Canadian Man Charged with Murder After Running Over a Muslim Family

In Canada’s first murder trial where juries were asked to consider a terrorist motivation tied to white supremacist ideology, a man who drove his vehicle to run down a Muslim family as they were out for a stroll was found guilty on Thursday. Two charges of attempted murder and four counts of first-degree or premeditated murder were found to have been committed by 22-year-old Nathaniel Veltman.

If found guilty, he may get a life sentence. He admitted to running over the Afzaal family in June 2021 in London, Ontario, with his pickup truck, leaving three generations dead and a tiny child orphaned. During the trial, the prosecution claimed that he was driven by white supremacist ideology and intended to scare or frighten Muslims. The defense claimed that after using hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms that weekend, he had experienced a mental deterioration (which did not, however, fulfill the conditions for an insanity plea) and was in “a state of extreme confusion.”

“Today’s ruling represents a significant advancement in the struggle against bigotry and anti-Islamic sentiment,” Imam Abdul Fattah Twakkal said outside the courtroom. He said, “It establishes a precedent against white nationalist terrorism.” “It makes it very evident that such hate is not welcome in our society.” To guarantee that the next radicalized young guy is not out there, he said, “the evidence that came out of this trial shows us that there is still a lot of work to be done.”

“The enduring grief, trauma and the irreplaceable void left by the loss of multiple generations of one family has pierced us profoundly,” Tabinda Bukhari, the mother of one of the adult victims, told reporters. She went on to say that the decision offers “some solace.”

“HUMANE AND TERRIFYING”

Veltman wrote a “terrorist manifesto,” which the jury was seen throughout the almost ten-week trial. In it, he advocated white nationalism and expressed his hatred for Muslims. Prosecutor Fraser Ball said during closing arguments earlier last week that the defendant “dressed like a soldier,” donning body armor, a helmet, and a “crusader T-shirt” with a red cross. He said, “He was hunting for Muslims to kill.”

The Crown counsel said that on that warm Sunday night in London, Veltman turned his pick-up truck around and sped, “pedaling to the metal,” leaping the curb and colliding with the Afzaal family. Corpses shot upward. The deceased were Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their daughter Yumnah, 15, and her 74-year-old grandma Talat Afzaal. A nine-year-old child who was left orphaned after the collision had severe but non-fatal injuries.

After the victim turned himself in in a neighboring parking lot, Veltman’s vehicle had pieces of his clothes lodged in the grill. He said to the police that he wished to “send a strong message” against immigration of Muslims. “Brutal and terrifying: leave this country or you and your loved ones could be next,” was how Ball described the warning.

The defense said that Veltman’s sense of detachment from reality stemmed from a mix of drug abuse, childhood trauma, and mental illnesses. Omar Khamissa, the leader of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said that the incident two years ago “changed Canadian Muslims’ relationship with their country.” “Many of us felt unsafe and targeted just for strolling down the street for the first time.”

In an interview on X, a platform that was originally Twitter, former federal minister Omar Alghabra said that this instance was “an example of how hateful words could lead to radicalization which could lead to deadly violence.” After the conviction, Veltman was “in shock, because he knows he’s looking at 25 years in jail without hope of parole,” according to defense attorney Christopher Hicks.

On December 1, a sentencing hearing date will be set. Since a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City in 2017 that claimed six lives, the killing was the bloodiest anti-Muslim incident to occur in Canada. The person who carried out the shooting was not charged with terrorism.