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Quebec City mosque gunman wished he had killed more people: report

QUEBEC — The man who murdered six Muslim men in 2017 told a social worker several months after the killings that he wished there had been more victims, evidence tabled in court Monday indicated.

QUEBEC — The man who murdered six Muslim men in 2017 told a social worker several months after the killings that he wished there had been more victims, evidence tabled in court Monday indicated.

In her report tabled by the Crown, social worker Guylaine Cayouette said Alexandre Bissonnette told her he had idolized serial killers since his adolescence and he wanted to make a splash of his own.

“I regret not having killed more people,” Bissonnette reportedly said in September 2017, eight months after he entered a Quebec City mosque and shot dead six men following evening prayers. “The victims are in the sky and I’m living in hell.”

Cayouette’s report was entered as evidence during sentencing arguments for Bissonnette, who pleaded guilty last month to six charges of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder in the shooting.

She had met Bissonnette on the request of a nurse, who said he had not been feeling well. Cayouette noted that as soon as the 28-year-old entered her office in the Quebec City prison, he began to cry.

The social worker added that Bissonnette also told her, “I wanted glory.”

Also Monday, Aymen Derbali, who lost the use of his legs in the shooting, testified in court. He was the first of Bissonnette’s victims to take the stand.

Derbali, who is confined to a wheelchair, said he was configuring his son’s television on Jan. 29, 2017, when he realized he was likely going to be late for 7:30 p.m. prayers.

He said he hesitated a bit, and then decided to go to the mosque.

Derbali, a father of three, had just entered the mosque when he heard gunshots.

“I was the closest one,” he told the court. He said he was hit in the leg and fell to the floor.

Derbali, 41, said he tried to crawl and stop the shooter, but then Bissonnette blasted him.