The 22-year-old ran over and killed 4 family members in 2021, leaving nine-year-old boy orphaned.
A Canadian man impressed by white nationalist beliefs has been discovered responsible of murdering 4 members of a Muslim household by operating them over with a pick-up truck in an assault that despatched waves of shock, grief and worry throughout the nation and spurred calls to sort out Islamophobia.
On Thursday, 22-year-old Nathaniel Veltman, who had railed towards immigration and Islam, was convicted of attacking the household within the Ontario city of London in June 2021.
“He was hunting for Muslims to kill,” prosecutor Fraser Ball mentioned in closing arguments, including that Veltman had donned physique armour and a shirt bearing a crusader emblem.
Salman Afzaal, 46; his spouse, Madiha Salman, 44; their daughter Yumnah, 15; and Afzaal’s mom, Talat, 74, have been killed. The couple’s nine-year-old son suffered severe accidents however survived. The household, initially from Pakistan, had been out for a stroll close to their dwelling.
Prosecutors referred to as the assault an act of “terrorism”, and Veltman, convicted on 4 counts of first-degree homicide and one among tried homicide, faces life imprisonment with no likelihood for parole for 25 years.
In the course of the 10-week trial, the jury heard that Veltman had authored a far-right screed through which he described his hatred of Islam and opposition to mass immigration and multiculturalism.
After driving instantly into the household, Veltman gave himself as much as the police and mentioned he had needed to “send a strong message” towards Muslim immigration.
Within the manifesto, Veltman wrote, “I am a white nationalist,” and mentioned white folks have been “facing genocide”. Prosecutors mentioned he additionally repeatedly watched the video of a mass capturing by a white supremacist in New Zealand that killed 51 folks.
For members of Canada’s vibrant Muslim group, Ball mentioned, that the message was terrifyingly clear: “Leave this country or you and your loved ones could be next.”
The assault, which left three generations of the household lifeless and items of the victims’ clothes caught to the entrance of Veltman’s truck, was the deadliest towards Canada’s Muslim group since 2017 when a person, who had consumed far-right anti-Muslim materials, gunned down six folks in a Quebec Metropolis mosque.
The defence argued that Veltman suffered from quite a few psychological well being points and had requested that his prices be downgraded to manslaughter.
A sentencing listening to was scheduled for December 1.
“While this represents an important step towards closure for the Muslim community, and our city at large, it is by no means the end of that journey,” London Mayor Josh Morgan mentioned in a social media put up on Thursday.
The Nationwide Council of Canadian Muslims posted on X that it was “relieved that justice has been served”, including, “We have to reflect deeply on the violent Islamophobia that has gripped our country.”
We’re relieved to see that the person who killed 4 members of #OurLondonFamily has been convicted on all counts.
We’re relieved that justice has been served.
It is a time for reflection and solidarity. With the household. With the group in London, Ontario.
We’ve to… pic.twitter.com/a8woB2EDK1
— NCCM (@nccm) November 16, 2023