Toronto: A driver plowed a pickup truck into a family of five, killing four of them and seriously injuring the other in a deliberate attack that targeted the victims because they were Muslims, Canadian police said. Authorities said a young man was arrested in the parking lot of a nearby mall after the incident in the Ontario city of London. Police said the black truck mounted a curb and struck the victims at an intersection. “This was an act of mass murder perpetuated against Muslims,” Mayor Ed Holder said. “It was rooted in unspeakable hatred.”' The extended family issued a statement identifying the dead as Salman Afzal, 46; his wife Madiha, 44; their daughter Yumna, 15; and a 74-year-old grandmother whose name was withheld. The hospitalised boy was identified as Fayez, 9. “We need to stand against hate and Islamophobia,” the statement said. The family immigrated from Pakistan about14 years ago.
Nathaniel Veltman, 20, was in custody facing four counts of first-degree murder. Police said Veltman, who is White, was wearing a body-armor type of vest. Authorities are reviewing the possibility of terror charges. Canada PM Justin Trudeau promised to take more action to dismantle far-right groups. “This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities,” he said in the House of Commons. “We’ll continue to fight hate online and offline ... taking more action to dismantle far right hate groups, like we did with the Proud Boys by adding them to Canada’s terror listing.” The attack was the worst against Canadian Muslims since a man gunned down six members of a mosque in Quebec in 2017.
