A Canadian who killed 10 people while driving a rented van on a crowded Toronto sidewalk was found guilty of murder after a judge dismissed the defense’s arguments that he was unable to understand the consequences of his actions.
Alek Minassian was convicted of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder at an online hearing on Wednesday.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Anne Molloy said the accused longed for the infamy of his murders and refused to use his name, referring to him as “John Doe”.
“He knew that death would be irreversible. He knew that his families would suffer, ”said Molloy when giving his judgment.
“He freely chose the option that was morally wrong, knowing what the consequences would be for him and everyone else. It doesn’t matter that he has no remorse or sympathy for the victims, ”she said, when uttering a part of her 83-page sentence.
The court heard that on April 23, 2018, the suspect rented a cargo van and drove it down a busy Toronto street, deliberately hitting pedestrians. His actions took the lives of Renuka Amarasingha, Betty Forsyth, Ji Hun Kim, Dorothy Sewell, Anne Marie D’Amico, So He Chung, Andrea Bradden, Chul Min “Eddie” Kang, Geraldine Brady and Munir Najjar.
Molloy also listed the horrific injuries suffered by sixteen others. Yunsheng Tian, 28, suffered traumatic brain injury, a spinal fracture, 24 broken vertebrae, facial fractures and a laceration in the left leg. Beverley Smith, 81, was forced to amputate both legs above the knee.
The judge spoke of “numerous ordinary citizens who cared for the wounded and comforted the dying on the spot”, as well as those who tried to wrest control of the defendants’ van and shouted to alert pedestrians. These, said the judge, were the “true heroes of that time”.
Since Minassian – a violent misogynist who describes himself as “incel” – has admitted to planning and executing the attack, the five-week trial at the end of last year focused almost entirely on his state of mind at the time.
Prosecutors argued that the accused – motivated by his hatred of women and radicalized in online forums – wanted infamy and was willing to kill as many innocent people as he could to reach it.
In his decision, Molloy contested the notion that he was motivated to commit murder in the name of the “incel” – or “unintentionally celibate” movement whose members blame women for their sexual frustration.
“I am sure that resentment towards women who were never interested in him was a factor in this attack, but not the driving force,” she wrote. “Instead … he hitchhiked the ‘incel’ movement to increase his own notoriety.”
Instead, Molloy pointed out that Minassian was “deeply lonely”, saw himself as a failure and spent hours looking for “depraved” sites on the internet.
“Why did he do it? The answer is long, ”she wrote. “But there is a short answer, an important point: he did this to become famous.”
Molloy also noted that the accused did not look suicidal. Instead, his desire to “die for the police” was seen as the culmination of his broader goals.
Defense lawyers argued that the defendant’s autism spectrum disorder impaired his ability to understand the error of his actions and that he should not be held criminally responsible for his actions.
At his trial, Molloy found that the accused had spent years fantasizing about committing the crime. Although he considered how it could affect his family, he “deliberately put these thoughts aside, ignoring them, because he didn’t want them to stop him from reaching that important goal.”
In Canada, a person considered non-criminally responsible is institutionalized for an indefinite period, until he can demonstrate that he no longer poses a risk to the public.
The hearing was broadcast live on YouTube because of the pandemic, but several of the victims’ relatives gathered in front of the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto to hear the verdict.
“You have been holding your breath for three years,” said Nick D’Amico, brother of Anne Marie D’Amico, who was killed in the attack. “And now you can finally breathe.”