Friends and those who knew him online said he had extreme political beliefs, but was not known to be violent. Eric Debroise said he called police after the shooting and told them Bissonnette is “very right and (an) ultra nationalist white supremacist,”the French-language newspaper Le Journal de Quebec reports. “He really liked Trump and had a permanent discontent with the left.”
Alexandre Bissonnette, the man police believe opened fire on a Quebec City mosque, will face six charges of first-degree murder and five charges of attempted murder while using a restricted firearm.
According to his Facebook page, which has since been taken down, Bissonnette is from the Quebec City suburb of Cap-Rouge.
His profile also shows he studied anthropology and political science at Laval University and was a cadet as a child.
Laval University confirmed Monday afternoon that Bissonnette was a student in the social sciences faculty.
In its statement, the university said effective immediately, he is barred from all activities at the school until all judicial proceedings are over.
The shooting happened shortly before 8 p.m. ET Sunday, less than three kilometres away from Laval's campus, during evening prayers at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec.