Warning: This story contains disturbing details.
For hours, Nathaniel Veltman paces his small cell at police headquarters in London, Ontario, sometimes sitting or lying down, after his arrest on the night of June 6, 2021.
These images of the defendant in custody are from extensive police video shown to jurors Thursday at his murder and terrorism trial in Ontario Superior Court in Windsor in connection with the attack on a Muslim family.
At 9:47 p.m. ET that day, just over an hour after five members of the Afzaal family were hit by a truck at the intersection of Hyde Park Road and South Carriage Road, the defendant is taken to a small room. available to people who are arrested so he and a lawyer can talk privately.
The video, which was played mostly in fast forward for the jury, follows the defendant for about 10 hours: from that room to a cell with a cement bed, a hallway that leads to a police interrogation room, and then to a larger cell with two concrete beds and a bathroom, and then leave to be fingerprinted and return.
The day after his arrest, at 7:23 a.m. on June 7, they gave him breakfast.
The video evidence was presented by defense lawyer Chris Hicks during cross-examination by Viktor Poc, a London police forensic analyst who took the videos and reviewed them for the court.
Thursday marked day 4 of the proceedings following jury selection last week.
The defendant, 22, pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, along with associated terrorism charges.
Yumnah Afzaal, 15, her parents Madiha Salman, 44, and Salman Afzaal, 46, and family matriarch Talat Afzaal, 74, were killed in the vehicle attack while they were out for a walk. on a summer afternoon. One child, who was nine years old at the time, survived.
Prosecutors allege they were targeted because they were wearing traditional Pakistani clothing and were Muslim.
The police video, which has no audio, shows the defendant pacing the cells, sometimes lying on the cement bed, relieving himself (although that has been blacked out in the video), sitting up and getting up to walk some more.
Agreed facts that will not be discussed
Early in the trial, the Crown and defense attorneys agreed on a number of facts that will not be discussed, including that the defendant ran over the family with the black Dodge Ram pickup truck.
After the accident, he drove erratically towards Cherryhill Mall, where he stopped in the car park and approached a taxi driver who was waiting for calls, the court heard.
On Tuesday, the jury saw video of the van pulling into the mall parking lot and the defendant approaching the taxi driver, who testified that he called 911 after the van driver told him to “call the police.”
The jury also heard the 911 call made by the taxi driver during which the defendant can be heard saying, “It was me. It was me who did it. It was me who crashed into those people,” before telling the dispatcher, “I did it.” “. do it on purpose.”
On Monday, the jury saw CCTV footage of the van heading north on Hyde Park Road passing the Afzaal family, who were waiting at the intersection of South Carriage Road. Attorneys say the truck makes a U-turn off-camera and is then seen on video heading south toward the family.
In a video released this week, data from the truck shows that it headed toward the family five seconds before impact and that its accelerator pedal was 100 percent depressed.
Trial proceedings, which are expected to last eight weeks, continue Friday.
