhar Ahmad
5 years ago
Thanks God he is not a Muslim, otherwise, a terrorist. Now he is a mentally ill person. Double standard by the so called civilised West.
IA http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk
Are you retarded on purpose or just born that way? Either or, I answered your ponderings which might be the cause of terrorism, I don’t know how you equate simple word ”islam” to me somehow meaning Pamela!?
Michelle
6 years ago
Ahh! “mental Illness” Now we know he is either an open muslim or a crypto as they have the excuse organized already. Personally I find mental illness (the REAL condition) to be NO excuse for avoiding dire punishment for any crime. this is justification for the return of a death penalty.
Ron rockit
6 years ago
Inspired by Arabs…
felix1999
6 years ago
ISIS and Al Qaeda have called for vehicle attacks –
The attack mirrors those terrorist groups ISIS and Al Qaeda have publicly … have called for vehicle and knife attacks. ..
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