A man driving a pickup truck rammed and killed four members of a Muslim family in the Canadian province of Ontario, in an attack that police described as “premeditated”.

A 20-year-old suspect wearing a vest “like armor” fled after the attack Sunday night and was arrested at a shopping center seven kilometers from the pedestrian crossing in the city of London, Ontario, where the incident occurred, he said. a local police investigator, Paul Waight. “There is evidence that it was a planned, premeditated act, for reasons of hate. The victims are believed to have been targeted because they are Muslim,” Waight told a news conference..

The victims are two women, aged 74 and 44, a 46-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, said London Mayor Ed Holder, who did not release their names.. A nine-year-old boy was also hospitalized after the attack and is recovering.. “I want to be clear: this was an act of mass murder perpetrated against Muslims… motivated by heinous hatred,” Holder said.. The detainee was identified as Nathaniel Veltman.

According to police, around 8:40 p.m. Sunday, the five family members were waiting to cross the crosswalk when a black van “came up the curb and hit them.”. Police are reviewing what Veltman posted on social media as London authorities are working with federal police and the Attorney General's Office to bring the detainee on possible terrorism charges..

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that he was “appalled” by the attack. “To the loved ones of those who were terrorized by yesterday's hateful act, we are here for you,” he said, highlighting the nine-year-old boy at the hospital.. “To the Muslim community of London and Muslims across the country, know that we stand with you.. Islamophobia has no place in any of our communities. This hatred is insidious and despicable, and it must stop,” he added..

“Cruel acts of violence”

The attack revived painful memories of a mass shooting at a Quebec mosque in 2017 and a car ramming in Toronto that killed 10 people in 2018.. The National Council of Muslim Canadians said in a note that it was “beyond horrified” and called for justice for the family “out for a walk” on a warm spring night..

“Hate and Islamophobia have no place in Ontario,” said the head of the government of that province, Doug Ford.. “These cruel acts of violence must stop,” he added.. Four years ago, a 27-year-old white supremacist stormed a Quebec City mosque and opened fire on worshipers performing their nightly prayers.. The attack left six men dead and five seriously injured. The victims were migrants with dual nationality. Two were Algerian, two Guinean, one Moroccan and one Tunisian. At the time, when attacks on mosques in New Zealand had not yet taken place in 2019, it was the worst attack on Muslims in a Western country. The attacker was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but the sentence was reduced on appeal and is under review by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Also a 28-year-old man who rammed his rented van into a group of pedestrians three years ago in Toronto was convicted in March of murdering 10 people and attempting to murder 16 others. Before the killing, Alek Minassian had posted on Facebook a reference to an online community of “involuntary bachelors” whose sexual frustrations led them to a misogynistic ideology. Minassian’s sentence will be decided in January 2022.

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