Mass Killings in Canada - The Case of Alek Minassian PDF

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Mass Killings In Canada; The Case of Alek Minassian Mentally Ill? Or Sexually Shunned by Women? There’s more to the rampage than meets the eye… On April 28, 2018, 25 year old Alek Minassian deliberately rammed his rented white Chevrolet Express van onto a busy sidewalk in downtown Toronto, killing 10 and injuring, some critically, 16 more. The initial shock and outpouring of emotion and grief from the Toronto community led to the usual kinds of questions. What motivated this cruel and heinous act? Surely Minassian must be mentally unstable. No sane person could ever do such a thing, or could they? These questions were posed to Minassian’s father as he made his way to the courthouse to see his son for the first time after the incident. A reporter asked him several times “Sir, is your son ill? Sir, is your son mentally ill?” Minassian’s father, too grief stricken to manage any kind of verbal response, simply stared ahead and shook his head ever so gently indicating “no”. The attack started around the lunch hour at the corner of Yonge and Finch and proceeded south along the sidewalk for several blocks. Security camera video from a local business shows the van reaching Tolman Street just before 1:30 pm. A witness told police that the driver was looking victims directly in the eye as he drove into them and “acted as if he was playing a video game, trying to kill as many people as possible”. Constable Ken Lam, on traffic control at the time, intercepted the suspect as he stopped his cruiser in the middle of the street and ordered him to drop to the ground. Minassian repeatedly drew his hand from his back pocket and pointed a dark coloured object toward Lam telling him he had a gun. Lam responded by saying, “I don’t care” and continued to order Minassian to drop to the ground. Minassian shouted several times, “kill me” and “shoot me in the head” while officer Lam continued to say “no, get on the ground”. As Lam drew closer to Minassian, he recognized the object in Minassian’s hand was not a gun, so he holstered his pistol and took out his baton instead to avoid the use of unnecessary force. Minassian then dropped the object from his hand, lay down on the ground and surrendered to Lam. He was arrested, uninjured, at 1:32 pm.

When police later identified Minassian, they reported he was a former Seneca College student with no prior criminal history. His former classmates from elementary and secondary school described him as “not overly social” and “harmless”. His mother was quoted as saying that her son had attended a special needs class for autistic youth when he attended Thornlea Secondary School in Thornhill, and that Minassian had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome. He had however, never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Further investigation into Minassian’s past revealed that he completed a brief stint in the Canadian Armed Forces, but it ended when Minassian requested voluntary release. A senior military officer there said “there were no red flags”, and that Minassian had simply not adapted well to military life, and in his mind there was no reason to believe he would perpetrate such a horrific crime.

Shortly after the attack, a Facebook post attributed to Minassian circulated online in which he described himself as an “incel” (involuntarily celibate). Those who describe themselves as incels often belong to an on-line subculture primarily made up of males who communicate with one another about the frustrations they feel about being sexually deprived and about the hatred they have for those more sexually successful. The post dated shortly before the attack read:

Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161. The incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Staceys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger. To provide explication, 4chan of course refers to a popular but controversial imageboard where people post various photos, many of which are sexually explicit. C23249161 was Minassian’s military identification number during his army training, and “Chad” and “Stacey” are nicknames used on incel-related forums to refer to males and females who are attractive, popular and sexually successful. The term “incel rebellion” refers to a violent response to sexlessness, which incels view as sexual deprivation. And finally, the reference to Elliot Rodger refers to the perpetrator of the mass murders near the campus of University of California, Santa Barbara in 2014 where Rodger killed six people and injured 14 others. Rodger went on a killing spree that lasted several hours before he killed himself inside his own vehicle. Also an incel, Rodger had a long history of being bullied and tormented by peers, and was seeing a therapist but never officially diagnosed with a mental illness. Rodger had posted several videos on social media including YouTube where he lamented at length about how females shunned him, and how he simply could not understand why they found him so repulsive. He would go on to say that he could not understand why they would not want to be with such a “supreme gentleman” who had a nice car, a BMW as he points out in one video, and such nice expensive sunglasses. In his final video entitled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution”, Rodger

