Toronto collision leaves 10 dead, 15 injured; suspect in custody

By: Melissa Hudson

Posted: Apr 23, 2018 3:06 PM EST

By Eric Levenson, Julia Jones and Darran Simon, CNN

(CNN) -- Nine people are dead and 16 are injured after the driver of a van plowed into multiple pedestrians in Toronto on Monday, Acting Police Chief Peter Yuen said.

The driver, who authorities said hit pedestrians on a busy street north of midtown Toronto, was in custody after leaving a trail of destruction stretching up to a mile, officials said. The van has been located, Toronto Police media representative Gary Long said.

A US official has confirmed to CNN's Shimon Prokupecz, and sources tell CNN partner CTV, that the suspect is Alek Minassian. He was previously known to Toronto authorities, according to a US law enforcement official briefed on the matter. Toronto police have not released the suspected driver's name.

Authorities also have not said publicly if the collisions were intentional. But a law enforcement official briefed on the situation in Toronto told CNN the incident is believed to be deliberate.

Yuen said police received calls around 1:30 p.m. that a vehicle was driving on Yonge Street, striking pedestrians. The collisions happened in the North York area at the intersection of Yonge Street and Finch Avenue, police said.

The suspect covered between a half-mile and a mile in the vehicle, said Stephen Powell, district chief for Toronto Fire.

Ten patients were transported to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and two were declared dead at the hospital, said Dr. Dan Cass, executive vice-president and chief medical officer. He said five patients were in critical condition and three were in serious condition.

Cass said the patients suffered a range of injuries, some serious.

"This is a time when the community should come together," said Toronto Mayor John Tory, who praised first responders.

Tory said he hopes that Toronto remembers it is a city of inclusion.

In recent years, individuals have driven vehicles into crowds of pedestrians in fatal attacks in major cities including Barcelona, New York, London and Nice, France.

Chelsea Luelo, who works at Capriccio Café, saw the incident and said she thought the driver was hitting people intentionally.

"It looked like he was going straight, halfway through the sidewalk," Luelo said.

Jonathan Mayor, a spokesman for Ryder, said the incident involved one of the company's rental vans.

"We take the safety and security related to the use of our entire fleet very seriously and we are cooperating fully with authorities," Mayor said in an email to CNN.

Toronto police have not released any details about the van.

'Pandemonium broke loose'

Witness Mary Tan shared two photos showing people injured in the incident.

A witness, Raj Irshad, said he saw multiple bodies on the ground.

Irshad works at an Esso gas station about a block from where the van is reported to have driven onto the sidewalk. He said he did not see the initial collision but saw the aftermath. He also saw multiple emergency vehicles in front of his gas station.

One witness told CNN network partner CTV that he was out for a cigarette when he saw the van hit a man walking through the intersection.

"And then, just pandemonium broke loose, just everyone was going crazy," he said. The vehicle was going 60 to 70 kph, he estimated.

One witness, who was driving at the time, said he at first thought the driver was having a heart attack until he saw the white van speeding and striking people on the sidewalk.

"He's just hitting people one by one, going down," the witness said. "It's a nightmare."

Bersat Noorai, the manager of Taftan Kebab, said he saw the white van hit the bench in front of his restaurant. He then ran outside and saw two or three people on the ground.

One man, who appeared to be in his early 20s, was losing a lot of blood, and Noorai said he brought him a towel and water and called 911.

'She's face down on the concrete'

Another witness, Christian Ali, said he came onto the scene and saw bodies and evidence of the destruction.

He first saw a man unconscious at the side of the road and figured it was a terrible accident after also noticing debris from a car.

"Two blocks over, I saw another gentleman unconscious in the middle of the road and a policeman leaning over him holding his neck," Ali said.

About a block up, he saw a woman who looked like she had died.

"She's face down on the concrete, a lot of fluid coming out of her head," Ali said.

"About 20 seconds after that, I came upon a crowd of about 30 people ... probably about five people on the ground, bleeding," he said, adding that pedestrians were performing CPR.

After learning about the incident, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "Our hearts go out to anyone affected. We're obviously going to have more to learn and more to say in the coming hours."

"Prayers for Toronto," Marcus Stroman, a pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays wrote.