Canadian man runs over family to death over hatred of Muslims
Four dead, a child hospitalized.
The city of London, which is located in the province of Ontario 200 kilometres from Toronto, has declared three days of mourning after the tragedy that occurred on June 6. A driver hit a family of five people who were standing on the sidewalk and were about to cross the road.
The victims were two women aged 77 and 44, a 46-year-old man, a 15-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy. They were all members of the same family. Only the child survived and is now in hospital with serious injuries. Police said there was evidence that the crime was planned and committed out of hatred towards the Muslim faith.
The suspect, 20-year-old London resident Nathaniel Weltman, was arrested. He drove away from the scene of the accident at high speed, running a red light several times, and was apprehended in the car park of a shopping centre. He was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of his arrest. Weltman was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He is in custody and is scheduled for trial on June 10.
Zahid Khan, a family friend, said the deceased man worked as a physiotherapist and his wife was pursuing a doctorate in civil engineering. The daughter was completing her ninth grade. They had immigrated to Canada from Pakistan 14 years earlier and, according to Khan, were a "model family" and decent members of the local Muslim church.
"They worked very hard in their field and excelled," Khan says. — Their kids were the best students in school."
On the evening of 7 June, the day after the tragedy, city residents brought flowers to the site, and on 8 June a vigil in memory of the dead was organized at a local mosque. London, with a population of around 400,000, has a large Muslim community and Arabic is the second most widely spoken language after English.
Officials also reacted to the tragedy. Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford offered his condolences to the Muslim community and condemned Islamophobia, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a terrorist attack that was "motivated by hatred.
"The Muslim community in London and Muslims across the country, know that we support you," Trudeau wrote on his Twitter. — Islamophobia has no place in any of our communities."
The incident occurred amid growing concerns about Islamophobia in Canada. Recently, the public has called on the government to fight racism and hate-motivated violence. More recently, Muslim women in the province of Alberta were insulted and physically assaulted, and in September, a 58-year-old man was fatally stabbed outside a mosque in Toronto, where he worked as a caretaker.
