The Derangement of an Estranged Mind

"It [the black pick-up truck] was damaged with blood."

"When they [police] got him [multiple-murder suspect] out of the vehicle, he was laughing." 

:He's really traumatized [the cabbie who had experienced seeing the accused in a mass murder atrocity in London, Ontario drive up to where his cab was parked]. It is terrifying. You're all to yourself."

Hassan Savehilaghi, president, Yellow Taxi London

Nathaniel Veltman, 20, in a sketch from his appearance via video from the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre on Thursday. (Sketch by Pam Davies)

 

So traumatizing that the man hasn't returned to work yet, taking time off to collect himself. He had conveyed what he had seen and experienced to his supervisor at Yellow Taxi London. And asked Hassan Savehilaghi to speak on his behalf. He had been parked outside a mall, taking a coffee break on Sunday. The cabbie, seeing the front end of the pickup truck bloodied had the impression the vehicle was likely in a hit-and-run. He called 911. Still speaking with a police dispatcher, the cabbie saw a cruiser passing and ran to flag it down.

Almost simultaneous to this officer pulling into the parking lot, police reinforcements arrived expeditiously to make an arrest of the man who was seen to be wearing what looked like a bulletproof vest, topped by a headpiece resembling a military helmet. The cabbie felt certain he had seen swastikas on the helmet. And he definitely saw, he told his supervisor, that the man whom the police invited to exit the truck, laughed, asking the cabbie to record his arrest.

"Nate is not a radical terrorist. He is nothing like that. He is not an Islamophobe. That's not who this kid is."

"He wasn't an extreme Christian. He never seemed to hate people. He never said anything hateful. It seems completely out of his character."

"Nate was a very close friend and never said anything bad to me."

A friend, originally from the Middle East

"[Nate] never said anything 'hateful' about any groups."

"He's Christian and has a great relationship with God. He was always pretty calm toward other people."

"He seemed broken up over it [the death of a family member] on Friday. That's the last time I saw him."

"He's not a violent guy. He's a bit high-strung sometimes, but other than that, he's a good guy. He gets along with everybody at work."

Another friend and co-worker

"The management and staff of Grey Ridge Eggs were shocked and saddened to learn late Monday afternoon that Nathaniel Veltman ... has been arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder."

"We join our community in expressing our condemnation of this violent attack and offer our heartfelt sympathy to the family and the Muslim community."

William Gray, chief executive, Gray Ridge Eggs

A memorial at the scene of the attack, at the intersection of Hyde Park Road and South Carriage Road in London, Ont., after a Muslim family was hit by a truck. Four of the five died. (Greg Bruce/CBC)

 

That a violently horrific event took place in London, Ontario on Sunday is indisputable. A family of five people, out on their regular daily evening walk on a balmy late-spring evening had stopped at an intersection for the traffic light to change so they could cross the street. As they stood there, 46-year-old Salman Afzaal, 44-year old Madiha Salman, 15-year-old Yumna, 74 year-old Talat Afzaal -- parents, daughter, grandmother, among whom walked 9-year-old Fayez, a black truck appeared as though out of nowhere, sped over the curb and directly hit the family. 

 

The little boy, Fayez, the only survivor, though seriously injured will be in hospital for quite some time.

 

The driver, a 20-year-old man known by his neighbours to be an introvert, living alone in his unit, a white man who played video games with the sound on loud, at all hours, sufficiently so to annoy another neighbour, mother of a young child, disturbed enough by the noise to repeatedly demand he be more considerate of others. Typical behaviour for a young man, actually. He is the man who was arrested and charged with four counts of murder, another of intent to murder. 

 

And because the family was Pakistani-Canadian, members of the London Muslim community. collective minds leaped forward to a targeted slaughter of those of the Islamic faith. Quite possibly they were a random choice because they just happened to be there at that unfortunate time. Victims-in-waiting for a a final chapter of their lives brought to them by a possibly diseased mind.

 

Everyone, from the police service, the city's mayor, news media, the provincial premier and the prime minister instantly condemned Islamophobia for another terrorist attack by a white supremacist. Condemnation was gravely asserted, communities across Ontario commiserated not only over an incomprehensible act of mass murder, but one that targeted Muslims. A horrible, inexplicable act of hatred by someone tainted with Islamophobia. 

