Update: Police identify the 10 innocent victims killed in Toronto van attack

Apr 28 2018, 2:01 am

Toronto Police Homicide Inspector Bryan Bott and Ontario Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer have given an update on the ongoing Toronto van attack, which includes confirming the identities of the 10 people killed in the rampage.

According to Bott, as of Friday, all victims have been identified and their families have been contacted. The deceased include eight women and two men ranging in age from 22 to 94.

Here are the names of all deceased victims:

  1. Beutis Renuka, 45, Toronto
  2. Andrea Bradden, 33, Woodbridge
  3. Geraldine Brady, 83, Toronto
  4. So He Chung, 22, Toronto
  5. Anne Marie D’Amico, 30, Toronto
  6. Mary Elizabeth Forsyth, 94, Toronto
  7. Ji Hun Kim, 22, a student from South Korea living in Toronto
  8. Dorothy Sewell, 80, Toronto
  9. Chul Min Kang, 45, Toronto
  10. Munir Abdo Habib Najjar, 85, of Jordan, was visiting his family in Toronto

“I stand here as a representative from a team that worked diligently to identify the victims,” said Dr. Huyer, adding that two of the victims were foreign nationals, one was a student from Korea and one was from Jordan.

Police confirmed that they will not be releasing the victim’s cause of death.

Dr. Huyer said the coroner’s office and police made sure to be 100% correct in identifying the victims. Their families were contacted on Thursday and Friday and were the first ones to know the truth about their loved ones.

Following Monday’s attack police said two additional victims have come forward to police, a 21-year-old male and a 67-year old female. This brings the total number of injured victims to 16 in the Yonge Street tragedy.

Because of this, police say they are expecting Alek Minassian, the driver of the van, to be charged with two additional counts of attempted murder, bringing his total charges to 16 counts of attempted murder and 10 counts of first-degree murder.

According to police, the ages of the injured range from 23 to 90. Two of these victims have been released, while 12 still remain in hospital. Some of them are dealing with serious injuries.

As of Friday morning, police have interviewed 170 witnesses and they still have an excess of 100 interviews to complete.

Bott says “the response from the public has been overwhelming.”

He also thanked the public who have already accessed the Toronto Police Service Web Portal. Bott said there have already been 100-plus images uploaded.

Bott says police are aware of a Facebook post made by the accused prior to the attack. He says it is “apart of the investigation.”

As of Today, police are still looking at all avenues of a motive but in terms of terrorism, Bott told the media “we haven’t met that threshold.”

Minassian’s next court appearance will be May 10.

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