TORONTO (AP) — The suspect accused of killing a police officer outside a Montreal hotel had a manifesto that links him to an online community of frustrated men who talk about attacks against people who have sex, an official familiar with the matter confirmed Tuesday.
The suspect armed with a long gun opened fire Monday before officers returned fire, killing him, police said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said the manifesto links the suspect to the “involuntary celibate” or “incel” ideology, a mostly online group of people, primarily men, who believe society unjustly denies them sexual or romantic attention.
The manifesto prompted a warning to police forces across Canada about the possibility of copycat attacks against police officers.
The Quebec coroner identified the alleged shooter as Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, from Lethbridge, Alberta, and identified the two others killed as police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, and Michel Mizrahi, 68, a bystander caught in the crossfire.
Quebec Domestic Security Minister Ian Lafrenière said he would refrain from commenting on details about the suspect’s motives since the matter is under investigation by an independent police watchdog, which investigates injuries and deaths involving police.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said she couldn’t comment on specifics of the case but said it is important to be vigilant when there is so much hate on social media.
“A lot of people are being recruited, young people. They are not on the street, they are in a difference space, which is much harder to control. That’s something that we’re going to have to be working on with the Montreal police in the future,” she said.
A police spokesperson in British Columbia said forces across that province were warned after the shooting. Staff Sgt. Lindsey Houghton with the Surrey Police Service said the information was issued Monday by an intelligence-sharing unit operating out of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police British Columbia headquarters.
A man who used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto in 2018 was found guilty in 2021 a case that drew attention to the online world of sexual loneliness, rage and misogyny. Alek Minassian was found guilty of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
Montreal police work the scene of a shooting the day before, in Montreal on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A demonstrator who shot and wounded a police officer outside a Texas immigration center last July 4 was sentenced to 100 years in federal prison Tuesday, while other protesters accused of having links to antifa were given multiple decades in federal prison.
Benjamin Song was convicted of attempted murder last March after prosecutors say he opened fire and wounded a police officer at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado.
The seven other protesters sentenced Tuesday received prison terms ranging from 30 to 70 years.
“Our issue with this case has always been this isn’t a bunch of terrorists. This is a bunch of kids and young adults who really have a really big heart and really wanted their voice to be heard,” Philip Hayes, Song’s attorney, said outside the federal courthouse in Fort Worth. “It was never intended that anybody get hurt. It was never intended that any shots would be fired.”
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of two judges overseeing the proceedings, said what happened last July wasn’t a protest but “an assault on democracy.”
“The need to deter this type of conduct is high,” O'Connor said.
Hayes said his client will appeal the sentence.
“Song, aside from this day, has had an impeccable life. A former Marine. A good student,” he said. “He had a lot of good qualities that were just ignored. The judge went ahead and gave as much as he could.”
One of the defendants, Daniel Sanchez Estrada, was convicted of corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents. He received a 30-year prison term Tuesday.
Others pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists rather than take their case to trial.
Prosecutors say the eight are members of antifa, a decentralized anti-fascist organization that has become a target of the Trump administration. Short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
President Donald Trump last fall signed an executive order designating antifa a domestic terrorist organization, even though there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations.
The defendants deny any affiliation with antifa and maintain they attended the demonstration to show support for immigrants inside the detention center.
Critics warn the case could have wide-reaching impact on protests given that organizations operating within the U.S. are supposed to be protected by First Amendment free-speech rights.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged 15 people with impeding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. They claimed the demonstrators were members of antifa who conspired against the federal government to block arrests and deportations by setting up blockades around government buildings and throwing chunks of ice at federal vehicles, among other actions.
Marcelo reported from New York.
FILE - Officers with the Department of Homeland Security walk on the sidewalk outside the Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse during a trial for people connected to a 2025 shooting outside an ICE detention facility, in Fort Worth, Texas, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
