Ottawa: The Canadian man who slammed his truck into four members of a family in June, 2021 was ‘hunting for Muslims to kill’, the prosecution told a court, news agency AFP reported.
Nathaniel Veltman, now 22, staged the heinous crime in London, Ontario killing Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah and her grandmother Talat Afzaal, 74.
A nine-year-old boy, who survived injuries from the truck attack, has been left orphaned.
Veltman, however, has not pleaded guilty to the murders he is accused of but prosecutors argued that they were ‘premeditated’.
The jury for the first in Canada has been asked to consider a terrorism motive stemming from white supremacy.
The defense acknowledged Veltman’s crime and requested for lesser charge of manslaughter.
Prosecutor Fraser Ball reportedly said a ‘terrorist manifesto’ written by Veltaman was found on his computer.
He advocated white nationalism in his writing and talked about his hate for Muslims.
That day Nathaniel Veltman, wearing body armour and helmet, passed Afzaal family on a London street in his pick-up truck.
He turned around the truck and jumped the curb accelerating the vehicle ramming into the family.
When arrested at a nearby parking lot, Veltman reportedly told police that he wanted to ‘send a strong message’ against Muslim immigration.
Defense lawyer Christopher Hicks told the court that Veltman suffered mental disorders and ‘depression and anxiety’ from childhood traumas.
Christopher Hicks said that Veltman had consumed three grams of hallucinogenic psilocybin mushrooms ahead of the attack.
The drug according to Hicks put Veltaman in a dream or surreal state leaving his brain in ‘turmoil’, feeling detached and disconnected.
Veltman is likely to be handed life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder.