MONTREAL — The man identified as the gunman in Monday’s deadly Montreal shooting was a 25-year-old philosophy student from southern Alberta whose writings railed against women, capitalism and modern society, according to authorities, school officials and a manifesto tied to the suspect.Quebec’s coroner has identified the suspect as Seth Scott Hatfield of Lethbridge, Alberta. He was killed Monday after a shooting in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges district that left Montreal police Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane and 68-year-old civilian Michel Mizrahi dead. Another officer was injured.Police have not publicly laid out a motive, but investigators are examining a 104-page manifesto attributed to Hatfield that repeatedly denounces women, female sexuality, capitalism and what the author described as the “loneliness” and “social degradation” of men in Western society.The document portrays modern society as a “hypergamy state” in which women allegedly select a small pool of attractive men while ordinary men are left isolated and alienated. It also includes antisemitic and anti-Zionist references, attacks on pornography and denunciations of modern capitalist society..A review of the manifesto found repeated references to women and female sexuality, with the terms “woman,” “women,” “female,” “females,” “girl” and “girls” appearing a combined 368 times. It also contains a handful of references to Jews, Judaism, Zionism and related variants a total of 12 times.The Holy Spirit Catholic School Division in Alberta confirmed to the Montreal Gazette that Hatfield was a former student in the division.“Out of respect for the ongoing active investigation, we are unable to provide further details or comments,” superintendent Chantel Axani told the newspaper.“We mourn the lives lost and our thoughts, hearts, and prayers go out to all those who have been impacted by this devastating act.”The University of Lethbridge also confirmed to the Gazette that Hatfield studied philosophy there. According to the newspaper, Hatfield was named to the dean’s honour list in the winter 2026 semester, an academic distinction awarded to students who achieve a grade-point average of at least 3.75..UPDATED: Montreal shooting suspect confirmed as 25-year-old Lethbridge man .The university said in a statement to the Gazette that it extends condolences to those killed and injured in the shooting and “strongly condemns the views and ideologies that have been attributed to the shooter in media reports.”An old friend who knew Hatfield in elementary school and attended high school with him described him to the Gazette as “funny, and a bit aloof” as a child, but also highly intelligent and deeply interested in history, particularly the First and Second World Wars.“He seemed to know more than most of us and was very opinionated,” the friend told the newspaper, adding Hatfield later developed an interest in political thinkers such as Karl Marx.The friend said the two drifted apart in high school and that Hatfield was not viewed as rude or as a “creepy loner,” but rather as someone with a smaller social circle.Hatfield’s writings, however, paint a far darker picture of his worldview in the period leading up to the attack.The manifesto repeatedly frames male loneliness and sexual frustration as political grievances and blames women’s economic independence and feminism for what it describes as the collapse of monogamy and social order. In one passage, the author writes of “terrible loneliness, isolation, and social degradation” among men; in another, he argues that capitalism was “never designed” with the interests of ordinary men in mind.Media reports have said investigators are examining whether the document aligns with so-called incel ideology, an online misogynistic subculture built around resentment toward women and perceived romantic rejection.What is clear is that by Tuesday, investigators in Quebec and Alberta were trying to piece together how a high-achieving university student from Lethbridge ended up at the centre of one of Montreal’s deadliest shootings in recent years.
