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By Dan Gooding and Marni Rose McFall
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Canadian authorities named Seth Hatfield as the suspect in a shooting in Montreal on Monday, which left a police officer and a civilian dead.
Hatfield, who was killed by police, reportedly left behind a manifesto which revealed views consistent with the “incel,” or involuntarily celibate, movement. Authorities are yet to comment on the document.
The shooting happened in one of the city’s most populous neighborhoods and was described as a rarity by Quebec officials on Monday. Hatfield's identity was confirmed alongside the two victims by the Quebec Coroner's Office in a statement to Newsweek.
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"We would like to offer our deepest condolences to the families and all those affected," spokesperson Jake Lamotta Granato said.
Montreal Shooting Victims, Suspect Named
Quebec's Coroner Martine Lachance is looking into the deaths of the three killed during the shootout Monday morning in the Côte-des-Neiges area.
They were:
- Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, from Laval, Quebec.
- Michel Mizrahi, 68, from Montreal
- Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, from Lethbridge, Alberta
In a statement late Monday, Montreal's police department said Benredouane had been a police officer since 2021.
"His passing is a great loss for our organization. His sense of duty, dedication and professionalism will forever be remembered," a statement read.
Mizrahi had been trying to usher bystanders out of harm's way when he was shot, according to his rabbi, who spoke with CBC News.
"He went to this woman. He says, 'Run away, there's a shooting,'" Mendel Raskin, a rabbi at Chabad Côte-Saint-Luc, told the outlet. "I spoke to her this morning. She says, 'If I'm alive today, it's because of him—me and my baby.'"
The rabbi said he had known Mizrahi for over 30 years, and described him as "a great man out of gold."
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Seth Hatfield Manifesto: What We Know
After the shooting, it was said that police were examining a potential manifesto left by the suspect. The document, which runs for roughly 100 pages, showed an expression of hatred of women consistent with the incel movement, per Canadian media.
Newsweek has not been able to verify the source of the manifesto. The Quebec Independent Investigations Bureau (BEI) declined to comment.
Hatfield’s alleged manifesto began: “I have seen fit to produce and publish a concise and scientifically supported account of just what this gloomy and pervasive male loneliness actually is, how it came to be, and what should be done about it henceforth.”
Throughout the manifesto, the writer speaks in ways consistent with incel ideology—specifically, that there is a small group of males that women will find attractive, and then a large group of men that are not found attractive, an idea entrenched in incel ideology.
A section entitled “Results of the Present Mode of Intimacy in Western Society" reads, “The three classes are, in descending order: the males that are sexually desired and considered attractive by females themselves, and lastly, the common males, which are the majority of males.”
The manifesto makes extensive references to intimacy and states that common males do not have intimacy, a belief consistent with incel ideology. “It is a simple fact that the common male within western society today has been utterly disposed of any steady access to intimacy.”
“Make no mistake, the most voiceless, exploited, marginalized, forgotten, despised, abandoned and oppressed group within society is objectively and undeniably common males,” the manifesto states.
It is also critical of capitalism: “Capitalism was never designed towards the benefit of the common male of the working class, or of the whole society at all; but rather, it was designed by the bourgeois class towards their own benefit.”
The Canadian Press reported that police departments across the country were warned about the manifesto due to its potential anti-police messaging.
“Following the tragic events of what happened in Montreal earlier today, police in British Columbia were advised that there is the possibility of either documentation or some type of manifesto that is rumored to be out there calling on individuals to target and commit violence against police officers,” Staff Sergeant Lindsey Houghton, of the Surrey Police Service, told the outlet in a statement.
Lethbridge Police confirmed Tuesday that the department was assisting Quebec authorities with the investigation.
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What Is the Incel Movement?
The term incel is shorthand for “involuntarily celibate,” and generally, though not exclusively, refers to men who hold misogynistic beliefs, like believing that they have been rejected by women and hold them responsible for their misfortune and the ills of society.
Members of incel groups have been known to commit acts of violence. In 2014, Elliot Rodger killed six people in a stabbing and shooting spree in Isla Vista, California. That killing has been cited by other incels, who went on to commit violent crimes, including in Canada.
In 2018, Alek Minassian launched a deadly attack in Toronto, where he killed 11 people. He later told police he identified as a member of the incel movement and wrote in a post on Facebook, “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”
Incels typically direct anger at the “Chad,” a man who is typically sexually prolific and attractive, and women referred to as “Stacys.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Sam Wilson.
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