Police accuse Nathaniel Veltman of defeating a Muslim family in London, Ontario “for their Islamic faith.”
A man accused of defeating a Muslim family in the Canadian city of London, Ontario, this month, killing four people including a teenager, now facing terrorism charges, authorities announced Monday.
The London police service said in a statement that Nathaniel Veltman’s four first-degree murder offenses “constitute terrorist offenses” and that federal and provincial prosecutors had agreed to initiate terrorism proceedings.
Veltman is accused of deliberately hitting five members of the Afzaal family with a pickup truck while they were out for a walk on the evening of June 6.
Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife, Madiha Salman, 44, his 15-year-old daughter, Yumna, and his 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal, died in the attack, while the son of nine years of the couple was seriously injured.
Veltman he also faces a felony of attempted murder, which authorities said Monday also constitutes “terrorist activity.”
The 20-year-old, who filed a writ in court on Monday via video, has yet to file a plea.
Police they said Veltman attacked the family “for their Islamic faith.”
The attack has shaken Muslim communities across Canada, which for years have called for action to address Islamophobia and bigotry, especially after a massive deadly shooting at a mosque in Quebec City in January 2017.
Saboor Khan, a family friend, told the Associated Press that updating the charges against Veltman was “right.”
“The family and community have been terrified and many of us are afraid to leave our home,” Khan said.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), a national advocacy group, said Monday that the terrorism allegations were “a major development,” but would comment on them later.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland also reacted to the new charges and said: “It is very important for us to call it an act of terror … and it is important to identify the terrible threat that white supremacism poses to in Canada and Canadians “.
A funeral for the Afzaal family attracted hundreds of bad guys to the Islamic Center of Southwestern Ontario over the weekend.
Raza Bashir Tarar, Pakistan’s high commissioner in Canada, said during Saturday’s service that the entire nation of Pakistan, where the family was originally from, “stands shoulder to shoulder in this hour of mourning, at this time when our hearts bleed because of the atrocity that this wonderful and wonderful family has gone through ”.
Thousands of followers too left the location where the family died to a mosque 7 km (4.4 miles) away.
Still, many members of Canada’s Muslim community remain frightened. Selma Tobah, a 31-year-old graduate student living in London, he told Al Jazeera last week, many community members feel that “it could have been any of us.”
Requests for concrete action to root out Islamophobia are also growing.
Last week, NCCM called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to hold a National Action Summit on Islamophobia “to chart a path for Canada to end violence against Muslims.”
The country’s Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth, Bardish Chagger, responded to that call on Friday and said the government “would host a series of summits including a National Summit on Islamophobia to coordinate further actions”.
Veltman’s next court date is scheduled for June 21.