'A lot of it was disbelief:' Brother of van attack victim reacts to Minassian video

Brother of van attack victim reacts to interview The brother of a 30-year-old woman who was killed in the North York van attack says his family has come to terms with what happened.

Nick D’Amico doesn’t quite call it closure, but says the police interview with Alek Minassian does provide his family with a few more answers.

Minassian has been accused of plowing down a number of pedestrians along Yonge Street in April 2018, injuring 16 people and killing 10 others—including Nick D’Amico’s 30-year-old sister Anne Marie D’Amico.

“I think you always have questions,” Nick D’Amico told CTV News Toronto. “You’re always wondering, why do people do the things they do, especially in such a horrific and tragic way?”

A photo of Anne Marie D'Amico is left at a vigil on Yonge Street in Toronto, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press)

A publication ban on the four-hour police interview of Minassian was lifted on Friday. Nick D’Amico and his parents were permitted to watch the full video earlier this week.

He said he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to see it, but his parents felt it was important.

“A lot of it was disbelief, that someone would go that far,” he said.

“We’ve come to terms with what happened. You have to. If you don’t come to terms with what happened, you’ll never move forward.”

Meanwhile, many of the people who live and work in the area of the van attack said the video is hard to watch.

“It’s painful. It’s something no one would want to know,” Kaari Kitawi, who works in the area, said.

“But nonetheless it’s important to know.”

Sarv Fakharian lives near the scene of the attack and said she was shaken by the police interview.

“I think it’s shocking, it’s disgusting that in the year 2018 there are people out there with this kind of mindset.”

A community member leaves a flower at a memorial on Yonge Street in Toronto, Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (Galit Rodan/The Canadian Press)

Nick D’Amico, meanwhile, said his family is trying to move forward.

“You can’t change the past,” he said. “You can only try and do things for the better in the future.”

That is why they have established a foundation in his sister’s name that will work to fight violence against women.

“You want to kill because of hatred? We’re just going to flip that around and do something for people in kindness.”

The Anne Marie D’Amico Foundation is launching its inaugural fundraiser, “The Turtle Project” on Dec. 3—on what would have been Anne Marie’s birthday.

She would have turned 32 years old.