Toronto driver charged with 10 counts of 1st degree murder

Charmaine N./ David R. Martin
TORONTO.- The 25-year-old suspect who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder and 13 of attempted murder as Canadian authorities and the public sought to make sense of one of the deadliest mass killings in the country’s modern history.

Alek Minassian showed little emotion as he made a brief appearance in a Toronto courtroom in a white jumpsuit and handcuffs. The judge ordered him detained without bond and scheduled the next hearing for May 10. His father, Vahe Minassian, cried and looked stunned inside the courtroom.

Asked outside if he had any message for the families of the victims, he said quietly: “I’m sorry.” Police, meanwhile, continued to gather evidence.

About 20 officers made their way down the van’s deadly path on Yonge Street, which remained closed to traffic on Tuesday and taped off with yellow crime scene tape. Nearby, mourners had put together a makeshift memorial to the victims.

“It was like he was playing a video game, trying to kill as many people as possible,” said Panna Patel, 42, who stopped by the memorial and had been at the scene a day earlier, getting cash from an ATM. “He was looking people directly in the eye, making eye contact, it was so scary. He wasn’t remorseful at all.