Quebec Mosque Shooting

bob351 · #1 ● 02-02-2017, 05:31 PM

Happened a few days ago still all over the news here.

6 dead 19 wounded.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...ight-1.3962281

It happened quickly and with a cold precision. When it was over, a trail of blood and bodies covered the downstairs prayer room of Quebec City's busiest mosque.

The evening prayer Sunday at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec began around 7:30 p.m. About 15 minutes later, their prayers done, most of the mosque's members began to leave.

Some stayed behind to chat, others to continue praying.

Rachid Aoume was by the far-side wall, talking with some friends, when he heard something that sounded like a firecracker and breaking glass coming from outside.

He stood up, alarmed at first, but then shrugged it off. Nothing to worry about, he told the others.

But then the sound came again, this time closer, louder. "That's when we realized they were gunshots," Aoume said.

He ran to take cover in a narrow alcove by the minbar, the spot where the imam leads prayer. It is located directly opposite from the two arched entranceways to the prayer room.

Aoume was among the last to reach the alcove. He looked back at the entranceway and saw the attacker shoot three people to his right.

"He was calm," Aoume said. "He said nothing."

On the other side of the room, not far from the shooter, Said Akjour was hiding behind a pillar, making a calculation about the best way to die.

"Either I could die where I was, or I could with my brothers near the [minbar]," Akjour said. "I decided to die with the others."

He made a run for the alcove. But it was already crowded by the time he got there. Akjour was exposed.

"The fact that I ran seemed to stimulate him," Akjour said of the shooter. "He saw me try to escape and shot in that direction."

Akjour felt a bullet tear into his left shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and didn't move. An image of his father flashed through his mind.

"A father should never lose a child," he remembered thinking.

At this point, though the precise timeline is unclear, the shooter appeared to reload his handgun. Akjour watched as he did it quickly, "as if he was well-trained."

Aoume, too, was watching. The shooter stepped back from one entranceway and moved to the other. In the middle of the room was Aoume's brother-in-law, Azzeddine Soufiane, well-known in Quebec City's Muslim community as the owner of a halal grocery store.

Soufiane, according to multiple witnesses, got up and charged the shooter.

"It was like he decided it had to stop," Akjour said. "He saw the scope of what was happening and said I have to do something."

He ran to take cover in a narrow alcove by the minbar, the spot where the imam leads prayer. It is located directly opposite from the two arched entranceways to the prayer room.

Aoume was among the last to reach the alcove. He looked back at the entranceway and saw the attacker shoot three people to his right.

"He was calm," Aoume said. "He said nothing."

On the other side of the room, not far from the shooter, Said Akjour was hiding behind a pillar, making a calculation about the best way to die.

But the shooter was able to get a shot off quickly. Soufiane dropped. Then he was shot several more times.

"I saw that while looking out from the corner," Aoume said.

The shooter then shot several times toward those huddled in the alcove.

And then just as suddenly as it started, the shooting stopped just before 8 p.m. Those who were there are not sure why; one suggested it may have been because the shooter ran out of ammunition.

"He didn't say anything. He did it in cold blood," said Akjour, sitting at his kitchen table, arm in a sling, his six-year-old son playing in the living room.

"He didn't shout, he didn't speak. He shot and then he left."

Alexandre Bissonnette

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...ette-1.3958559

Alexandre Bissonnette, the 27-year-old accused of opening fire on a Quebec City mosque, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder while using a restricted firearm.

During a brief court appearance Monday evening, Bissonnette, wearing handcuffs, frequently cast his eyes toward the ground and avoided turning toward the packed gallery.

He will remain in custody until his next court appearance on Feb. 21.

Provincial police are treating the attack as a terrorist act. RCMP spokeswoman Camille Habel said Bissonnette could later face terrorism-related charges, depending on the outcome of the ongoing investigation.

Six men were killed and five people remain in hospital with injuries.

Two of the surviving victims will need more surgery, while the other three are stable and may be discharged soon. Another 13 people with minor injuries have been released, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

'Introverted young man'

On Monday afternoon, Laval University confirmed that he is a student, and is now barred from all activities effective immediately until all judicial proceedings are over.

His employer, Héma-Québec, issued a statement saying the organization is "shocked" to learn that he was among their employees. Bissonnette was a member of their call centre team.

