Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Warning: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing.
On Sunday night, around 8:30 p.m., a taxi driver pulled into the Cherryhill Mall parking lot in London, Ont., for what he thought was going to be a quick break.
He had no idea that within minutes, he would be coming face-to-face with the suspect who allegedly rammed a vehicle into a Muslim family on purpose, killing all but a 9-year-old boy in what police believe was a targeted, hate-motivated attack.
Hasan Savehilaghi, president of Yellow London Taxi, shared with CTV National News the chilling details of the encounter between the suspect and his colleague.
“He's shaken,” Savehilaghi said. “He's terrified.”
The suspect pulled up behind the taxi driver in a pick-up truck, hurling profanities, according to the witness. He was dressed in a military-style helmet and what appeared to be an armoured vest.
“He told my colleague, ‘Call police, I killed somebody,’” Savehilaghi said. “At that second, my colleague realized the front of the vehicle is severely damaged, with a lot of blood on it.”
The taxi driver called 911 and waved down a police cruiser. After police were on the scene, they quickly apprehended the driver of the truck.
“They took the vest off of him, and my colleague mentioned that the person had a swastika on his chest and back on his shirt,” Savehilaghi said.
Perhaps most chilling -- the suspect, 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman, was laughing, he said.
Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Mediha Salman, 44, their 15-year-old daughter Yumna and her grandmother Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed Sunday evening by a pick-up truck while they were out for a walk along Hyde Park Road.
The remaining survivor, the couple’s nine-year-old son, is in hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
"There is evidence that this was a planned, premeditated act and that the family was targeted because of their Muslim faith," Det.-Insp. Paul Waight said during a briefing on Monday.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) called it a terror attack in a statement.
“A man allegedly got in his car, saw a Muslim family walking down the street, and made the decision that they do not deserve to live. He did not know them. This is a terrorist attack on Canadian soil and should be treated as such,” said Mustafa Farooq, the chief executive of the association.
Records show Veltman purchased a truck at a London dealership on May 12.
“It was a normal transaction,” Kai Idris, general manager of Southwest Auto Group, told CTV News. “I’m completely saddened by this.”
Veltman will appear in court tomorrow morning. He is facing charges of four counts of first degree murder, and one count of attempted murder.
If you need mental health help in the wake of the London, Ont. vehicle attack, support and resources are available here.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.