A Canadian man accused of killing six Muslim worshippers at a mosque in Quebec City in 2017 has changed his mind and pleaded guilty to all charges.<\/p>\n
Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, faced six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder for the attack.<\/p>\n
The former university student changed his plea of not guilty on Wednesday, which will avoid a trial.<\/p>\n
On 29 January he stormed into the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre and shot at those gathered for prayers.<\/p>\n
Bissonnette had just entered a plea of not guilty on Monday and jury selection was to begin as early as 3 April.<\/p>\n
He admitted to killing Khaled Belkacemi, 60, Azzedine Soufiane, 57, Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, Aboubaker Thabti, 44, and Ibrahima Barry, 39, in the January attack.<\/p>\n
Five others were seriously injured in the Sunday night shooting, including Aymen Derbali, who is now paralysed.<\/p>\n
In October, the Crown added a sixth charge of attempted murder against the accused to include all 35 witnesses in the mosque during the attack.<\/p>\n
Bissonnette had rented a flat with his twin brother near the mosque,\u00a0CBC reported.<\/a><\/p>\n He studied political science and anthropology at Laval University, and teachers described him as polite. But some say he had started to express extremist tendencies before the shooting.<\/p>\n Fellow student Vincent Boissoneault\u00a0told the Globe and Mail<\/a>\u00a0that when French far-right politician Marine Le Pen visited Quebec City, Bissonnette shared extreme views in support of her online.<\/p>\n “I wrote him off as a xenophobe,” Mr Boissoneault said. “I didn’t even think of him as totally racist, but he was enthralled by a borderline racist nationalist movement… [But] it never occurred to me he might be violent.”<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"