From the left, Justice Renee Pomerance, Nathaniel Veltman, defence counsel Peter Ketcheson and federal prosecutor Sarah Shaikh attend court at Veltman's trial in Windsor, Ont., on Sept. 11.Alexandra Newbould/The Canadian Press
The man charged with killing four members of a Muslim family in an act of terror motivated by white nationalism demanded that a bystander take out his phone to call police and shoot a video of his impending arrest, his trial heard Tuesday.
Jurors heard an audio recording of the call to 911 placed by a taxi driver who was parked in a shopping mall plaza the day of the June, 2021, crash. Cabbie Azzeddin Jahanghiri testified a Dodge Ram pickup truck, dented and steaming from the engine, pulled up beside him and a man he identified as Nathaniel Veltman told him to make the 911 call.
“It was me that did it, so come arrest me,” Mr. Veltman can be heard to say to the dispatcher during that phone call.
At another point in the call, Mr. Veltman shouts into the phone that he wants everyone to know who he was and what he did.
“What’s your name,” the dispatcher asks.
“Nate Veltman … V-E-L-T-M-A-N,” he replies, adding “I did it on purpose.”
When the call ended, Mr. Jahanghiri testified Mr. Veltman said to him: “Make a movie. Make a movie.”
“I just kind of ignored him,” Mr. Jahanghiri testified.
Five minutes before Mr. Veltman pulled into the parking lot, the Dodge Ram pickup truck he has admitted driving ran into an immigrant family of Pakistani Muslims, killing grandmother Talat Afzaal, 74; parents Salman Afzaal and Madiha Salman, in their 40s; and their daughter Yumnah, 15. A nine-year-old boy survived.
Mr. Veltman, now 22, has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. The Crown contends each of these alleged crimes was motivated by terrorist ideology. It’s the first time the Crown has argued that white nationalism is a terrorist ideology in a Canadian prosecution.
Mr. Veltman has pleaded not guilty.
During his testimony Tuesday, the cab driver described Mr. Veltman as calm and smiling in the parking lot as police squad cars approached. Security video played in court shows the suspect putting his knees on the pavement and placing his hands behind his head, as several officers race to handcuff him and strip him of the body armour he had been wearing.
The London attack at the centre of one of Canada’s most closely watched trials
Mr. Veltman was wearing a T-shirt with a cross on it, and expressed irritation at the cabbie as he was led away.
“ ‘I told you to make a video’ – that’s exactly what he said,” Mr. Jahanghiri testified.
Prosecutors allege Mr. Veltman bought the truck just over two weeks before the attacks with the intent of using it as a weapon against Muslims and immigrants.
Security video played in court earlier this week shows Mr. Veltman driving past the family while they were out for an evening stroll and standing at a pedestrian crossing. The video shows the truck U-turning, accelerating, then hopping the sidewalk and swerving toward the family.
The truck never stopped and continued down the road to London’s Cherryhill Village Mall where Mr. Veltman encountered Mr. Jahanghiri. The cab driver testified he didn’t know what was happening when he first met Mr. Veltman, and that it was only later that he noticed the Dodge Ram truck had blood and human tissue on its bumper and headlights.
When the case opened Monday, Crown prosecutors told a jury they will seek to prove that Mr. Veltman was motivated by a violent white nationalist ideology that has previously motivated large-scale mass murders in Norway and New Zealand.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Renee Pomerance is presiding over the trial, which is anticipated to take two months. She has previously has ruled that it should take place in Windsor and not London.