With a man in custody for what Edmonton police call “acts of terrorism” in the city overnight, investigators will try to determine if he had associates who aided him or could pose a continuing danger to the public, says a Canadian security expert.
The 30-year-old suspect was apprehended following a high-speed chase just before midnight through streets filled with bar patrons and football fans that ended only after a white U-Haul van he was driving struck four pedestrians and flipped on its side.
“One of the difficult questions that will be asked here is: what if anything did security intelligence and criminal intelligence know about this individual beforehand? Was he under surveillance?” Christian Leuprecht, a political science professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University, told CBC News on Sunday.
“And if he was, whether there would have been enough evidence to charge him before this attack would have taken place. Those are difficult questions, and those will all come out during the course of the investigation.”
Leuprecht, who is currently attending a security conference in Latvia, said Public Safety Canada tries to track extremists who travel to Syria or Iraq to try to join ISIS.
Questions around Edmonton attack5:06
“We also know that there are between 80 and 120 of those individuals who have so far returned to Canada,” he said. “Some of these individuals remain under surveillance for as long as six months. So it would be interesting to see if [the man arrested in Edmonton] had a previous travel history to the region or connection with someone else who did.”
Vehicles have been used as weapons in several deadly attacks around the world in recent years.
In August, a van drove along sidewalks in a popular tourist area in Barcelona, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100.
In June, seven people died and four dozen were injured after a speeding van mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge. Three men with knifes later abandoned the van and attacked people in nearby Borough Market, an area full of bars and restaurants.
In December 2016, a truck plowed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin. A dozen people died and many more were injured.
The deadliest such attack in recent years happened in Nice, France, where a large truck plowed through revellers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks on the waterfront promenade, killing at least 84 people. A student who attended MacEwan University in Edmonton was among the dead in that attack.