Who Is Alexandre Bissonnette?

The Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec was attacked by gunmen this evening, killing at least 5 people and wounding countless others. There were approximately 40 people in the center at the time. The three gunmen were armed with automatic weapons.

According to The Daily Mail and La Presse, local media have reported that two people were taken into custody so far for the shooing: Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, and Mohamed Khadir (age unknown). Khadir was released and is NOT considered a suspect.

Alexandre Bissonnette Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin

Here is Alexandre Bissonnette's Facebook, according to Heavy. The Facebook account has numerous pictures of him. The account shows a man playing video games, and generally having fun. There is very little religious or provocative information posted by Bissonnette.

Bissonnette's music tastes included Weezer and Katy Perry, as well as German band Rammstein. Some of the books he liked were on chess theory.

He also like the Feminist Movement of Laval University.

He also liked Donald Trump on Facebook.

He also liked Christian site Reasonable Faith, which describes itself as "an intelligent, articulate, and uncompromising Christian perspective on important issues concerning the Christian faith today." He also liked George W Bush, and the NDP of Canada.

Were either of the gunmen Muslim? Why did they do this?

Update: As we suspected below, the terrorist was not a Muslim. He appears to have been a white nationalist.

It seems extremely unlikely that an Islamic terrorist in Canada would try to kill other Muslims. However, the CBC is reporting that one witness who refused to be identified suggested at least one of the shooters may have been Muslim:

"It seemed to me that they had a Quebecois accent. They started to fire, and they they shot they yelled, 'Allahu akbar!' The bullets hit people that were praying. People who were praying lost their lives. A bullet passed right over my head," said the witness.

"There were even kids. There was even a three-year-old who was with his father."

CBC is a reputable institution, but there is no corroborating evidence to support this claim.

Logically, this seems extremely unlikely too -- why would an Islamic terrorist with access to high powered weapons in Canada use those weapons on a random Mosque instead of trying to attack targets suggested by ISIS?

There have been several incorrect reports related to this. The Daily Beast has named two people who are not related to the shooting.

Another apparent hoax going around Twitter and Reddit names two people who were claimed to have shown up on a police scanner.

These "police scanner" reports very often turn out to be completely wrong. It's unlikely that people with these names even exist.