A teenager accused of stabbing a woman to death with a sword at a Toronto massage parlor was charged with terrorism Tuesday after police said they uncovered evidence the attack was inspired by an online community of sexually frustrated men known as the Incel movement.
The 17-year-old was originally charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder on February 24 following multiple stabbings with at the Crown Spa adult massage parlor.
He now faces upgraded counts of first-degree murder-terrorist activity and first-degree attempted murder-terrorist activity.
Massage parlor employee Ashley Noelle Arzaga, 24, was found dead from stab wounds inside the business.
Arzaga was the mother of a five-year-old girl. She was described by those who knew her as a loving parent.
The female owner of the adult spa was found wounded outside the business.
The owner told reporters that she lost a finger as she fought for her life, but
she managed to grab hold of the teenage attacker's sword and stab him, before holding him until police arrived, reported CP24.
Toronto Police Service contacted the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's anti-terrorism unit after investigators found evidence the accused was inspired by 'incels,' a fringe internet subculture that allegedly plots attacks on people who have sex. 'Incel' is short for 'involuntary celibate.'
The movement has been linked to multiple deadly attacks targeting women and sexually active men in the US and Canada in recent years.
The accused in the Toronto stabbing case, who cannot be identified because of his age, appeared in court via video on Tuesday to face the updated charges. It's the first time in Canada that a terrorism charge has been laid over violence tied to 'involuntary celibates.'
'Terrorism comes in many forms and it´s important to note that it is not restricted to any particular group, religion or ideology,' the RCMP said in a statement.
The incel movement is an online subculture that has been linked to a 2018 rampage in Toronto in which Alek Minassian (pictured) used a van to kill 10 people
A police source told
Global News the 17-year-old terrorism suspect had said he wanted to kill as many women as possible.
The teen, who cannot be identified because of his age, appeared in court via video on Tuesday to face the updated charges. It's the first time in Canada that a terrorism charge has been laid over violence tied to 'involuntary celibates.'
'Terrorism comes in many forms and it´s important to note that it is not restricted to any particular group, religion or ideology,' the RCMP said in a statement.
The incel movement is an online subculture that has been linked to a 2018 rampage in Toronto in which a man used a van to kill 10 people as well as to attacks in California and Florida. It promotes the misogynistic idea that men are entitled to have sex with women.
The accused in the Toronto van attack, Alek Minassian, faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder in connection with the assault on April 23, 2018. Minassian is accused of driving a rented van into crowds of pedestrians in a busy north Toronto neighborhood.
Eight women and two men ranging in age from 22 to 94 died.
Minassian said in a lengthy interview with police that the attack was retribution for years of sexual rejection and ridicule by women. He is not facing terrorism charges.
Minassian also revealed he was in contact with Elliot Rodger, a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks in 2014 near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before apparently shooting himself dead.
Rodger had railed in a manifesto and online videos about women who shunned him and called for an incel 'overthrow' of what he saw as feminist domination.
Minassian called Rodger the 'founding forefather' of the extremist movement.
He said he had also been in contact with Chris Harper-Mercer, who shot nine people in Oregon in 2015 before killing himself, in a rampage that was also linked to incel ideology.
'My whole life has been one lonely enterprise. One loss after another. And here I am, 26, with no friends, no job, no girlfriend, a virgin,' Harper-Mercer wrote in an apparent manifesto.
