Accused in London, Ont., truck attack denies planning to kill Muslim family
Kate Dubinski | CBC News | Posted: October 18, 2023 6:44 PM | Last Updated: October 19, 2023
Crown prosecutor suggests the accused left USBs with his manifesto out for police to find
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Nathaniel Veltman hatched his plan to use a vehicle to attack Muslims over a matter of weeks and was proud he went through with it, Crown prosecutor Jennifer Moser said Wednesday during her cross-examination of the London, Ont., man who drove his truck into a family of five, killing four.
"You were in planning mode, Mr. Veltman," she said in Ontario Superior Court in Windsor, Ont.
"You were planning on using your vehicle to strike pedestrians, and you even had a piece of paper with percentages of the likelihood they would die.
"You intended the outcome of their death, sir ... You knew that crashing your truck with a 200 lbs grill guard would likely end their lives ...You went as fast as you could go."
The 22-year-old is in the witness box for the fourth day at his trial. He's pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and associated terrorism charges, laid because prosecutors allege he was motivated by far-right ideology to kill Muslims.
Four people were killed June 6, 2021, when the truck the accused was driving crashed into the three generations of the Afzaal family — a fact not disputed by the defence. Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parents, Madiha Salman, 44, and Salman Afzaal, 46, and family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed. A nine-year-old boy survived.
Veltman was arrested minutes after the crash at a nearby strip mall parking lot. Data from the black Dodge Ram he was driving shows his gas pedal was 100 per cent depressed for four seconds before the family was struck and that the brake was not applied, another fact not disputed by the defence.
Accused grilled by Crown
The jury has heard that the 22-year-old drove passed the family, made a U-turn, then aimed his car at them.
Testifying in his own defence, Veltman has said he took three grams of psychedelic mushrooms in the early hours of June 5, 2021, a day after the death of his great-grandmother, whom Veltman has at times referred to as his "grandmother."
He said he decided to drive to Toronto that day because it had a large Muslim population and he felt an urge to run over a group of young people, some wearing hijabs, but instead, he drove back to London.
He had a similar urge on June 6 on his way home from work but was able to resist it, he testified.
WATCH | Veltman testifies he's remorseful:
He has said that later that day, he went out to get food and noticed the Afzaal family and could no longer resist the urge to kill.
"You decided to go get food in your truck, knowing you might run into a group of Muslims?" Moser said in her cross-examination.
"You knew that the urge could happen again, but you went out anyway. You knew you were a literal walking time bomb as you were leaving your apartment."
Veltman answered that he thought the possibility was there, but that he thought he would be fine.
He concocted his justification for killing the family — what he called a planned attack to warn other Muslims against moving to white-majority nations and perpetrating what he perceived as crimes against white people — while pacing his jail cell after his arrest, he said. He told the jury he was panicked and nervous when speaking to the police detective who was interrogating him.
Moser didn't buy that.
Accused made plan 'for months,' Crown says
"You had spent a long time thinking about this act," she said. "You started planning an attack in March 2021. You had a long time to think about it. It wasn't an excuse you made up in a couple of hours. It was an ideology you had, a plan you made, for months."
She played a video of the accused in the police interview, his arms crossed over his head and his feet out.
"You are not nervous or panicked, Mr. Veltman," she said. "You are completely relaxed at this point in the interview ... I suggest to you that the way you're sitting, it would be difficult to find a more relaxed position than the one you're in in this chair."
She pointed to a piece of paper found in his apartment that listed speeds and percentages.
"This was research you did at seven or eight that morning," she said referring to June 6. "It's the percentage likelihood of a pedestrian dying if they were struck by a vehicle travelling at different speeds. You had done your research."
Veltman admitted he did that research and wrote the note.
When it came to the attack, Veltman aimed his truck at the family and drove into them as fast as he could, Moser said.
"You did not touch the brake at all before you drove your truck at this family," she said. "The input on the steering wheel shows a minor veer to the left before impact.
"I suggest to you it was because you were aiming. You targeted them for their religion, their faith."
Clothes, beard suggested family was Muslim: Veltman
The accused has said he had identified the family as Muslim because Madiha Salman and Talat Afzaal were wearing traditional Pakistani shirts and Salman Afzaal had a beard.
"You didn't know this family. You didn't know any of your victims," Moser said. "They'd never done anything to you. You ended four of their lives and you left the fifth one severally injured and orphaned."
She also suggested Veltman left USB keys containing his manifesto, entitled "A White Awakening," in plain sight in his apartment, where police could easily find them. Moser said he also asked a taxi driver present at his arrest to "make a video" so that others could see his message of intimidation to the Muslim community.
The accused denied those assertions.
Moser suggested in court that the death of Veltman's great-grandmother, at age 101, prompted him to carry out the crime because the one person who would be disappointed in him if he killed people was gone, but the accused denied that was the case.
He also denied smiling and laughing on the way to police headquarters, saying he was in a "very short-lived, demented hysteria" after the crash.
"It was short-lived relief," he said.
The cross examination is continuing this afternoon.