 

 

Paranoia and fear and victimhood expressed from within the Muslim community. From representatives of the London mosque, Muslim community members, people interviewed in the street, trembling with apprehension and terror that Canada, and London where the Muslim community has long settled is no longer safe for people of the Islamic faith. Canada, a racist country. People spoke of having left Pakistan where their lives were endangered as Muslims, for haven in Canada, a free and equal country. 

Muslims fearful of life in Pakistan, a Muslim country? Finding that Canada, after all, is not the beacon of hope they had sought and gained? In Pakistan Christians are sentenced to death should they defame Islam or Prophet Mohammad. There are minor Muslim sects which the dominant Sunni Muslim majority view with contempt and hatred and who are persecuted in Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan. Perhaps this is what drove those who spoke of emigrating from Pakistan for personal safety.

They did find the right country to offer them a new life. Canada is not a racist country. It was just that, at one time, but it is no longert. There are among Canadians as there are everywhere in the world people who are bigoted racists, people who hate those not like themselves -- people of colour, people of different backgrounds, religions, cultures, heritage. But by and large Canadians are tolerant and accepting of others. Much of that lies in the very fact that Canada is basically a country of immigrants; first, second, third generation.

There exists in all societies, sociopaths, psychopaths, people with severe mental illness, some of whom act on unpleasant impulses, some of whom become dangerous to themselves and to others. This man responsible for the death of four good people, talented, highly educated, a credit to their values and religion appears not to have been a hater, merely an introvert and possibly a severely troubled one. No one saw in him a potential killer. Reality is that somehow he became one.

What is passing strange is the leap to judgement over instantly assessing the carnage that ensued as the work of an Islamophobe. Strange, in that whenever an Islamist act of carnage, a terrorist atrocity takes place, authorities go to great pains to warn not to attribute such acts as reflective of Islam; fair enough, nor to characterize it as an act of Islamist terrorism, until that it indeed is, can no longer be denied. Yet here, in this dreadful instance, the leap to condemn an Islamophobic act of terror was instant.

One of Nathaniel Veltman's friends who found it incomprehensible that he could be capable of such violence, who attested to his never having expressed contempt or hatred for any identifiable group on religious, ethnic or cultural grounds, spoke of having been in his new Dodge Ram with him, when the steering seemed off. He was experiencing difficulties with the steering of his vehicle. "I actually drove with him on Thursday", his friend and co-worker said. 

There is much yet to know about this miserable event that deprived four people of their lives, that deprived a little boy of his sister, mother, father and grandmother. As for the military-style 'helmet' and the 'armoured' vest the man was wearing when he was arrested -- earlier on Sunday during a day shift when he showed up for work before the fatal attack that would take place that night, Veltman was involved in a competitive shooting game somewhat like paintball, using soft pellets.

A line of police officers look for evidence at the scene of a car crash in London, Ontario on Monday, June 7, 2021. Police in London, Ont., say four people have died after several pedestrians were struck by a car Sunday night. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Geoff Robins

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.

 

Rehabilitating Jihadists

"I was on the bus coming southbound over London Bridge. We had just pulled away from the bus stop when the bus came to a sudden stop, because there were people running across the bridge into the road, sort of looking over their shoulders and filming behind them."
"It looked like there was a fight going on ... people tussling with each other. And then you realize it was police wrestling with one tall bearded man. I had my baby with me, so I moved her behind the stairwell to be safe. Then there was two shots or two loud pops. I think they were gunshots."
"[I saw the attacker lying on the ground and pulling his coat back, revealing] some sort of vest underneath. The police then really quickly moved backwards."
Karen Bosch, London stabbing aftermath witness

"I jumped in and kicked him [the knife-assailant] in the head to make him release his knife. A few others did so."
"He was shouting 'get off me, get off me'."
Stevie Hurst, London tour guide

"Our Counter Terrorism detectives will be working 'round the clock to identify those who have lost their lives, to support all the victims and their families."
"We are also working at full tilt to understand exactly what has happened and whether anyone else was involved."
London police chief Cressida Dick

