Quebec City mosque shooter obsessed with mass murderers since adolescence

Alexandre Bissonnette's obsession with mass murderers started when he was an adolescent, and he had wanted tocarry out a mass killing ever since, a Quebec City court heardon Monday.

A reportwritten by social worker Guylaine Cayouetteset off cries of horror inside the courtroom when it was presented as evidenceon Mondayby the Crownatsentencing arguments for the 28-year-old.

Bissonnettepleaded guilty in March to six counts of first degree murder, as well as six counts of attempted murder for the Jan. 29, 2017 shooting.

Quebec Superior Court JusticeFranoisHuotmust decide whetherBissonnettewill be eligible for parole after 25 years, or not at all.Huothas the possibility of adding up theparole eligibility sentences, which could mean 150 years behind bars.

Cayouette, Bissonnette'sliaison officer, filed the report after a meeting with himonSept. 20, 2017. That day, she wrote, Bissonnette carried himself differently from the man she had met, almost weekly, since his arrest.

Bissonnette told her he was tired of playing a game, and that he remembered everything about the attack.

In contrast to his muddled responsesto policeimmediately after the shooting, Bissonnettedescribed in detail what happened when he approached the mosque in the Quebec City suburb of Sainte-Foy.

He said when he entered the prayer room, an old man grabbed his arm, presumably Azzeddine Soufiane, who tried to disarm Bissonnette that night.

"I shot him. I regret not shooting more people," he told Cayouette.

Inside the courtroom, families of the victims cried out as the report was read aloud. They also heard that Bissonnette said he could have killed anyone, not just Muslims.

When court adjourned for break, Bissonnette stood up looking directly at the audience, with what looked like a huge smile.

Hours scouring the Internet

Earlier in the day, the court heard how Bissonnette spent hours in front of his computer screen looking up mass shootings, Islam and U.S. immigration policies in the days leading up to theshooting.

During the month of January 2017, he typed in the words "shooting"and "shooter"150 times in his search engine, a police reportpresented as evidence shows.

He also looked for information about the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre and theMuslim students association at Laval University 82 times during that month and 12 times in the hours before shooting.

Bissonnette seemed particularly interested in Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who killed nine churchgoers inside a church in South Carolina, searching for references to the mass murderer 201 times during that month.

He also looked up references to Marc Lpine, the man convicted of killing 14 women in 1989 at the Polytechnique engineering school, and looked into feminist groups at Laval University.

A photo of Bissonnette found on his computer shows him wearing a red baseball cap with the slogan used by Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, Make America Great Again.

Bissonnette read several articles detailing Trump's executive order which would have temporarily banned people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.

He also consulted Donald Trump's twitter feed on a daily basis, Jacques said.

The evidence presentedon Mondaysupported information found in Bissonnette's interrogation video, which was presented lastFriday.

Just two hours before entering the Sainte-Foy mosque and firing his gun 48 times, Bissonnette read a tweet from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which welcomed "those fleeing persecution"into Canada, according to evidence presented Monday.

Victim impact statements beganMonday afternoon, with survivorAymen Derbali.

Read his story here:

• Survivor of Quebec City mosque shooting doesn't believe shooter is remorseful