Canadian Accused of Killing Muslim Family in Hate Attack Pleads Not Guilty

by Aysha Qamar

A Canadian man who is accused of running down four members of a Canadian Muslim family with his pickup truck because of their religious faith pleaded not guilty to murder on Tuesday.

Prosecutors allege Nathaniel Veltman, 22, smashed into the family in “a planned, premeditated act, motivated by hate” while they were on an evening stroll in London, Ontario.

He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, in connection to what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called at the time a “terrorist attack.”

“(He pleaded) not guilty to five counts, and we chose the jury,” Veltman’s lawyer, Christopher Hicks, told AFP, during the opening of the jury selection.

Three generations of the Afzaal family were killed in the fatal attack when Veltman’s Dodge Ram truck “mounted the curb and struck” them on June 6, 2021, police said.

Husband and wife Salman Afzaal, 46, and Madiha Salman, 44; their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah; and her 74-year-old grandmother, Talat Afzaal, were all killed.

Salman and Madiha’s nine-year-old daughter was seriously hurt in the attack, but survived. She is now an orphan.

According to BBC, Veltman was arrested hours after the attack in a parking lot close to London’s oldest mosque — where the Afzaal family attended.

He was wearing what was described as body armor and a helmet, police said.

Jury selection for the trial has started, prosecutors must prove both the murder charges and motive of anti-Muslim rhetoric.

The Afzaals were killed after a shooting at a mosque in Quebec City left six dead in 2017. The perpetrator of that shooting was not charged with terrorism.

If convicted, Veltman faces life in prison. The Superior Court trial is expected to last about three months.