"Cryptic" message posted on Toronto van suspect's Facebook page
Facebook has confirmed that a message that salutes a community college student who killed six people in 2014 was posted on an account belonging to Alek Minassian, the suspected driver in the Toronto van rampage. The post on Minassian's now-deleted Facebook account salutes Elliot Rodger, who also wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, four years ago.
The post called the killer the "Supreme Gentleman." It also declared: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!"
The 22-year-old Rodger had used the term "incel" -- for involuntarily celibate -- in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically. Like-minded people in internet forums sometimes use "Chad" and "Stacy" as dismissive slang for men and women with more robust sex lives.
Monday's Facebook post mentions that "Private (Recruit) Minassian" is speaking.
Seemingly referring to the post at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, a police official described it as "cryptic," and said the suspect used a rented van in the deadly incident Monday.
"As has been reported in the media, the accused is alleged to have posted a cryptic message on Facebook minutes before he began driving the rented van," Homicide Detective Sergeant Graham Gibson said Tuesday.
Facebook said it has deleted the suspect's Facebook account, saying "There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts."
Gibson said that women accounted for most of the victims of the deadly van incident but that it's not yet known if they were deliberately targeted. He said the 10 people killed and 14 injured were "predominantly" women but said he has no indication yet that Minassian was directing his rented van into women as he plowed into pedestrians in a north Toronto neighborhood on Monday.
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said "all the lanes are open with this investigation."
Gibson said he is prohibited from discussing any possible motive because Minassian has been charged in the case.
Who is Elliot Rodger?
Elliot Rodger went on a bloody spree across the college community of Isla Vista in May 2014, ultimately killing six students from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and injuring 13 others before killing himself once he was cornered by police. He had gone online to find ways to kill silently with a knife just before stabbing his first three victims -- one 94 times -- as he embarked on the rampage, according to police.
Stab and slash marks on a sheet and several pillows suggest Rodger had rehearsed the killings and then embarked on the attack, firing dozens of rounds from a semi-automatic handgun and plowing into pedestrians with his BMW.
Rodger had left a rambling, 137-page manifesto titled "My Twisted World" in which he said he wanted to wage a "Day of Retribution" against women. In a final handwritten journal entry on May 23, 2014, the day of the carnage, he wrote: "This is it. In one hour I will have my revenge on this cruel world. I HATE YOU ALLLL! DIE."
Authorities said Rodger uploaded a YouTube video on his laptop in which he said he'd "take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you" -- especially women who shunned him and left him a virgin.