"I ... want to pay tribute to the extraordinary bravery of those members of the public who physically intervened to protect the lives of others."
"This country will never be cowed, or divided, or intimidated by this sort of attack."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

A police officer cordons off a street close to the scene of Friday's deadly stabbings at London Bridge. (Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE)

Police Chief Cressida Dick might want to have a conversation with the head of MI5. Which was ostensibly tracking the knifer, a known Islamist terrorist whose early release from a lengthy prison sentence for conspiring to bomb on behalf of al Qaeda, the London Stock Exchange, allowed him to attend a workshop designed to guide wannabe terrorists such as he back from the dark to the light taking place at Fishmongers' Hall, which he used as a launching point for his obviously planned knife attacks.

Earlier this month Britain had decided, likely on the advice of its Intelligence services, to lower the national alert status from "severe" to "substantial", the lower rating not necessarily an opportunity to relax, but that the terror threat level in the U.K. rated somewhat less vigilance. While the new rating still judged an attack to be likely, it was not quite so much as the previous level. One step behind the mindset of those who fester in bleak hatred, anxious to kill innocents to prove to themselves and others that jihad is serious business, downgrading aside.

Uzman Khan, the 28-year-old from Birmingham, had more all-encompassing plans than merely stabbing unfortunate passersby in central London; he envisaged his grand role in co-sponsoring a "terrorist military training facility" for the greater glory of Islamist jihad. What he is now known for is killing two people, wounding three others, while wearing a mock suicide belt. His victim count is remarkably high, but would have been far more so, had it not been for the response of witnesses to his attack.

Witnesses were widely praised for intervening in the attack  
@HLOBlog/Twitter/PA Wire

One man had hauled down from the wall at Fishmongers' Hall a narwhal tusk, a long, straight,  twisted spiral of a 'tooth', reminiscent of a Unicorn's fabled horn, meaning to use it as a cudgel as he responded to the attack. Khan was wearing an ankle bracelet as part of his pre-release conditions, and presumably he was being tracked. That he was able to arm himself, plan and mount an attack of this magnitude in a public place surely means that he wasn't being monitored as closely as he should have been.

While this can be viewed as a fault of Intelligence services, it can also be viewed from the perspective of staff shortages. As many people on staff to do the required due diligence to ensure that none such as he run amok, terrorizing and slaughtering, there will never be sufficient numbers for the job at hand. Polls taken in Great Britain attest to the large number of sympathizers among the much larger number of British Muslims who feel violence in the name of Islam and its mission to jihad is perfectly acceptable.

As for the proposed "terrorist military academy", in the case of Khan, his Pakistani-born family proves that old adage of the apple never falling far from the tree. Khan's family owns land in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan geography between India and Pakistan that has been a flashpoint for conflict since India was partitioned for the creation of Pakistan in 1947. A mosque was built on the land and plans were to proceed to "establish and operate a terrorist military training facility" there.

Khan busied himself with the thought of producing "more serious and effective terrorists". Charges against the man and another suspect were of attending operational meetings, fundraising and preparing to travel abroad for the purpose to "engage in training for acts of terrorism", earning him a 16-year-sentence, which British jurisprudence obviously saw fit to reduce by half, giving him early pre-release and the opportunity to practise what he was so eager to preach.

One of the people he stabbed to death was involved as a university graduate student with the Cambridge University conference on prison rehabilitation, which Khan was instructed to attend. For his troubles as a course coordinator for Leaning Together, a prisoners' rehabilitation program hosting the conference at Fishmongers' Hall, Jack Merritt became a sacrifice to Islam, making his killer a martyr whose death and daring exploits in murdering those who attempted to help him, a hero in his native Pakistan.

Usman Khan appeared as case study in a report by Learning Together

In the event, as things played out, when the bystanders to this London stabbing atrocity tackled the knife attacker to bring him down and remove his knife, the police arrived to take charge. They hauled one of the courageous witnesses off the prostrate Khan who then revealed the fake suicide belt he was wearing. Its revelation caused his death. Police shot him dead to stop him from detonating the bomb vest, and completed his mission to become a martyred hero of Islam