"As an organization whose primary mission is dedicated to the gift of life, these events have sent a shock wave through the organization," the non-profit agency said.

This screengrab from the suspect's Facebook page, taken before it went offline, shows Alexandre Bissonnette as a child wearing his cadet uniform. (Facebook)

According to Bissonnette's Facebook page, which has since been taken down, Bissonnette is from the Quebec City suburb of Cap-Rouge. He was also a cadet as a child.

Neighbours of Bissonnette's parents said he was renting an apartment with his twin brother near the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, where the shooting took place Sunday evening.

Neighbour Réjean Bussière said Bissonnette was very introverted.

"He's a very closed-off young man," Bussière told CBC's French-language network, Radio-Canada

Only 1 suspected shooter

Another man, Mohamed Belkhadir, was arrested outside the mosque within minutes of the shooting. He was released after police confirmed he was a witness and not involved in the shooting.

He said he had been shovelling snow when he heard gunshots — when they stopped he entered the mosque to call 911.

"I saw the image of someone with a firearm, I didn't know it was police. I thought it was a shooter who'd returned," Belkhadir told Radio-Canada.

The man fled and police arrested him. He was released Monday.

Shortly after noon Monday, provincial police said that man was no longer a suspect, but rather a witness to the attack.

A half-hour after the shooting, Quebec City police Insp. Denis Turcotte said a second man called 911 indicating that he wanted to co-operate in the investigation.

La SQ confirme qu’un seul des individus arrêté hier soir en lien avec l’#attentat de #Québec est considéré comme suspect.

— @sureteduquebec

Turcotte said the man parked about five kilometres from the scene of the shooting, near the bridge to Île d'Orléans, and waited for officers to arrest him.

"He was armed and spoke to us about his acts,'' said Turcotte.

'Pain and anger'

As Bissonnette's name began to circulate online, one Facebook group dedicated to welcoming refugees in the Quebec City area expressed "pain and anger" over the news.

The suspect was "unfortunately known to several activists in Quebec City for his pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist positions at Laval University and on social networks," wrote the Bienvenue aux réfugié.es - Ville de Québec Facebook group.

Bissonnette's Facebook page seemed to confirm those political leanings. The suspect followed several profiles that espouse right-wing ideologies, including that of Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader of France's National Front.

A search was conducted at the home of Bissonnette's parents on du Tracel Street in Cap-Rouge, as well as at a residence on des Quatre-Bourgeois Road, closer to the mosque.

A woman who identified herself as a neighbour of Bissonnette's parents said the suspect had recently moved into an apartment that he was renting with his twin brother, not far from the mosque where the shooting occurred.

"He is a child," she said. "You couldn't find one more calm than that. He never did anything, he always kept to himself. We never heard of anything."

"I saw him last Wednesday; he was arriving at his parents' home. I think he often went there," the neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, told Radio-Canada.

Another neighbour, Réjean Bussière, described Bissonnette as "a young man who is extremely withdrawn."

Bissonnette and his brother were not the kind to bother others, Bussière said, "but they were not social people."

On social media, many took issue with the categorization of Bissonnette as an introvert and a lone wolf, arguing that the suspect was spared of the term terrorist because he is white. Bestselling author J.K. Rowling was one of those voices.

He. Is. A. Terrorist. Not. A. Lone. Wolf. pic.twitter.com/OO3qDGhzwr

— @jk_rowling
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack a "despicable act of terror."

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TheVrist · #2 ● 02-02-2017, 06:19 PM

Let's pin it as a far right white nationalist terror attack, because he "liked" Le'Pen and Trump.

He also liked Hitchens, Dawkins, the pope, "weezer" and the IDF, Israel, feminist movement in Quebec, Marilyn Manson. We could draw a conclusion from any of these diverse likes-

https://archive.is/u2Hex

TheVrist · #3 ● 02-02-2017, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by ianmd3000 ↗

I was so tempted, but I refrained.
Thanks for saying what NEEDS to be said, because I would've said something more inflammatory.

I just like to point out a broader perspective of things- I mean, I'm not going to make my own conclusions. I just know how leftist media is always on a witch-hunt to nab them some white supremacist Nazis...

All while people in their camp burns down a college, destroys business, beats people unconscious, because a Gay, jew, that likes the black snake moan, has a different political opinion then they do.