Alek Minassian found guilty of 10 counts of 1st-degree murder after 2018 Toronto van attack

Warning: This story contains details that might be disturbing to some. Discretion is advised.

Alek Minassian has been found guilty of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder in connection with the 2018 Toronto van attack.

The ruling was delivered by Justice Anne Molloy Wednesday morning and in a rare instance for the court, it was livestreamed on YouTube due to anticipated interest in the case and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In delivering her decision, Molloy referred to Minassian as John Doe in order to avoid giving him further notoriety. However, she noted the widespread media coverage of Minassian before the case began and did not make an order with regard to name usage.

“In this case, Mr. Doe knew it was criminally wrong to kill people,” Molloy said.

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“I find Mr. Doe guilty on all 26 counts on the indictment.”

Central to the trial, which began in November, was Minassian’s state of mind at the time of the attack. Although he admitted to planning the attack and carrying it out, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and argued he should be found not criminally responsible for his actions due to autism spectrum disorder.

In an agreed statement of facts presented in court, the Crown described how Minassian called a vehicle rental company in Vaughan on April 4 to reserve a vehicle for pickup on the afternoon of April 23. According to the document, Minassian was dropped off at a retail store four kilometres away from the rental company by his father, whom he lied to about meeting a friend.

Minassian eventually walked to the company and rented the van, telling an employee he was going to be moving furniture. However, he drove to the area of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue West and began his attack, which he referenced in a post on Facebook.

The Crown detailed Minassian’s two-kilometre route on and around Yonge Street and summarized what happened before each victim was struck, occasionally showing photos of bodies under tarps and surveillance video clips of the travelling van. The vehicle appeared to be travelling at various speeds throughout the seven-minute journey, topping out at 47 km/h at one point.

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Betty Forsyth, Ji Hun Kim, So He Chung, Geraldine Brady, Chul Min Kang, Anne Marie Victoria D’Amico, Munir Najjar, Dorothy Marie Sewell, Andrea Bradden and Beutis Renuka Amarasingha ultimately died after being struck.

After one of the injured victims was hit near Yonge Street and Kempford Boulevard, the Crown described how the force of the impact “caused the victim’s socks to be knocked off his feet” and part of the vehicle broke away.

In another example showcasing the force of the impact, Beverly Smith, who was 80 at the time, was hit near Yonge Street and Empress Avenue. The Crown said the damage from the van left her with exposed organs and both of her legs had to be amputated.

As Minassian proceeded south on Yonge Street, 33-year-old Andrea Bradden was walking when she was struck. Her drink flew back onto the windshield, something Minassian later would tell police in a previously released four-hour interview caused him to end the attack.

Minassian was arrested moments later by Const. Ken Lam, who was praised for his use of de-escalation techniques during the arrest and for not using a weapon. In-cruiser video footage was shown of Lam pulling alongside where Minassian was stopped on Poyntz Avenue.

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“I have a gun. Kill me now! Kill me now! Shoot me,” Minassian said to Lam, according to the agreed statement of facts.

Minassian later told police he tried to engage in “suicide by cop” by flashing his wallet, hoping it would be mistaken for a gun.

In that four-hour interview, Minassian told Toronto Police Det. Rob Thomas it was him behind the wheel. Minassian discussed how the incel (involuntary celibacy) community and past rejection from women fueled his desire to act.

Thomas, a veteran Toronto police officer and polygraph examiner, was brought in to question Minassian. The videotaped interview, which was released after lawyers for media outlets challenged a publication ban, occurred at a police station near the scene, starting almost nine hours after Minassian was taken into custody.

When asked several questions about his background, Minassian often told Thomas he didn’t want to answer the questions. However, when the conversation — often casual and calm in tone — turned to how he was treated by women and relationships, Minassian began to open up to Thomas.

Throughout the course of the seven-week trial, it focused on the inner workings of Minassian’s mind.

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The court heard how he told various assessors that the so-called “incel” motive was a ruse, designed to increase his notoriety. He was still a lonely virgin, however, that part was true.

He went on to tell different doctors different reasons for his attack. He said he had “extreme anxiety” over a new job he was about to start. He also wanted to “set a world record” for kills in order to be atop an online leaderboard of mass killers.

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If he accomplished that, then he wouldn’t be viewed as a failure, he told a forensic psychiatrist. Minassian also told them he had a strong desire to commit a mass killing and was infatuated with an American mass murderer.

The central question at trial was whether Minassian knew what he did was morally wrong. The legal test, in this case, focused on whether he had the capacity at the time to make a rational choice.

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The defence’s star witness, American-based forensic psychiatrist Dr. Alexander Westphal, testified that Minassian’s autism left him without the ability to develop empathy.

Minassian’s lawyer, Boris Bytensky, said that lack of empathy left him incapable of rational choice, and, ultimately, to know what he did was morally wrong.

The prosecution argued Minassian knew what he did was wrong, in part because he told many of his assessors he knew killing 10 people that day was morally wrong.

Minassian had a decade-long fixation on mass school shootings, the Crown pointed out. That fixation morphed into fantasies of committing a mass shooting at his own high school, where he was picked on.

But he never followed through, in part, because he did not know how to get a gun.

“There’s no evidence he ever lost the fact of the wrongness of his actions,” said Crown attorney Joe Callaghan.

The prosecution’s key witness, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Percy Wright, said Minassian had some empathy and knew what he did was wrong, thereby did not qualify for the test that he was not criminally responsible for his actions.

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Renowned forensic psychiatrist, Dr. John Bradford, who has evaluated some of the country’s most notorious killers, said Minassian did not meet the test to be found not criminally responsible.

This is a developing story that will be updated throughout the day.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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