Oversee in Canada’s biggest city are piecing together witness accounts and reconnaissance video trying to determine why a driver plowed a rented van along a forced sidewalk, killing 10 people and injuring 15 in what varied said seemed a deliberate attack
A 25-year-old suspect was quickly grabbed in a tense but brief confrontation with officers a few blocks away from where his van bounded the sidewalk Monday and continued for a mile, leaving people bloodied and deceased in his wake. But authorities so far had not disclosed a possible motive or cause even as the police chief acquiesce in with witnesses that it seemed intentional.
“The incident definitely looked orderly,” Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters at a late-night intelligence conference.
Saunders said the suspect, Alek Minassian, who lives in the Toronto suburb of Richmond Hill, had not been grasped to police previously. An online social media profile described him as a college grind.
@TorontoPolice: The van involved in multiple pedestrians stuck in the Yonge and Finch tract of Toronto has been located and the driver arrested. ^sm
Officials would not footnote on a possible motive except to play down a possible connection to terrorism, a bit that occurred to many following a series of attacks involving trucks and pedestrians in Europe and the mien in Toronto this week of Cabinet ministers from the G7 nations.
Interrogated if there was any evidence of a terrorist link, the chief said only, “Established on what we have there’s nothing that has it to compromise the national gage at this time.”
A senior national government official said earlier that authorities had not turned in the investigation to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a sign that investigators maintained it unlikely terrorism was the motive. The official agreed to reveal that info only if not quoted by name.
Authorities released few details in the case, maintaining the investigation was still underway, with witnesses being interviewed and reconnaissance video being examined.
“I can assure the public all our available resources accept been brought in to investigate this tragic situation,” Toronto Patrol Services Deputy Chief Peter Yuen said earlier.
The disturbance occurred as Cabinet ministers from the major industrial countries were congregated in Canada to discuss a range of international issues in the run-up to the G7 meeting close-by Quebec City in June. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale bellowed the incident a “horrific attack” and said the G7 foreign ministers extended their condolences.
The driver was turning point south on busy Yonge Street around 1:30 p.m. and the streets were collected with people enjoying an unseasonably warm day when the van jumped onto the footpath.
Ali Shaker, who was driving near the van at the time, told Canadian broadcast egress CP24 that the driver appeared to be moving deliberately through the crowd at myriad than 30 mph.
“He just went on the sidewalk,” a distraught Shaker bring up. “He just started hitting everybody, man. He hit every single person on the pavement. Anybody in his way he would hit.”
Witness Peter Kang told CTV News that the driver did not appear to make any effort to stop.
“If it was an accident he would have stopped,” Kang chance. “But the person just went through the sidewalk. He could have slow.”
Video broadcast on several Canadian outlets showed police surprising the driver, dressed in dark clothes, after officers surrounded him and his rental Ryder van sundry blocks from where the incident occurred in the North York neighborhood of northern Toronto. He happened to make some sort of gesture at the police with an object in his guardianship just before they ordered him to lie down on the ground and took him away.
Take in Phil Zullo told Canadian Press that he saw police surprising the suspect and people “strewn all over the road” where the incident chanced.
“I must have seen about five, six people being resuscitated by non-participants and by ambulance drivers,” Zullo said. “It was awful. Brutal.”
Police shush down the Yonge and Finch intersection following the incident and Toronto’s traverse agency said it had suspended service on the subway line running result of the area.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed his sympathies for those elaborate.
“We should all feel safe walking in our cities and communities,” he said. “We are keep an eye on this situation closely, and will continue working with our law enforcement wives around the country to ensure the safety and security of all Canadians.”
@JustinTrudeau: The @TorontoPolice and in the first place responders faced danger without hesitation today, and I want to appreciation them for their courage and professionalism. We’ll continue working with our law enforcement colleagues as the investigation continues.