Warning: Graphic content BRANDON — A high school student accused of a grisly sword attack at a Manitoba high school referred to immigrants as invaders, researched school massacres and fantasized about being killed by police, stated an agreed statement of facts presented during the teen’s trial. The teen was in court in Brandon, Man., this week for the start of his trial. The boy, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been charged with three counts of attempted murder, uttering threats, wearing a disguise and possession of a weapon relating to his alleged role in an attack at Neelin High School last year that saw one student suffer from deep cuts on his hands, chest and thigh. The 17-year-old pleaded not guilty to all charges. Court heard Tuesday that in the months leading up to June 10, 2025 attack at the school, the then-16-year-old accused kept journals and notebooks referring to African-American and Muslim immigrants as “invaders.” In an entry 12 days before the attack, the teen wrote of a “mass murder” suicide plan. Following the assault, police alleged the attacker entered the high school wearing a disguise, brandished a sword and targeted people of colour and immigrants. Officers were able to use a stun gun to take down the accused and arrest him. Little else was released on what led up to the attack. The Canadian Press reviewed the statement of claim and an audio recording of the first day of the trial, which shed more light on the details of the day and the attacker’s interest in school shootings and other mass killings. On the morning of the assault, the teen spoke briefly on the phone with a friend and told them he was going through with “the plan he had been planning for months,” the statement said. He later arrived at the school, where he was a Grade 10 student at the time, in black pants and a black trench coat. He was carrying a concealed sword and a knife. The statement said the teen went to a bathroom where he put on a black “plague mask,” which had a long beaklike nose, that covered most of his face. Shortly after leaving the bathroom, the accused ran into a classmate who complimented him on his costume. The two briefly spoke when the accused pulled the sword on the victim, who is Black, and stabbed him multiple times. “(The victim) grabbed at the sword to prevent the attack, causing catastrophic injuries to his hands,” the statement said. The then-15-year-old assault victim was able to get away and ran to the administration office. The accused followed him, the statement detailed. At one point, the student passed Baseswa Nundu, the school’s principal. Nundu thought the student was joking around when he ran into the office but later saw the attacker come around the corner. The accused raised the sword above his head and chased the principal down the hallway, the statement said. “Nundu ran into a nearby classroom and held the door closed. The accused stabbed at the small glass window by the door. The sword narrowly missed Nundu’s eye.” It goes on to say the accused walked past several Caucasian students and didn’t react. He then saw another student in the hallway, raised his sword and started chasing them before he was stopped by a Caucasian teacher, who wasn’t harmed. A lockdown was called and Nundu contacted police. At the same time, the school resource officer was called. He alerted police, “who dispatched nearly their entire office.” Before police arrived, the accused entered a classroom and asked the four Caucasian students in it if there were “any Blacks” in the room. He left when they told him no. He continued to wander the halls until police arrived. The statement said he refused to put down the sword and asked to be shot in the head. Officers used a stun gun on the teen, who was taken into custody. The statement said after his arrest, the teen was shouting “Why didn’t you shoot me?” and “I wanted you to shoot me.” The whole attack took seven minutes. In police interviews, the accused told detectives he been planning the attack for months, he told detectives. The statement said he initially refused to discuss a motive, but later told officers he wanted to “go out with a bang.” The teen admitted to being inspired by a similar 2015 case from Sweden, where a man named Anton Lundin Pettersson dressed in black and armed himself with a sword before killing three immigrants and was killed by police. Court heard the accused had written about celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and supporting the right of Texas to patrol its borders. The investigation led officers to seize notebooks, a tablet and several cardboard cut-outs in the shape of guns and swords from the teen’s home. Police found files on the attacker’s tablet relating to the Columbine High School massacre in the United States, other school shootings and swastika images. A canvass of his phone found thousands of searches relating to domestic terrorism and “targeted acts of racially motivated violence.” The statement said he also searched “average police response times in Brandon” and “how deadly is a sword slash.” The phone contained a document that the Crown is expected to argue was the beginning of a manifesto written by the accused. He has not admitted to this, the agreed statement of facts said. The judge-alone trial is scheduled to continue in June. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2026. — By Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg. The Canadian Press
