Shortly after Alek Minassian alighted from the van that he had used to run down and kill 10 people and injured 16, he was arrested by Toronto police despite asking them to shoot him. In the videos showing his standoff with the police on Yonge Street in Toronto, Minassian can be seen pointing an object at Toronto police men while saying, “I’ve got a gun in my pocket” and “Shoot me in the head.” Today, 24 hours later, Minassian was produced in court and was charged with 10 counts of murder.

The attack by Minassian was eerily similar to the ones carried out in France and Germany by those pledging their alliance to the Islamic State terror group. However, Toronto Police did not term the April 23rd attack a terror attack and not much is known of the perpetrator who chose to kill so many people on a random Monday afternoon.

Alek Minassian’s age has been cited as 25-26 years by multiple reports and he is said to be a resident from Toronto’s Richmond Hill area. Richmond Hill is a residential suburb located to the north of Toronto, Canada with a predominantly wealthy population with big, stand-alone houses and even bigger backyards.

Minassian reportedly does not have any police record and hence is an unknown entity to those investigating his rampage. Minassian had previously attended a school for students with special needs in north Toronto, former classmates said. He would be seen walking around Thornlea Secondary School with his head down and hands clasped tightly together making meowing noises, Shereen Chami told Reuters. Minassian then continued his education at Seneca College in the North York area of Toronto, where the van attack took place, CBC reported.

Canada’s CTV reported that Minassian attempted to become a soldier with the Canadian military but left training after just over two weeks. CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson says she has learned Alek Minassian was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces for two months, between late August and October, 2017.

However, Minassian left his training after just 16 days. “For some reason, he asked to be released and he received a voluntary release, rather than a forced or medical release,” Stephenson told CTV News Channel.

However, the closest that we have come to decoding possible motives for Minassian’s attack was reported by BBC. The BBC article tracked down a copy of a post by Minassian which has emerged that was published by the suspect shortly before the attack on Monday. The post, which Facebook confirmed as real to the BBC, praises Elliott Rodger, a 22 year old from California who killed six people with his car in 2014. It reads: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!"

The BBC explains that the term "incel" refers to a now-banned group on the message site Reddit where young men discussed their lack of sexual activity and attractiveness to women - often blaming women for the problem. "Chads and Stacys" refers to attractive men and women who are perceived as better than or unavailable to "incels", which is short for "involuntary celibate".

There have been mentions of Minassian’s struggle with mental health and hence his attack is also similar to one that Germany saw in its city of Muenster earlier this month in which two people had died. The driver in Muenster died and he too had been struggling with mental health issues.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 25, 2018 02:05 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).