Accused White Supremacist Wrote Racist Rant Just Before Killing Muslim Family, Court Hears

A self-admitted white supremacist who is accused of killing a Muslim family by intentionally running them over with his truck penned a racist manifesto just weeks before the killings. 

On June 6, 2021, a London, Ontario family waiting for a light to change so they could cross the street was run down by a black truck traveling at high speed. Witnesses say the driver intentionally swerved to hit the family. Salman Afzaal, 46, his wife Madiha Salman, 44, their 15-year-old daughter Yumna Afzaal, and Salman Afzaal's 74-year-old mother, Talat Afzaal, were all killed in the attack. The only survivor was the family’s nine-year-old son.

Nathaniel Veltman, 22,  was arrested nearby outside the truck where he was found wearing a bulletproof vest and military helmet. Veltman faces four counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder, and terrorism charges. 

Veltman pleaded not guilty to the charges but five weeks into the trial it's clear to see the evidence is stacked well against him. These include a lengthy interrogation interview conducted shortly after the murders in which Veltman admitted he was a white supremacist and bragged about the crimes, and now a rambling screed. The writing, the court heard, was full of anti-Muslim hate speech and indicated that Veltman hoped to inspire neo-Nazis to conduct similar attacks.  

On October 4, the court heard evidence of  Veltman’s “A White Awakening” which had taken inspiration from Brenton Tarrant, the neo-Nazi who killed 52 Muslims in New Zealand in 2019. “A White Awakening” was structured similarly and ended with an obvious reference to Tarrant's infamous ramblings. Evidence acquired from hard drives found at Veltman’s home show that just months before the killings, the young man had downloaded the livestream Tarrant made of his killings and watched it repeatedly. Veltman also had the written work of Anders Breivik, a neo-Nazi who killed 77 people (who were mostly children) in Norway in 2011. 

An agreed statement of facts between the prosecution and defense states that Veltman “was the author of all versions, including previous versions of the documents entitled A White Awakening.” A portion of the manifesto was read out in the court by the prosecution. The portion showed that Veltman was fixated on Muslims, whom he described as invaders, and wholeheartedly believed the popular “great replacement” conspiracy theory which posits that people of color are attempting to replace whites in Western and European countries. 

The language used in the Veltman’s writing echoes that of the hyper online far-right including the terms “cuckservative” and “libtards” and frequently uses various anti-Muslim slurs.  One of the longest sections is about how white people need to stop fighting and join arms against Muslims. The manifesto also includes a long rambling portion about how a whites-only society would create a utopia where drug use, “cancel culture,” and depression would disappear. 

The only way for people to get to this utopia, Veltman writes, is for people to conduct violent attacks similar to his. 

Evidence gathered from Veltman’s digital devices indicates he wrote the document between May and June. The final time the document was updated was less than a week before the family was killed. Veltman's laptop had few applications installed to it but they included the Tor browser and a VPN, which allows a user to conceal their IP address online. 

The accused mass murderer's defense has been attempting to argue that the police conduct in handling Veltman’s confession and his digital devices was unethical. During the defense cross-examination of the police sergeant who investigated Veltman's digital devices, defense lawyer Christopher Hicks repeatedly mentioned that Veltman used a site that was to help people with porn addiction.