2018 Toronto Van Attack

Overview

2018 Toronto Van Attack refers to a vehicle-ramming attack that occurred in late April 2018 in Toronto, Canada in which a moving van drove into a crowd of pedestrians, killing 10 people and injuring 15. The suspect was identified as Alek Minassian, who was later linked to a Facebook post calling for an “incel rebellion.”

Background

At approximately 1:27 p.m. on April 23rd, 2018, a Chevrolet Express full-size van veered on to a sidewalk in Toronto and struck multiple pedestrians. A total of 10 people were killed in the attack and an additional 15 sustained non-fatal injuries.

Developments

Suspect Alek Minassian

At 5:25 p.m. that day, the @CBSNews^[5] Twitter feed announced the 25-year-old Toronto resident Alek Minassian had been identified as the suspect in the attack (shown below).

Prior to the removal of his Facebook page, a post was found in which Minassian says he wishes to "speak to Sgt 4chan," announces “The Incel Rebellion has already begun,” praises Elliot Rodger and calls for the “overthrow of all the Chads and Stacys.”^[2] According to CBC,^[1] Facebook confirmed the post was authentic.

Online Reaction

Following reports about the attack, a thread was created on /r/worldnews^[4] for discussions about the incident. Also on April 23rd, Mic staff writer Jack Smith tweeted a screenshot of a text message falsely identifying the shooter as Sam Hyde (shown below).^[6]

On April 24th, a 4chan user submitted a post titled "Canadian Terrorist Wanted to Kill All Chads and Stacies" to the /r9k/ board (shown below).

On April 23rd, ABC News tweeted a video clip of Toronto Police Chief Saunders responding t the question about how the suspect was arrested "without incident and not shot" (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 11,400 likes and 4,900 retweets.

Search Interest

External References