A publication ban has been lifted on the police interview with the man accused of killing 10 people in the 2018 Toronto van attack.
The transcript and video of the four-hour-long interview were released Friday following a successful legal challenge by several media organizations to have the ban lifted.
In the hours after the deadly rampage, Alek Minassian told Toronto police Det. Rob Thomas he was part of a community of “involuntarily celibate” me who refer to themselves as incels.
He described himself as a 25-year-old virgin seeking retribution for years of sexual rejection and ridicule by women.
“On Halloween of 2013, I was attending a house party and I walked in and attempted to socialize with some girls. However, they all laughed at me and held the arms of the big guys instead,” he said. “I felt very angry that they would because I considered myself a supreme gentleman. I was angry that they would give their love and affection to obnoxious brutes.”
Minassian said he found like-minded men on social platforms like Reddit and 4chan. He said the group plotted against the alpha males in society, known as Chads, and the women who dated them, known as Stacys.
“It’s basically a movement of angry incels such as myself who are unable to get laid. Therefore we want to overthrow the Chads which would force the Stacys to be forced to reproduce with the incels,” he told police.
Despite engaging in online chats about the incel movement for roughly five years, Minassian didn’t plan an attack until about a month before the Yonge St. incident.
When Det. Thomas asked Minassian why he picked the location of Yonge and Finch, he said he chose Yonge St. because it is a busy area. Once he saw the sidewalks were full of pedestrians, Minassian said he “just decided to go for it.”
Ten people were killed and 16 others injured as a rental van plowed down the sidewalk around noon on April 23, 2018. Eight women and two men died in the attack.
Minassian told police he only stopped the van because someone’s drink splashed on the windshield.
Minassian then got out of the vehicle and was faced with a lone police officer. He said he pointed his wallet at the officer in hopes it would be confused for a gun and he would be fatally shot.
Video of the encounter was captured by witnesses and widely shared online. Minassian was eventually ordered to the ground and arrested.
He faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
Minassian will face a judge-alone trial in February of next year.
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