Why?

Such a tiny word. A piddling monosyllable. Three measly letters.

But a question that looms as large today as anything Toronto authorities have ever faced, as the city struggles to grasp the salient facts behind Monday’s Yonge St. massacre.

On Tuesday, as handcuffed suspect Alek Minassian, 25, appeared briefly in a Toronto courtroom to be formally charged with 10 counts of murder and 13 counts of attempted murder, his darting eyes and poker face offered no hint of motive.

Yet as new clues emerged, a fragmented portrait began to take shape with disturbing glimpses into the life of the man charged with wilfully racing a rented Ryder van along a 2.2-kilometre stretch of North York sidewalk, causing widespread carnage.

When the world’s gaze first settled on Toronto as Monday’s chaos took hold, conclusion-leapers online were quick to declare the city a victim of the Islamic State and/or like-minded jihadists. The attack, they argued, bore all the hallmarks of Nice, France, where a 19-tonne truck tore through crowds celebrating Bastille Day two years ago, killing 86 people and triggering three days of national mourning.

Those first baseless, Islamophobic assumptions melted away quickly enough — only to be replaced with new social media notions, none evidently tethered to fact. Everything from Armenian nationalism (the attack came on the eve of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day) to autism (the suspect is believed to be on the spectrum, a fact that health professionals emphasize carries no correlation to violence) to outright misogyny were offered up as working theories.

On Tuesday afternoon, as police confirmed Minassian would be charged with a 14th count of attempted murder, suspicions hardened toward the grim possibility that a virulent hatred of women was behind the tragedy.

A 25-year-old who plowed a van into a crowded Toronto sidewalk was ordered held Tuesday on 10 counts of murder 13 of attempted murder. (The Associated Press)

At the centre of that suspicion is a Facebook post first believed by many to be a hoax — only to be authenticated by Facebook itself as real. Toronto police, however, also alluded to the post but stopped short of confirming it was written by the suspect.

The jarring message, apparently time-bombed to appear on the suspect’s Facebook account as Monday’s tragedy unfolded, offered praise to an infamous figure worshipped by a dark corner of the internet that seethes misogyny — U.S. mass murderer Elliot Rodger, who in 2014 killed six people near the University of California, Santa Barbara, by stabbing and shooting his victims. He injured another 13 people, striking four of them with his black BMW while engaged in gunfire with police. Rodger, 22, killed himself before he could be arrested.

In a YouTube video Rodger posted before his arrest, he described himself as a virgin who wanted to exact revenge on women.

The message that appeared on Minassian’s account — if indeed it was posted by the suspect — suggested Monday’s rampage may have been the work of a distinctly 21st-century version of Marc Lépine. In 1989, Lépine murdered 14 women and wounded 13 others at Montreal’s École Polytechnique before turning his gun on himself, leaving behind a suicide note that said feminists had ruined his life.

The Facebook post spoke in a sort of misogynistic digital code. “The Incel Rebellion has already begun!” the post said, referencing an online community or movement of people claiming to be involuntarily celibate. “All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!”

Researchers who specialize in such messaging warn that despite Facebook’s authentication, the post could yet prove nothing more than a hoax by 4chan, whose troll-happy members delight in duping journalists into writing their name within breaking news.

“If (Minassian) actually posted that ... it would be like a meme coming to life ... it would really call attention to the idea that we cannot think about online violence as being cordoned off from physical violence that can take lives,” said Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor with Mercer University who studies online communities.

“If this is a hoax, I’m going to be irritated. If it’s true I’m going to be terrified.”

The Facebook post referred to Minassian as “Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010” in his post — an allusion to the suspect’s failed attempt in 2017 to join the Canadian Armed Forces. Military sources confirmed the number is a part of Canada’s military lexicon.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan confirmed that Minassian was a member for about two months, starting in late August 2017, beginning. He was then released after 16 days of recruit training, having made the request to exit the forces voluntarily.

Minassian did his training at the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School at the Saint-Jean Garrison in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., where all new recruits begin their military careers. Sajjan said there were no red flags when Minassian signed on.

The military declined to formally say more about his time in uniform, citing privacy reasons. But a source told the Star Minassian struggled during his short stint in the regular-force basic training, lasting just over two weeks in a course that takes up to four months. In that time, he would have done drills, such as saluting and marching, and perhaps basic work with equipment, but is unlikely to have done any weapons handling.

“He wasn’t very good at taking direction,” fellow recruit Andrew Summerfield told CBC News. “There was a lot of disciplinary action put towards Alek because he wouldn’t understand something and they’d want him to do it, and then he wouldn’t do it right.”

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Summerfield said it appeared Minassian “had some sort of condition,” but he never shared what it was with Summerfield and other members of their platoon.

Schoolmates offered similar assessments of Minassian, from Grade 5 all the way through to his final days at Seneca College, where he was a student from 2011 to 2018, according to a LinkedIn profile. He was also a member of the support staff at Seneca’s Office of Research and Innovation, according to the college’s directory. His name has since been removed.

Joseph Pham, 25, said he sat next to Minassian in a computer programming class at Seneca, and that he saw him a week before the attack.

An excerpt from TPS press conference on Tuesday, April 24th, 2018, 3:00PM. Video courtesy of TPS via YouTube.

“I never talked to him,” Pham said. “I sat beside him a few times. He kept to himself. He didn’t really talk to anyone. He participated in class. He is, you could say, socially awkward.”

Pham described Minassian as someone who would fidget or twitch frequently, and kept to himself. He also had a knack for computer programming, and developed an app to allow users to find parking in Toronto, Pham said.

Access to a Richmond Hill street, near Bayview and 16th Aves., remained restricted, with yellow police tape surrounding a home listed to Vahe and Sona Minassian, property records show.

In a 2009 interview with the Richmond Hill Liberal, a Sona Minassian said her son lives with a condition called Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, and relied on Helpmate, a social service community program whose lack of funding threatened to shutter it.

“My son would spend afternoons working with Helpmate. They were sensitive to his needs,” she said, not naming her son.

“He was able to take the experience provided by Helpmate and apply it. This kind of service for my son wasn’t available elsewhere. I am convinced that if we didn’t have Helpmate, my son would not have had such an opportunity,” Sona Minassian said of the job her son was able to land at a local IT company.

Minassian was part of a special needs program at Thornlea Secondary School, said former classmate Will Cornish, 25. Minassian didn’t behave violently, he said, but could be seen in the hallways twisting his hands together.

A curb-jumping Ryder van barrelled through pedestrians along Yonge St., killing at least 10 people on Monday.

Dominic Reynolds was in Grade 11 when Minassian began high school, but would often share the special needs program classroom with him. Though Reynolds, 28, wasn’t in the special needs program, he said to accommodate his learning disability he was sometimes required to study in the same room.

“He (had) notable special needs,” Reynolds said of Minassian, citing his behaviour of making meowing noises and hugging his arms around himself in the hallways at school.

He said he was surprised to hear Minassian was the suspected driver as he didn’t believe Minassian would be able to drive given his special needs condition. Reynolds said special needs students were well supported at Thornlea, and doesn’t believe Minassian was a bullying victim.

Shannon Goel, 25, said Minassian was in her Grade 5 class at Sixteenth Avenue Public School in Richmond Hill. When she heard his name reported on the news she got out her old yearbook.

“I just remember him acting out,” she said. “He would throw fits, he would always act out, and it was hard for people to control him.”

With files from May Warren, Sabrina Nanji, Tamar Harris, Julien Gignac, and Star Staff