outlines the details of his upcoming attacks and his motives. He explains that he wants to punish women for rejecting him and that he envies sexually active men and wanted to punish them for being sexually active. It was later determined by police that Rodger posted this final manifesto just moments before he completed the final stage of his rampage where he deliberately runs his car into pedestrians, cyclists, and shoots at people randomly, mainly targeting young beautiful and handsome college students, in some instances shooting them in the face or groin area. The post made by Minassian clearly indicates that he was following the example of Rodger and was mounting his own incel Rebellion. Disturbingly, in the years since the Isla Vista shooting in California, the incel subculture continues to hail Rodger as a “saint” and hero, and his actions continue to motivate other likeminded men who name him as their inspiration. The subculture provides a perfect on-line platform for angry men to band together and horrifyingly encourage each other to take their vengeance out on unsuspecting women. For example, the mass shooting that took place in a Tallahassee Florida yoga studio in the Fall of 2018 was carried out by Scott Beierle, a 40 year-old self proclaimed misogynist. Beierle planned for months about how he was going to take his vengeance. He contacted the yoga studio in advance, found out details about the class schedule, booked a hotel room to be nearby and purchased over 100 rounds of ammunition and a yoga mat from Walmart. On the day of the attack he arrived half an hour early for the 5:30 pm start time and signed up for the class with the receptionist. He told her he would wait outside for the class to begin, and was seen pacing back and forth outside saying very little to anyone. Once the class began, he retrieved his weapon and opened fire on two unsuspecting women from behind. He continued shooting until another victim struck him, giving other people time to flee. Once the shooting stopped, another victim heard him mumble something and then heard one last shot ring out. When she looked up, she saw Beierle had shot himself and lay motionless on top of one of the women he killed. According the ensuing investigation, although there appeared to be no evidence that he targeted anyone specific in that studio, information later revealed that in 2013, he was in Facebook contact with a woman who told him she took classes at a yoga studio in Tallahassee. Reports about this on-line contact noted that much of his contact with her, as police later determined, was of a violent nature, and included words related to rape and torture. Beierle’s YouTube channel had several videos where he focused on common incel grievances grounded in the notion that feminism has made men into sexual and romantic outcasts. In one such video, Beierle goes so far as to compare his adolescent self to Elliot Rodger. Another horrifying event occurred in December 2017, when William Edward Atchison, age 21, who called himself “Elliott Rodger” on-line, and who referred to Rodger as a “supreme gentleman”, walked into Aztec High School in Aztec, New Mexico disguised as a student and opened fire, killing two students. Casey Jordan Marquez, a cheerleader, and Francisco Fernandez, a football player, were later identified as the victims. Class was in session at the time, and students heard what they thought was someone thumping lockers. It quickly became apparent that they were hearing gunfire, and when the school custodian began shouting “active shooter” and “lockdown”, teachers barricaded their classrooms. Atchison attempted to gain entry into some of the classrooms and a small office that was barricaded by a couch but

he was unsuccessful. He shot himself on-site. In a yellow sticky-type note found on his body, he had written

6:20 work 6:20- 7 (..) 7: 7:30 prep 7:30- 8 walk 8 Die Atchison modeled his behaviour after Rodger insofar as he did not have a specific target, rather, he was simply prepared to take his vengeance out on anyone who looked “good” to him and knew his ultimate plan was to take his own life, just as Elliott Rodger did. In October 2015, in similar fashion to Rodger attacking unsuspecting students on a college campus, Christopher Sean Harper-Mercer, age 26, entered his writing class at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, Oregon around 10:30 am and fired a warning shot. He then forced fellow students into the centre of the classroom and began his horrifying attack by shooting the assistant English teacher at point-blank range. He proceeded to make his way through the other students in the classroom, sometimes asking them if they believed in God, and what their religion was, if they had one, and shot them one by one, sometimes multiple times. He made many beg for their lives before shooting them and laughing as they fell. At 10:38 am, the Roseberg Police Department received their first 911 call from Snyder Hall on the school campus that reported gunfire. Students reported that the shooting began in Classroom 15 and two plainclothes detectives were dispatched to the scene. Arriving at 10:44 am, some six minutes after the first 911 call was received, the detectives discovered Harper-Mercer in that same classroom as he was reloading his handguns. He leaned out of the classroom and fired several shots at the police officers who returned fire. The shooting continued for the next few minutes until Harper-Mercer was shot in his right side. He subsequently retreated into the classroom where he killed himself with a single shot to the head. In all, he killed nine people and injured eight more. Subsequent investigation revealed that Harper-Mercer had had a troubled past, was obsessed with guns and mass killings and was socially isolated. On the morning of the shootings, he gave a survivor numerous writings that highlighted he had studied mass killings in depth including the Sandy Hook school shootings, and the ones perpetrated by Elliott Rodger in California. These writings expressed his sexual frustration as a virgin and his lack of fulfillment in his isolated life. He was also quoted as saying “ever since I arrived in this world, I have been under siege from it. Under attacks from morons and idiots..My whole life has been one lonely enterprise. One loss after another. And here I am, 26, with no friends, no job, no girlfriend, a virgin”. He also reportedly admired the killings perpetrated by 41 year old Vester Lee Flanagon II, who shot two journalists Allison Parker and camera man Adam Ward as they were conducting live on-air interviews for a morning news broadcast in Roanoke Virginia. Harper-Mercer wrote about his admiration for Flanagon, saying “A

man who was known by no one, is now known by everyone. His face splashed across every screen, his name across the lips of every person on the planet all in the course of one day”. He was also quoted as saying the people like him- the ones who stand with the gods- he said, were “Elliot Rodger, Vester Flanagan, the Columbine kids, Adam Lanza and Seung Cho”. The references to the “the Columbine kids” refer to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who shot and killed 13 people and wounded some 24 others at Columbine High School in Colorado, then killing themselves. The reference to Adam Lanza is refers to the man who first shot his mother at home, then proceeded to kill 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. The reference to Seung Cho refers to the shooter who killed 32 people and wounded 17 others as he opened fire at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia. In short, these are all examples of men who have felt isolated, lonely, shunned, sexually frustrated and committed to taking their revenge out on anyone. What is most significant is the modelling that takes place in the incel subculture, where murderous rampages are heralded, revered, and sometimes, eventually emulated. It bears noting that the social forces that are at play in such situations are powerful and this case study provides a great deal of insight into the misery that can ensue when poison meets poison on-line.

Please watch: Global News Videos About Alek Minassian To try to understand this social, not psychological explanation of crime, please have a look at this article provided by VICE where this topic is further examined: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ywx7wx/how-lonely-men-are-radicalized-online-andturn-their-rage-into-violence...