A Normal, Happy Family Oblivious to Their Fate

Four members of a Pakistani-Canadian family were killed by a man in a truck in what police are calling a hate-motivated attack. This photo, released by the family, shows the victims (left to right): Yumna Afzaal, 15, Madiha Salman, 44, Talat Afzaal, 74, and Salman Afzaal, 46.

"Let me be clear: This was an act of mass murder, perpetrated against Muslims — against Londoners — and rooted in unspeakable hatred." 

"The magnitude of such hatred can make one question who we are as a city, and who we are as Londoners."  

"It's up to us — all of us — to answer that question, through not only our words, but our actions. We can say 'this isn't who we are,' and I know that to be true."

"[Words] are not enough. We must demonstrate, behave, and act on those words. This act of unspeakable hatred, this act of Islamophobia, must be followed by acts of compassion, acts of kindness, acts of empathy, acts of solidarity — justice — and, above all else, love."

"In one act of murder some individual has wiped out three generations of family. It's horrific."  

London Mayor Ed Holder

 

"We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith." 

"We understand that this event may cause fear and anxiety in the community, particularly in the Muslim community, in any community targeted by hate ..."

"There is no tolerance in this community [for those] who are motivated by hate [to] target others with violence."

London Police Chief Stephen Williams  

Police officers look for evidence at the scene of mass murder targeting a Muslim family in London, Ontario on June 7, 2021. (Photo by AP)

Reports of a vehicle striking pedestrians in the northwest end of London, Ontario brought out emergency crews at 8:40 p.m. on Sunday. When they arrived police found a scene of chaos and horror. The result of a 20-year-old resident of the city who had deliberately mounted a sidewalk with his black pickup truck to strike a family of five as they waited to cross an intersection. People nearby heard screams of pain and anguish as an elderly woman, her son and daughter-in-law and her granddaughter suffered injuries from the impact that ended their lives. The fifth person involved in the unspeakable carnage was a 9-year-old boy who is now an orphan, his entire family murdered in one fell turn of a driving wheel.

Faez Afzaa is in hospital and it will take him some time to recover from his serious physical injuries. The psychic pain he will experience as he gradually is informed and realizes that his family is gone and he is alone in this world will haunt him forever. Syed Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman, daughter Yumnah Afzaal, and Talat Afzaal, 74, failed to survive as an intact and close family involved in their community and their mosque, in a random mass killing meant to target, by all indications, Muslims. That these five people out together as a close family to enjoy a pleasant evening walk became victims of a psychopathic hater was their dire ill fortune.

No one can help feeling moved at the plight of the little boy destined to move through life without those who loved him, guided and nurtured him, and whom he loved unreservedly in return. No one could possibly 'understand' a vile depth of unreasoning hatred so ingrained that the holder of such sentiments could find it in him to plan to kill innocent people, people he didn't personally know, all of whom were vastly superior to the murderer in any and every conceivable metric of humanity.

Police were in consultation with the RCMP and public prosecutors on the potential of laying terrorism charges alongside those of murder. The man, who had sped away after deliberately targeting the family, was arrested nearby the scene of carnage in the parking lot of a mall. Nathaniel Veltman faces four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder in a city reeling with the unfathomable fate that awaited innocent Londoners. At the time of his arrest, the killer was wearing a body-armour-type vest, a man with no prior criminal convictions.

On her balcony, reading, Lindsay Marshall, in an apartment facing the scene of the crash heard a truck :rev its engine "and I looked up right at that point", to see what she thought was a truck striking a mailbox or rigid road sign. "The truck didn't slow down, didn't stop, it just kept going", she recounted. Vehicles began to slow down, people to gather at the scene. Soon a police car arrived. Marshall spoke of watching as a police officer performed CPR on someone lying on the road.

"My jaw dropped as I held my hands over my mouth. Then a couple of metres away, there was another body, lying motionless, and then a third a few metres away from them, and then the little boy."

"It was like a horror movie. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. It's something that you never prepare yourself to witness in your lifetime."

Lena Gabriel, motorist driving toward the scene

"I can't get the sound of the screams out of my head", Paige Martin, a witness to the event said thinking about the victims runs through her mind non-stop. She had stopped at a red light when a large pickup drove past at speed, so close her car shook. "I was shaken up thinking it was an erratic driver", she said. She saw a police officer performing chest compressions on one person, with three others on the ground. 

"When I came to Canada, I came to London and bought a house and he [Syed Afzaal] was the first person I saw and came over with a jug of water and glasses. They were just out for their walk that they would go out for every day", said friend Zahid Khan of the family that had emigrated from Pakistan to Canada 14 years earlier. This was a family whose presence gave much to Canada and they had every expectation that Canada would reciprocate.

Father Syed Afzaal was a physiotherapist, his wife Madiha Salman was completing her doctorate in civil engineering at Western University, while their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah Afzaal was completing Grade 9; her grandmother considered to be a "pillar" of the family. Nine-year-old Faez, the sole survivor of the atrocity will be left with their memory to shadow his future.