EDITORS NOTE: The following article contains details that some readers may find disturbing.
SUDBURY - The man who was “out to murder a little white girl” pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 to two counts of attempted murder and one count of breach of probation.
In an agreed statement of facts, Alexander Stavropoulos, 25, stabbed a 35-year-old woman multiple times and injured her baby in the parking lot of Michael's on June 3, 2019. At the time, he was under an order not to be in possession of knives outside of his home.
Assistant Crown attorney Leonard Kim said the attack was random, but it was focused on Stavropoulos' attempt to kill a young white girl.
Stavropoulos told police in a recorded interview he was sexually frustrated and angry with “white women” because they wouldn't have sex with him. He labelled himself as “incel,” or involuntarily celibate.
He said he took some inspiration from an April 2018 incident in Toronto when a man named Alex Minassian drove a rented van in a crowd of pedestrians, killing 10 people as a result. Minassian claimed he, too, was an incel, referring to an online community of men who are united by their inability to find female companionship.
The issue of incels — and the attacks self-identified incels have perpetrated in recent years — has criminologists sounding the alarm in a report by CBC's "The Fifth Estate" in January 2019. Learn more about that here.
Stavropoulos told police that he likes “white women,” but was angry with them because they “won't f--k me.” He wanted to “get laid,” but couldn't, and it made him “want to kill, for some reason. I just don't know why.”
As a result, on June 3, he said he was “out to murder a little white girl,” and that he wanted it to be a child.
Stavropoulos had been thinking about it for months, he told police. Then, on June 3, he took a bus to the Silver Hills area. His plan was to buy a hunting knife, but settled on a four-pack of utility knives from Home Depot. In the parking lot of Home Depot, he took two of the knives out of the package and threw the rest on the ground.
He went over to the parking lot in front of the Michael's on Marcus Drive and waited. He told police he wasn't sure how long he had waited, but it was between one and two hours. He had even entered Old Navy, exited, sat on the grass for a while, and watched as people passed him by.
The victim (who we will not name out of respect for her ordeal) and her two children — her three-year-old daughter and her eight-month-old daughter — arrived at about 3:30 p.m., the court heard. She went into Michael's and exited about 10 minutes later.
Stavropoulos told police he had been waiting for the “right opportunity,” and when he saw the victim with her two young daughters, “something clicked” in his head.
“I told myself, 'Don't be a pussy,'” he told police.
He approached her from behind as she was buckling her three-year-old daughter into her car seat. He said he just started stabbing her. He said he was surprised by how hard she fought back.
He then turned his attention to the baby. The baby was his real target, he told police, but in order to get to the baby, he first had to take out the mother.
Stavropoulos told officers he made several attempts to stab the baby, but wasn't sure if he had managed to do so.
“I tried to stab the child, I'm not denying that,” he told police.
He told police that during the stabbing, he wasn't “psychotic” or experiencing any kind of “psychosis,” nor did he feel remorse for his actions. If given the chance again, he said he wasn't sure if he would or wouldn't do it again.
The victim sustained three serious stab wounds, as well as two smaller wounds, all of which led to “profuse, high-pressure bleeding,” said Kim, citing the report from physicians who performed surgery. She suffered from a “rapid and voluminous loss of blood” that would have resulted in her death if left untreated.
During the proceedings on Jan. 13, the Crown played two 911 calls from two different witnesses, including Brent Holder, who confronted Stavropoulos in the parking lot. He told Sudbury.com all about what happened that day. To watch the video, click here.
When Stavropoulos saw Holder approaching, he backed off from his attack, because he thought Holder was an undercover police officer. He also thought Holder was carrying a gun.
Other witnesses attended to the mom, and it's thanks to their help she survived the ordeal, said doctors in their report. Had medical intervention not happened in the parking lot, she likely would have bled out.
The Crown is seeking a Dangerous Offender registry ruling against Stavropoulos. He will return to video remand court on Jan. 23.
Stavropoulos was under an order not to be in possession of knives stemming from an April 2018 incident at the downtown transit terminal. He was shot by police after charged at officers.
He was holding two knives at the time. For that story, click here.
– Sudbury.com