‘Ashamed’ gunman Alexandre Bissonnette switches plea and admits murdering six Muslims in Quebec mosque
Bissonnette, 28, denied being a terrorist or an Islamophobe, and said he decided to plead guilty to spare victims’ families the hardship of a trial
A former Canadian university student has pleaded guilty to killing six men who were praying in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017, a court said on Wednesday, averting a trial in one of the country’s rare mass shootings.
Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, handcuffed and wearing leg irons as he entered the Quebec City courtroom, had asked on Monday to change his previous plea of not guilty.
“I am ashamed of what I did,” he said. “Despite what has been said about me, I am neither a terrorist nor an Islamophobe. Rather, I am someone who was overcome by fear, by negative thoughts and a sort of horrible kind of despair.”
Speaking to the courtroom, which included members of the mosque, the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, Bissonnette said he decided to plead guilty to spare the families the hardship of a trial.
Quebec Superior Court Justice François Huot imposed a publication ban on the guilty plea and ordered Bissonnette to undergo a psychiatric examination to ensure he knew the consequences of his decision.