Authorities in Montreal are continuing to investigate a deadly shooting in the Côte-des-Neiges district that left a police officer and a civilian dead, while officers examine a manifesto allegedly written by the suspect. The attack unfolded on Monday and ended when the suspected gunman was shot and killed by responding police officers.
Canadian media have identified the suspect as 25-year-old Seth Scott Hatfield of Lethbridge, Alberta. Authorities have not formally confirmed his identity or disclosed a motive.
According to local reports, investigators recovered a 104-page manifesto that the suspect allegedly distributed to several media organisations before the attack. The document is now being analysed as part of the ongoing investigation. Reports citing police sources said the manifesto advocated a violent uprising against modern capitalist society and contained hostile references to police officers, Jewish people, women and pornography.
Sources told TVA Nouvelles that his ideology was similar to that of “incels”. He denounced the fate of a majority of men, calling them “ordinary men”, saying the women supposedly preferred a small number of “brutes”. He also slammed capitalism and deplored “the state of affairs regarding young people (under 30 years old) who live in highly developed Western countries.”
His manifesto bemoaned male loneliness and allegedly attacked porn sites, saying they were largely responsible for the state of men today. According to Radio-Canada, he also called for a violent revolution to take down modern capitalist society. “Be steadfast, move forward, and KILL THEM ALL!” he wrote. The police are going through the document to investigate the motives of the shooter and whether he was targeting any particular people in the shooting.
Hartfield says in the lengthy document that most women today exhibit “frequent and cruel verbal abuse” towards men. In more derogatory remarks, he says that the women have “abandoned all or most of their efforts to be attractive,” with some refusing to have children. “For the average man, the closest thing to the privacy he is entitled to is usually watching internet pornography through his phone screen, in the darkness of his bedroom, late at night,” he writes.
He slammed the modern capitalist society, calling on people to lay their hands on “a blade, a rifle, a bomb, or all of the above” and start “a global revolution.” He declares, “We must not allow any liberal or capitalist enclave, however small, to continue to exist after we take power.”
Police have not publicly commented on the contents of the document.
Witness footage shared on social media appeared to show an individual dressed in military-style clothing carrying what looked like a long firearm as heavily armed officers responded to the scene. Residents in the area were instructed to remain indoors while police conducted operations.
Speaking at a news conference, Montreal police chief Fady Dagher said the investigation remained active. “The suspect has been neutralized,” he said, adding that investigators were still working to establish the circumstances surrounding the attack.
Dagher said it had been 24 years since a Montreal police officer was killed in the line of duty. “This was a nightmare, the worst sort of nightmare,” he said. “When you become a police officer, you know the risks. But you never expect something like this to happen.”
He also confirmed that a second officer who had been critically injured was now in stable condition. “The policewoman who was in critical condition is now in stable condition and no longer fears for her life,” he said.
Dagher said police were in possession of the manifesto but had not yet determined whether the shooting was a planned ambush or whether the suspect had links to a broader network.
The incident is also being investigated by Quebec’s independent police oversight agency, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), which reviews cases involving civilian deaths or injuries during police operations.
The police officer killed in the attack has been identified as Constable Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, who had served with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) since 2021.
The civilian victim was identified as Michael Moshe Mizrahi, a member of Montreal’s Jewish community and associated with a local Chabad centre.
According to reports, Mizrahi was originally from Lebanon and later lived in Israel before settling in Montreal. He is survived by a son and two daughters living in Israel.
Authorities have not announced when further details about the investigation will be released.