Notorious Incel van killer speaks

Today, the first interview between Alek Minassian and Detective Rob Thomas, which took place the same day as the infamous 2018 van attack on Yonge Street, Toronto, has be released.

The attack took place on April 23 and quickly went down in history as one of Toronto’s worst attacks, leaving 10 dead and 16 injured in a matter of minutes. Minassian was arrested by a single police officer after he crashed his van due to a drink spilling on the windshield. He had initially tried to commit “suicide by cop” by tempting the officer to shoot him, using a wallet as a prop gun, but he was taken in without injury.

Following the attack, Minassian internet activity was quickly uncovered and it was revealed to the public and the world that the killer was an active participant in the incel (involuntary celibate) community on 4Chan. It was clear from his posts that Minassian had been planning the attack for some time as a form of retribution against women who didn’t want to sleep with him and society biproxy.

More specifically on his motive, in the newly released interview, Minassian says he was motivated by Elliot Rodger to rebel against society for his own inability to find a sexual partner. He took further solace and encouragement from people he found on Reddit and, more intensely, 4Chan.

“Elliot Rodger decided to essentially commit an uprising — a beta uprising if you will… against the Chads and Staceys,” Minassian said.

Chad is a term used in the incel communicate to denote men who exude stereotypical Alpha male behaviour. The term is frequently used in memes where the Chad is accompanied by a list of traits and juxtaposed with a downtrodden incel and his list of contrasting traits. Stacey is a term which denotes the kinds of women who are attracted to physically strong, more aggressive, and/or generally more masculine men.

“[Incel] is basically a movement of angry incels such as myself who are unable to get laid, therefore we want to overthrow the Chads… which would force the Staceys to be forced to reproduce with the incels,” Minassian said.

“We discussed our frustrations at society and being unable to get laid and we were plotting a certain timed strike… on society in order to confuse and shake the foundations just to put all the ‘normies’ in a state of panic.”

Regarding the time of the attack, Minassian said he wanted to host it after receiving his bachelor’s degree in computer science because it would be “more symbolic”. Like Roger’s, this is likely due to some sense of entitlement and narcissism, a demonstration to the world that he was successful and, thus, by all means should have had sexual access to women, yet nonetheless did not because of society or the state of people or some other cliché.

Such clichés riddle his conversation with Thomas, often intentionally warping each interaction he describes into stereotypical scenes of an emasculated Beta male competing against Alpha males in the mating game. His recollections are entirely devoid of nuance.

“I walked in and attempted to socialize with some girls. However, they all laughed at me and held the arms of the big guys instead,” Minassian said.

“I felt very angry… that they would because I consider myself a supreme gentleman… I was angry that that they would give their love and affection to obnoxious brutes.”

Supreme gentleman is a loaded term Minassian uses — a wink and a nod to Elliot Roger who self-described as the “supreme gentleman”.

“I started thinking that it’s unfair that certain guys will not get any love and affection from girls… such as me that are — that are very nice and acting gentlemanly.”

Many were unsure as to why Minassian chose the less populated section of Yonge St. for his attack, rather than driving to Dundas Square during the afternoon where he would have easily had the most targets.

Based on the interrogation, this was Minassian’s original intent. However, when he arrived on Yonge St., his bloodlust bubbled to the surface and he simply stepped on the gas the second he saw pedestrians.

“As soon as I saw there were pedestrians… I just decided to go for it,” he said.

“As soon as [the light] turned green, I started going… I allow the van to collide with them… Some people get knocked down on the way. Some people roll over the top of the van.”

Minassian also told the interrogator that his attack, as well as Roger’s, are part of a larger incel rebellion against society and the ‘normies’ (people who are apolitical or appear to lack critical cultural or political knowledge).

Despite his own inadequacy being a theme throughout their conversation, Minassian says that he finds himself and others like him superior to the men that women, by his own admission, clearly prefer. According to Minassian, part of his community’s goal is to make the Chads, Staceys, and normies acknowledge their lesser place in the world and the incels’ inherently superior status. He said his community would like to “subjugate [normies] in order to make them understand… that our type is the more superior one.”

Towards the end of the interview, Minassian was told that he had killed 10 people and injured many more. He was asked what he thought about that.

“I feel like I accomplished my mission,” Minassian said.