The suspect A has been charged in the stabbing of two students and a professor during a gender issues class at the University of Waterloo in Canada. The police are calling it a hate-motivated attack.
Regional police in Waterloo stated that Aleman Villalba-Geovanny, an international student studying at the University of Waterloo, is facing two counts of possessing a dangerous weapon, four counts of assault with a weapon, and three counts of aggravated assault.
Police in Waterloo said on Wednesday that investigators believe this was a hate-motivated incident related to gender identity and gender expression, and the accused targeted a gender studies class.
During that period, approximately 40 students were present in the classroom. The assault that occurred later on Wednesday resulted in three individuals being admitted to the hospital with severe, yet not life-threatening, injuries: a female professor aged 38, a female student aged 20, and a male student aged 19.
Nick Manning, the Associate Vice President of Communications for Waterloo University, stated that the suspect graduated from the university at the end of the fall term in 2022.
According to the police, the suspect was discovered inside the premises following the stabbing incident and apprehended. He attended a bail hearing in court on Thursday.
Nick Manning, associate vice-president of communications for the University of Waterloo, stated that the perpetrator is a former student of the university.
Manning stated that the stabbing took place in Philosophy 202, which, as stated on the university website, centers around “gender concerns”.
The course description stated that it will explore the formation of gender in the history of philosophy by means of current discussions. Do we desire to do so? And do we desire to reverse the effects of gender? How can we reverse the effects of gender? How do we construct gender? What exactly is gender?
“Our whole community is truly worried that this would occur in this location. It’s a significant surprise,” Manning informed journalists.
Law enforcement has stated that the assailant’s intentions were uncertain, but Canada has a past of gender-driven assaults.
December 6th is now commemorated as the national day against violence towards women, in remembrance of the attack. “Feminists have always made me angry,” he wrote. Before committing suicide at an engineering school in Montreal, Marc Lépine killed 14 women and injured 14 others in 1989.
In the United States, there have been similar misogynistic attacks. The incident drew focus on the online community of men who describe themselves as “incels,” celibate involuntary men who harbor hatred towards women. In September 2019, Alek Minassian, the man who later told the police that he saw the murders as an act of retribution against women who had ignored him, drove a van onto the streets of Toronto, killing 10 people.
Yusuf Kaymak, a student at the University of Waterloo, informed CTV News that he was present in the lecture.
He said, “I don’t know what happened to the professor. He was bleeding from his arm. There was a kid who got stabbed. After we went outside, I ran out.”
Kaymak mentioned that approximately 40 students were present in the classroom during that period.
The university announced via Twitter that all classes planned for Wednesday evening in Hagey Hall, the location of the incident, were called off, while all other activities on campus will continue as planned.
Manning stated, “Backing the police investigation, along with ensuring that the students who are in the class go immediately, of course, our initial thoughts.”
In a written declaration, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, described the stabbings as “shocking and intolerable”.
