What was behind the Toronto truck attack murders?
Toronto Police have 25 year old Alen Minassian in custody after Minassian drove his rented Ryder truck onto a busy sidewalk in mid-town Toronto, mowing down as many people as he could.
10 people were killed, 15 injured.
Minassian was apprehended nearly a half-hour after he began his attack.
Minassian came out of the truck, begging police to shoot him. Minassian yelled to police that he had a gun, and he went into a pocket, as if he was about to pull a gun. Police did not shoot. Minassian did not have a gun.
Now they’re trying to figure out the motive. Authorities say they have no indication that this was an act of terrorism.
Classmates at Seneca College, and from high school, describe Minassian as socially disabled, but brilliant in certain areas, like computers. They say he had a hard time talking with people, and suffered from physical tics.
Minassian graduated from Seneca last week, and sent out an e-mail to classmates, telling them off, according to the Toronto Globe And Mail.
According to a 2009 article in the Richmond Hill, Ontario newspaper the Liberal, Sona Minassian was quoted lamenting that her son, who suffered from a form of autism called Asperger syndrome, was at risk of losing access to a special program that assisted the teen to “work though his cognitive barriers and prepare him for the workplace.”
The article did not mention the name of her son.
Investigators had identified a Facebook account they believe belongs to Minassian.
A message posted on the account read: “All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
This man killed six and injured 14 in a drive-by shooting and vehicle ramming attack near the UC Santa Barbara campus in 2014. Authorities say he was unhappy with his lot in life. He was connected to an online group that blames women for refusing to have sex with men.