Crown closes its case as trial for accused in London, Ont. attack to continue Tuesday

WARNING: Readers may find the contents of this story disturbing.

After calling nearly 20 witnesses over the first weeks of the trial for the man accused in the London, Ont., attack, the Crown closed its case on Thursday.

The defence will have the chance to call its own evidence before the jury as early as Tuesday.

Nathaniel Veltman, 22, is accused of deliberately hitting five members of the Afzaal family with his truck while they were out for a walk on June 6, 2021 in an alleged act of terrorism. He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

Proceedings were brief Thursday, with some surveillance video played for the jury showing Veltman entering and exiting the apartment building where he lived on the days of June 5 and 6.

On Wednesday, prosecutors said Veltman had written what they called a manifesto in the weeks before his attack. Veltman’s lawyers agreed he authored the document.

The jury also heard Windsor, Ont., police Sgt. Liyu Guan testify that a USB drive seized from Veltman’s apartment contained the manifesto of the man behind the Christchurch, New Zealand shooting and a video of said shooting.

Guan added that both files had been opened multiple times in the months leading up to the attack.

The defence briefly cross-examined Guan on Wednesday, with lawyer Christopher Hicks asking if it was possible that another person whose information was found on the laptop could have had access to it.

Guan said there was overwhelming information on the laptop to relate it back to Veltman — including copies of his passport, driver’s licence and emails — and only the one piece of credit card information and a YouTube search connected to the other person.

Last week, the jury learned the official causes of the deaths of four members of the Afzaal family.

The Crown read to the court that Salman Afzaal, 46, his 44-year-old wife, Madiha Salman, their 15-year-old daughter, Yumna, and her grandmother, Talat Afzaal, all sustained blunt force injuries, fractures and internal bleeding and the cause of death for all is listed as “multiple trauma.” As well, the jury heard that Talat Afzaal likely died on impact.

The couple’s nine-year-old son was also seriously hurt but survived.

Additional evidence presented by the Crown included two videos showing Det. Micah Bourdeau’s interviews with Veltman conducted June 7, 2021.

The first interview occurred between roughly 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., with Veltman speaking with conviction and energy, repeatedly apologizing to the detective for going on “rants” or “tangents.”

The second video, which began just before 10 a.m. that same morning, appeared to show a more subdued and disoriented Veltman, refusing to answer many of Bourdeau’s questions and speaking softly, at times near to a whisper.

Veltman’s case is the first where Canada’s terrorism laws are being put before a jury in a first-degree murder trial.

Proceedings resume Tuesday in Windsor.

— with files from The Canadian Press’s Jordan Omstead and Global News’ Benjamin Harrietha.