Van attack killer has shown no anger toward women throughout evaluations, court hears

TORONTO — A man who drove a van down a Toronto sidewalk and killed 10 people showed no anger toward women during his psychiatric evaluations, court heard Friday.

Dr. John Bradford, one of the country’s foremost forensic psychiatrists, testified that Alek Minassian’s complete lack of anger and emotion is in direct contrast with Elliot Rodger, an American mass murderer he purportedly idolized.

Minassian has pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 of attempted murder.

The defence argues the 28-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., should be found not criminally responsible for his actions on April 23, 2018 due to autism spectrum disorder. His state of mind at the time is the sole issue at trial, which is being held by videoconference due to the pandemic.

After a brief cross examination by the prosecution, Justice Anne Molloy, who is presiding over the case without a jury, took time to ask Bradford several questions.

“Did he ever talk to you about any degree of hatred or rage directed towards women?” the judge asked.

“In my contact with him, he didn’t show any anger whatsoever,” Bradford said.

“I don’t think he expressed any particular hatred, other than in the context of what he focused on with Elliot Rodger and why he followed that.”

Rodger went on a rampage in Isla Vista, Calif., in May 2014, killing six people and injuring 14 others before killing himself.

His “manifesto” and his video before the murders focused on his hatred towards women and has found an audience in the bowels of the internet where he is treated as the forefather of so-called “incels,” men who are involuntarily celibate.

Minassian told police hours after the attack that he killed innocent people as part of an “incel uprising.” In that world, incels are on the bottom rung of society, below alpha males called Chads and the women they sleep with, called Stacys, and below them are “normies,” or normal people.

Minassiand told a police detective he hoped the attack would upend that societal order.

But in his interviews with Bradford, Minassian changed his story.

“He denies that is part of incel although he has been disappointed in the past with his social interactions, but when confronted about being extremely angry, enraged, he denies this now categorically and maintains that he (has) only been disappointed and that he made this up about being enraged,” Bradford wrote in his report.

Bradford said Minassian told him while he was obsessed with the “incel theme,” he was not a follower.

“He talked about that theme, but without much emotion,” said Bradford, who met with Minassian more than 15 times as part of a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.

Minassian also told Bradford his motivation was due to his anxiety about failing at a new job as a computer programmer he was set to begin a week after the attack.

He also said he was motivated by the notoriety the attack would bring, even though he had planned to die in a “suicide-by-cop.”

Then in later interviews, Minassian reverted to the incel uprising as his motivation.

Bradford testified Minassian’s affect was flat through their meetings and he showed no emotion when describing in great detail the attack.

Minassian also lacks empathy, Bradford testified, but he is not psychotic and, therefore, does not meet the test to be found not criminally responsible.

Bradford did leave the door open to a “theoretical” pathway for Minassian to be found not criminally responsible through autism spectrum disorder, but noted he was not of that opinion, partially because he has little experience with that disorder.

He said Minassian suffers from no other disorder, is not and has never been psychotic, is not a psychopath and did not have depression despite the suicide plan and a later suicide attempt in jail.

“This is a unique case of somebody with no autism co-morbidity who carried out a mass homicide and lived who by his own planning would be deceased,” Bradford said.

“I knew that this was going to be unusual. As an expert, I believe my role is to give my opinion and give it as clearly as possible, but also to acknowledge that others may have a different opinion.”

Another psychiatrist testified that Minassian’s autism spectrum disorder left him fixated on mass killings and vulnerable to the ramblings of an American mass murderer.

Dr. Alexander Westphal, an American psychiatrist who is set to testify Monday, is expected to be the lone voice to say Minassian is not criminally responsible for his actions due to autism spectrum disorder.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2020.

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press