The French-Canadian student charged in a shooting spree that killed six people at a Quebec City mosque was known in online circles as a supporter of far-right French politician Marine Le Pen and described by a former classmate as a “nerdy outcast”.
Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, the sole suspect in Sunday night’s shooting, was charged on Monday with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder with a restricted weapon. Police said he acted alone.
He was not previously known to police, but a Facebook post by the group “Welcome to Refugees – Quebec City” said Bissonnette was “unfortunately known to several activists in Quebec City for his pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist identity positions at Université Laval and on social networks”.
The online profile for Bissonnette, who made a brief court appearance on Monday, showed a wide variety of interests.
On his Facebook page, he indicated he liked Le Pen, US President Donald Trump, the separatist Parti Quebecois as well as Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party, the Israeli Defense Forces, heavy metal band Megadeth and pop star Katy Perry.
“I wrote him off as a xenophobe. I didn’t even think of him as totally racist, but he was enthralled by a borderline racist nationalist movement,” Vincent Boissoneault, a fellow Laval University student, told the Globe and Mail newspaper. He said they frequently clashed over Bissonnette’s opinions about refugees and support for Le Pen and Trump.
{{/usCountry}}“I wrote him off as a xenophobe. I didn’t even think of him as totally racist, but he was enthralled by a borderline racist nationalist movement,” Vincent Boissoneault, a fellow Laval University student, told the Globe and Mail newspaper. He said they frequently clashed over Bissonnette’s opinions about refugees and support for Le Pen and Trump.
{{/usCountry}}Bissonnette’s lawyer, Jean Petit, declined to comment at the courthouse on Monday. Université Laval confirmed on Monday that Bissonnette was a social science student there.
Bissonnette was a cerebral “nerdy outcast,” said former high school classmate Simon de Billy, adding the suspect and his twin brother were inseparable.
“He was an avid reader, knew a lot about history and about current issues, current politics, those kinds of topics,” de Billy said. “He was just a bit of a loner, always with his twin brother, didn’t have any friends.
“He wasn’t physically strong or imposing, and probably got a bit of a hard time, was probably not taken seriously. ... He would be kind of made fun of, the butt of the jokes.”