911 call, arrest video played at trial of man accused of killing Muslim family in London, Ont.
CBC
Warning: This story contains distressing details.
The man accused of running over a Muslim family in London, Ont., with his truck approached a cab driver minutes after the summer of 2021 incident and told him to "call the cops," the murder-terror trial for Nathaniel Veltman was told Tuesday.
Azzeddin Jahanghiri, a Yellow London Taxi driver, testified on the second day of the Ontario Superior Court trial in Windsor.
Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parents, Madiha Salman, 44, and Salman Afzaal, 46, and family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed in the attack. A young boy, nine years old at the time, survived.
Veltman, 22, has has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, as well as terror-related charges.
Jahanghiri said he had just started his shift at around 6 p.m. on June 6, 2021, and was in the Cherryhill Mall parking lot having a coffee and waiting for calls.
He testified that at around 8:44 p.m., the accused's truck pulled up behind the cab — with his window down and his hand out. — and he was wearing a helmet.
"I saw there was smoke coming from under the hood and it was damaged. He said, 'Call the cops, call the police.' I thought he needs help," Jahanghiri told the court. "Sometimes people need a boost or need directions, so I went toward him.
"I asked him, 'What are you talking about?' and he said, 'Shut up and call the cops. I just hit someone. I just killed someone.'"
Jahanghiri said he dialled 911 and put the call on speaker so the driver of the pickup truck could talk to the dispatcher.
In the phone call played to the jury, Veltman is heard saying, "It was me. It was me that did it. It was me that crashed into those people."
During the call, he gives his name, spells it, recites his birth date and then says, "I did it on purpose."
The 911 call lasted just under a minute and a half, until two police cruisers showed up in the parking lot.
"When the police officers came, he [the accused] came out of his truck and he said to me, 'Make a video, make a video,' but I just kind of ignored him and went to my cab. After a lot more police showed up, he looked at me again and said, 'I told you to make a video.'"
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