Alexandre Bissonnette changes plea to guilty in killing of six Muslim men

The Quebec City man accused of killing six people and critically injuring five others at a mosque in 2017 is pleading guilty to all 12 charges, but denies being a terrorist or an Islamophobe.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, is charged with six counts of first degree murder and six counts of attempted murder. The sixth attempted murder charge covers the 35 other people, including four children, who were inside the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec at the time of his shooting spree who were not injured.

In a Quebec City courtroom, Bissonnette said he regrets his actions and asked for forgiveness.

“I would like to ask you to forgive me for all the wrongs that I have done but I know what I did is unforgivable,” he said, addressing members of the Muslim community who were in the courtroom, according to the Montreal Gazette.

“I don’t know why I did something so foolish,” Bissonnette said. “I’m not a terrorist, nor an Islamophobe. I was taken over by fear, by negative thinking, by desperation.”

Bissonnette said he spends all his time thinking about “the lives [he] destroyed, the immense pain that [he] caused to so many people, including members of [his] own family.”

Azzedine Soufiane, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Abdelkrim Hassane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, and Ibrahima Barry, who were at the mosque for evening prayers, were killed in the shooting.

Bissonnette had pleaded not guilty on Monday, as pretrial motions began, but changed his plea the same day, just hours later, according to CBC News.

Bissonnette explained in court that he had decided to plead guilty months ago because he didn't want people, including the survivors of the attack and the victims' families to "relive this tragedy," reported The Globe and Mail. On advice from his lawyers, he waited to change his plea until all evidence was made available to them.

A judge formally accepted the plea on Wednesday morning, after a psychologist testified that Bissonnette was of sound mind, and a publication ban that was imposed earlier was lifted.

Moments after the plea was accepted, the National Council of Canadian Muslims tweeted that they were "extremely relieved by this turn of events, given it spares the survivors, families and [mosque] community from having to relive the horrific attack during what would have been long and excruciating trial."

A guilty plea for a first degree murder charge carries a sentence of life in prison with no parole for 25 years. Because Bissonnette faces six first degree murder charges, he will likely be in prison for the rest of his life.