3 dead after fatal shooting near Pornhub's headquarters

This story originally appeared on Out.

A manifesto written by the suspect in a deadly shooting near the headquarters of Pornhub’s parent company in Montreal blames pornography companies and women for male suffering.

A 34-year-old police officer, a civilian, and the male suspect were all killed in a shooting in front of a Hilton Hotel near the offices of Aylo, the world’s largest adult content corporation and the parent company of Pornhub. A second officer was also injured but is currently in stable condition.

A copy of the manifesto attributed to the suspected assailant — identified as Seth Hatfield by reporting from the Montreal Gazette — is full of rhetoric popular among the “incel” (involuntary celibate) movement, the hallmark of which is the belief that women are to blame for men’s lack of romantic and sexual success.

Hatfield’s writings blame capitalism and list potential targets, including politicians, influential Zionists, elite bankers, “the headquarters of international pornography companies,” and wealthy “pornographic actors or actresses themselves” who he blamed for working to “actively promote pornography to the public.”

None of the victims of the attack worked in the adult film industry, but broken windows were visible in the building that houses Pornhub’s parent company in the aftermath of the deadly shooting.

The manifesto also promotes incel ideology about the so-called “hypergamy state,” where women are encouraged to date “a plethora of attractive males” rather than being bound “legalistically and culturally” to just one, and outlines steps to create a “new order” that would take away the economic and sexual freedoms of women.

Hatfield ends the 104-page document with an instruction: “Be unflinching, go forth, and KILL THEM ALL!"

Photographs and videos of the incident have spread on social media, showing a man dressed in military-style clothing and carrying a long gun. Mordy Aisenstark, a manager at a pizza restaurant near the site of the shooting, told the New York Times that he saw what appeared to be the shooter wearing camouflage, lying dead on the ground with a firearm nearby.

At a news conference, Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher said the “immediate threat to the public is no longer present” and called the shooting, which led to a three-hour stand-off with police who urged city residents to shelter in place, a “tragedy."

The police officer who was fatally shot has been identified as Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane and the civilian bystander who died as 68-year-old Michael Mizrahi. According to reporting by The Times of Israel, Mizrahi was a member of Montreal’s Jewish community, and because the shooting also took place in a Jewish neighborhood, there was initial speculation about antisemitic motives but officials have warned against this premature conclusion.