A taxi driver who encountered a young man minutes after he allegedly intentionally drove his pickup truck into a Muslim family of five, killing four, said the man was laughing as he was arrested.
The family of five were Salman Afzaal, 46; his wife Madiha Salman, 44; their daughter Yumna, 15; their son Fayez, 9; and Madiha Salman’s mother, 74. Police say a man driving a black pickup truck at a high speed ran them down as they waited, killing all of them but Fayez who is in the hospital recovering from serious but not life-threatening injuries.
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Shortly after, in a mall parking lot 7 kilometres away, London police arrested 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman. They have since charged him with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. Police, London’s mayor, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have all said that this was an attack driven by hate and the family was targeted for being Muslim. The RCMP is collaborating with London police and terror charges may be filed, according to a local detective. However, police have been quiet on details about the alleged perpetrator and the incident.
So far, Veltman has no known far-right or criminal group links. Friends describe him as a quiet and religious man who didn’t openly espouse racist ideology.
But a witness to his arrest creates a disturbing picture. Hassan Savehilaghi, the president of Yellow Taxi London, told VICE World News one of his drivers interacted with Veltman shortly after the hit and run. The taxi driver was parked in a mall parking lot and was having a smoke when a black pickup truck pulled up right behind his cab even though the parking lot was empty. Savehilaghi, who first spoke to the London Free Press about this, said he is speaking for his employee, whom is reportedly Muslim, because the employee was traumatized by Sunday’s events.
Savehilaghi said Veltman then began aggressively addressing the cab driver, telling him “to call the police because he killed somebody.” Savehilaghi said the driver noticed the front of the pickup truck was “severely damaged with a lot of blood.” According to Savehilaghi, the cab driver called the police, but as he was talking to the operator he noticed a police car driving by and ran to flag it down. The cop pulled into the parking lot, and soon, more cruisers arrived and began the arrest.
The suspect “was laughing the entire time that he was taken out of his vehicle,” said Savehilaghi. “He was chanting some sort of slogans, but (the cab driver) couldn’t exactly hear what. He had a military helmet on his head and an armoured vest police took from him.”
“While he was laughing, he turned his head towards my colleague and told him to record this,” said Savehilaghi. Savehilaghi said his driver said that Veltman’s T-shirt may have had a swastika on it, which he has also told several other media outlets.
VICE World News could not independently confirm the claim and police would not provide comment about it. The London Free Press reported a second witness, a mall employee, corroborated the taxi driver’s version of events.
Friends told VICE World News Veltman was raised in the small town of Strathroy, Ontario, but currently resided in London where he was living in a small apartment and studying. He moved to the larger city around six months ago to attend Fanshawe College. For the past several years he worked part-time at Gray Ridge Egg Farms and was working as recently as last weekend. The farm has since distanced itself from Veltman in a short statement.
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Veltman had a relatively small online footprint under his legal name. He had a Facebook page that was deleted by the social media company shortly after the charges were announced.
Neighbours in his apartment building told the London Free Press he was rather introverted and spent most of his time playing video games. In some instances, he would fight with neighbours because he was loud.
Friends of Veltman confirmed to VICE World News that he was into video games, and said he liked outdoor activities such as Airsoft—a game where you use replica guns to shoot opposing players with small pellets. One friend said he owned a vest he used for Airsoft that looks like a bulletproof vest. Police would not confirm if the vest Veltman was wearing was an Airsoft vest because “the matter is currently before the courts.”
Multiple friends told VICE World News that Veltman had “a lot of trauma in his past” but would not go into detail about it.
Those who worked with Veltman described him as a gentle and religious man who was home-schooled. Arman Moradpourian, who is of Iranian descent, worked with Veltman for several years and described them as being close, and said he had never heard Veltman comment on his background or of him being raised Muslim. He said that Veltman was able to quote passages of the Bible from memory.
London police have not yet released a mugshot of Veltman.
Multiple friends said as far as they knew Veltman was not associated with any far-right or extremist groups—London police, and other authorities, have yet to link Veltman to any group. Evan Balgord, the executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, told VICE World News he and his organization are actively looking into the case. He said everyone he has spoken to—including journalists working on the case and people who knew Veltman—do not know how Veltman’s “head got filled with hate in the first place, and at this point I don’t think we’re going to be able to start answering that question until the police are more forthcoming.”
“We need to know what media and content may have filled his head with hate, and hold those people responsible,” he added.
Balgord said the Canadian Anti-Hate Network is calling for an inquiry into the incident, similar to what happened after the Christchurch, New Zealand, massacre that left 51 people dead.
Moradpourian said it’s been a little over a year since he hung out with Veltman but recently ran into him and nothing seemed off. Moradpourian claimed that Veltman was not a very good driver. Another friend, who recently had driven with Veltman, told the London Free Press he was having trouble with his truck’s steering.
Moradpourian and his coworkers are struggling to make sense of what happened.
“I want them to release a video of him in his own words explaining to his friends and family why and how the fuck he did this,” said Moradpourian.
“The whole situation is terrible. That poor child has to grow up not knowing why this happened,” he added. “I’m deeply disturbed that someone that was a very close friend could do something that terrible.”
The charges against Veltman have yet to be proven in court.
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