Toronto van attack suspect charged with murder
Toronto: The man accused of plowing a rental van into pedestrians on a crowded Toronto sidewalk, killing 10 people in Canada’s deadliest mass killing in decades, left a ‘cryptic message’ on social media before his attack, police said on Tuesday.
Suspect Alek Minassian, 25, was charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder in the incident.
One possible clue to his motive emerged on Tuesday as Facebook confirmed Minassian wrote a post before the incident that referenced an ‘incel rebellion.’ The term is shorthand used in some online message boards for ‘involuntary celibacy’, a loose social media movement of men who blame women for their celibacy.
Canadian authorities have declined to say whether anger toward women had motivated the attack.
The post also voiced admiration for a man who killed six college students before taking his own life in California in 2014 and who cited the ‘cruelness of women’ for his virgin status.