Warning: Graphic. 'I admit it was terrorism': Driver confesses to London police in moments after truck attack

WARNING: GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING CONTENT THROUGHOUT

The jury in the trial of Nathaniel Veltman, 22, watched his video-taped police statement Friday.

Veltman is charged with four counts of terrorism-motivated first-degree murder and one count of terrorism-motivated attempted murder.

The jury has already heard evidence Veltman admits he struck and killed members of the Afzaal family on June 6, 2021.

Grandmother Talat, 74, her son Salman, 46, his wife Madiha, 44 and their daughter Yumnah, 15, were all killed. Their nine-year-old son was “seriously” injured but survived.

“I’m gonna be honest about what I did,” he told Detective Micah Bourdeau. “I want the world to know why I did what I did.”

Over the course of more than two hours, Veltman refuses upwards of eight offers to speak with a lawyer. Court heard he had previously talked to a lawyer before the police interview.

He told the detective his story started when he was 18 and started to get “interested in politics”, specifically the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

“I went straight down the rabbit hole,” he said.

Veltman believed “the media” were “dishonest” in not properly reporting on “Muslim on white crime.”

“Often, they won’t report it as a hate crime. They just report it as murder,” he told Det. Bourdeau.

He even said he tried to avoid content about this because it “filled me with such rage” but also noted it was the height of the pandemic. He was home alone with nothing to do, nowhere to go and no one to talk to.

Approximately two months before the attack, he started planning and “researching”.

“I’ll bring attention to it with brutal violence,” he told Det. Bourdeau. “I’m gonna commit a terrorist act.”

On June 6, Veltman told the police he didn’t feel well and was “coming down” from consuming magic mushrooms (psilocybin) the day before.

He said that Sunday was a “normal” day, he went to work and while returning home he noticed a family of Muslims walking down the street.

“I was ready to throw my life away for what I considered to be the greater good,” he told police.

He went home, wrestled with his “self worth”, searched more online about “Muslim on white” crimes and then told police “I just snapped. I’m done.”

He told police after hesitating in the parking lot of his apartment building, he started driving around London at approximately 7:30 p.m. on June 6.

“I forced myself to do it pretty much,” he said.

He told police he pulled over somewhere in the city and put on a bulletproof vest and helmet; “in case the cops start shooting”.

He continued driving towards Hyde Park Road.

“I was very blank, like just pedal to the metal,” he said. “It was such a blur.”

Here is an exchange specific to the collision:

Police: “Who were the people?”

Veltman: “I don’t know.”

P: ”Why did you kill them?

V: “Because they were Muslims.”

P: “How did you know they were Muslims?”

V: “Because of their clothing.”

Veltman told police he had intended to go on a “rampage” that day but after the attack he thought “I’m gonna surrender. I’m not gonna go on a rampage. This is enough.”

He describes his actions as “very, very distasteful” and said “I’m still pretty shaken up by what I did,” and “It was very damaging to my soul.”

“This was politically motivated. 100 per cent.” He told police. “I admit it was terrorism.”

Justice Renee Pomerance reminded the jury an admission of terrorism doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guilty of the legal definition of terrorism and she asked them to put their emotional response aside while considering the facts in the case.