Nathaniel Veltman, 22, was sentenced on Thursday to five life sentences after he deliberately hit a Muslim family in Ontario with his truck in 2021, killing all but one, according to media reports from Friday.
Veltman was found guilty by a jury in November of four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.
46-year-old Salman Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their daughter Yumna Afzaal, 15, and Afzaal’s 74-year-old mother Talat Afzaal were killed in the attack. The only survivor was a nine-year-old son who was seriously injured, according to the BBC.
“All innocence was robbed from him that day,” Sayeda Sidra Jamal, a relative of the family, said about the orphaned son, the source reported. “Will someone else target us? Dehumanize us? Hurt us? Kill us?”
Why were the Afzaal-Salman family targeted by Veltman?
Veltman targeted the family after discovering Talat Afzaal and Madiha Salman wearing traditional Pakistani dresses, according to the BBC.
Abdullah Alzureiqi and his daughter Hala say a prayer at the fatal crime scene where a man driving a pickup truck jumped the curb and ran over a Muslim family in what police say was a deliberately targeted anti-Islamic hate crime, in London, Ontario, Canada June 7, 2021. (credit: CARLOS OSORIO/REUTERS)
After killing the family, Veltman reportedly flashed an ‘ok’ symbol, a symbol coopted by white supremacists, to arresting officers.
Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance said that Veltman “was seeking a place in the spotlight” when he attacked the family.
“It is my hope, the sense of fear and intimidation won’t be a lasting message of these actions,” she said during his sentencing on Thursday, according to the London Free Press newspaper.
The case is the first time a Canadian jury was asked to hear legal arguments about white supremacist terrorism, the BBC reported.
Judge Pomerance rejected Veltman’s claims that the murder had been committed after using magic mushrooms, claiming that Veltman “drew his rage from internet sources” as evidenced by an online document Veltman worked on for a month before the killings.
“The tentacles of hate can reach a broad audience when they are only a click away,” the judge said.
Nearly 70 victim impact statements were read at the trial, including that of the surviving son.
The boy was cited by the BBC as having said that he was “very sad at the fact I can’t talk to my family anymore and make new memories with them.
“I will have to get the metal plate in my leg removed which will be painful and I will have to learn how to walk again.
“You may think that your siblings are really annoying, and to be honest I thought the same about Yumnah, but when they leave you would love to fight with them one last time.”
