I'll be following as the trial of Alek Minassian starts today. Minassian killed 10 people, mostly women, driving a van down Yonge street in April 2018. He claimed to be an "incel." He didn't deny killing people, but will argue he's not criminally responsible

some background on how Minassian told police he "would inspire future masses to join me in my uprising" and was angry he couldn't get laid: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjwdk3/man-accused-of-toronto-van-attack-says-he-corresponded-with-other-incel-killers

about 45 min of technical difficulties now as the trial is taking place over zoom. Minassian is facing 10 first-degree murder charges and 16 counts of attempted murder

the clerk is now reading out the charges, including names of all of the people Minassian killed or tried to kill, which is taking some time. I've never covered a trial with so many victims before.

Minassian has pleaded not guilty to all counts and will argue he's not criminally responsible

the Crown is now going to start reading an agreed statement of facts; said other evidence will include Minassian's interview w/ police and psychology experts

Minassian reserved the van on April 4—about three weeks before the attack

just before he started the attack he wrote on Facebook a message that said in part “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"

when he drove into first group of people at Yonge and Finch he "accelerated over the top of the victims" and didn't stop or try to help

CW: graphic

first two people who died suffered from "blunt impact chest trauma"; several people suffered severe injuries such as broken jaws, bleeding brains.

court played footage showing Minassian driving over 83-year-old Geraldine Brady, killing her. Then he struck down Chul Min Kang at 47 km an hour, who was dragged under the van and died

i'm not going to tweet all the details of how he killed people as they're very graphic. the point that keeps getting stressed is he never stopped or slowed down to help people.

images showing shattered gates/bus shelters etc on the sidewalk indicating how fast he was going

a sad detail - cars kept honking trying to warn pedestrians to get out of the way

at one point he crossed over a median, leaving chunks of the van falling off

at the intersection of Park Home ave and Yonge, he drove into another six people, including Anne Marie D'Amico, 30, who died. Beverly Smith, 81, suffered catastrophic injuries, including both legs needing to be amputated.

he continued to Mel Lastman Square, where he struck three people, killing Dorothy Sewell 80 and Andrea Bradden, 33.

Minassian was driving fast, directly at people, and sometimes veered out of his way to hit people.

court is in recess for lunch, will be back at 1:15 PM

we are back, and Crown is now going over how Minassian was arrested. He said he said a gun and said "kill me now, shoot me" but he didn't have a gun. He was pointing something at a cop but it was a wallet.

the total distance of the rampage was 2.57 km, with Minassian driving on sidewalks for 1.2 km of that

Crown just showed pics of the van, badly damaged, the front was completely mangled.

Minassian agrees that he intended to kill those people, "that the murders were planned and deliberate." same for people he injured. only outstanding issue is criminal responsibility.

now moving onto videotaped interview w Minassian and police, which is hours long.

as interview starts, Minassian tells detective he's feeling "pretty good" but "a little shaken"

In the interview, Detective Rob Thomas comes across cordial, saying he'd like Minassian to speak from the heart and be respectful. Asking him if he remembers being read his rights.

Minassian, being asked about knowing his rights, said "I used to watch a lot of CSI."

Minassian tells detective his understanding of first-degree murder is premeditated and "in cold blood."

back to video footage of police interview. Minassian asked to see lawyer and now refusing to answer a series of questions, including about psychological medications he's on and if he has special needs

he won't answer questions about friends or having a girlfriend

Minassian says he has Canadian military experience. After the attack, @BMakuch broke a story on that: https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xkjgg/exclusive-toronto-van-attack-suspect-alek-minassian-was-a-member-of-the-canadian-army

Minassian tells cop: "I was interested in learning how to use weapons, specifically large guns… such as assault rifles." Says he never made it far enough in military training to use guns

Minassian complaining video game Call of Duty is unrealistic: "the logistics of how the weapons are fired are not realistic in real life."

Minassian says he's a "hardcore gamer" who spends 5 hrs a day playing games

Minassian is saying he didn't have difficulties w/ friends or "girls." "I'm attracted to (them)" meaning girls; won't say if he's ever had a relationship with a woman

Minassian: "I am a bit upset that they choose to date obnoxious men instead of gentlemen."

Minassian says Halloween 2013 "I walked in and attempted to socialize with some girls, however they all laughed at me and held the arms of the other guys instead." He said it made him angry

Minassian now telling detective about various incel 4chan message boards he's a part of. "I know of several other guys over the internet who feel the same way but I would consider them too cowardly to act on their anger."

he says being involuntarily celibate is "especially painful for young males."

Minassian said he joined 4chan on May 23, 2014. "I remember there was a very significant day. That was when Elliot Rodger decided to commit a beta uprising against the chads and the stacys."

Minassian says he follows "a movement of angry incels such as myself who are unable to get laid and therefore we want to overthrow the chads.. forcing the stacys to be forced to reproduce with incels." Says Rodger founded the movement.

Minassian: "We were planning certain timed strikes on society in order to confuse and shake our nations." Said he wanted to put normies in a “state of panic”—aka anyone considered to be “normal by the unfair standards of society.”

says he wanted to imprison/subjugate "normies" so they "acknowledge the incels or the pepe the frog types as the more superior ones"

detective chuckles, "I find you very interesting and I find this fascinating."