The gunman accused of killing a Montreal police officer during a shootout in Côte-des-Neiges Monday has been identified as Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, of Lethbridge, Alta. His digital footprint and other information gathered by The Gazette offer fresh insight into who he was.
His name was released Tuesday by Quebec’s coroner, who also identified the two other people killed in the attack: Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, a Montreal police officer, and Michel Mizrahi, 68, a bystander caught in the crossfire.
Montreal police were met with gunfire as they arrived at the scene Monday morning in response to a 911 call reporting a person with a gun near the Hilton hotel in the Côte-des-Neiges district. Videos recorded by witnesses showed a man dressed in military-style clothing carrying what appeared to be a long gun as heavily armed officers entered the neighbourhood. Benredouane was fatally shot and another officer was wounded. Mizrahi, a suit salesman, was also killed. Hatfield died during the confrontation with police.
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Police in Alberta are now assisting Quebec authorities, according to the Lethbridge Police Service, as investigators work to piece together Hatfield’s activities before Monday’s attack.
The Gazette learned that he is from and lived in Lethbridge, a southern Alberta city of about 100,000 people near the Montana border, where most of his family also reside. Family members contacted by The Gazette Tuesday did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2019, Hatfield graduated from Catholic Central High School in Lethbridge, according to the school’s graduation list for that year. The Gazette obtained Hatfield’s yearbook photo through two sources to confirm his identity.
Seth Scott Hatfield’s high school yearbook photo. Hatfield has been identified by the Quebec coroner as the suspected gunman in Monday’s Côte-des-Neiges shootings. Handout
In a statement, Holy Spirit Catholic School Division confirmed that Hatfield was a former student within the division.
“Out of respect for the ongoing active investigation, we are unable to provide further details or comments,” said Holy Spirit Catholic School Division superintendent Chantel Axani. “We mourn the lives lost and our thoughts, hearts and prayers go out to all those who have been impacted by this devastating act.”
An old friend, who knew Hatfield in elementary school and attended high school with him, spoke to The Gazette on condition of anonymity. They described Hatfield as “funny, and a bit aloof” as a child. The friend said he was also highly intelligent and had a long-standing interest in history, particularly the First and Second World Wars.
“He seemed to know more than most of us and was very opinionated,” they said. The friend recalled Hatfield developing an interest in political thinkers such as Karl Marx as they grew older, but said they did not know how deeply those beliefs were held.
As the two grew older, they drifted apart during high school. “He wasn’t rude or a ‘creepy loner’ type,” the friend said. “To me, it looked like he just had a smaller circle of friends.”
Hatfield then attended the University of Lethbridge, the university confirmed to The Gazette. He studied philosophy. In the winter 2026 semester, he was named to the dean’s honour list, which is for students who achieve a grade-point average of at least 3.75 in a semester, according to the university’s website.
The university said in a statement it expressed condolences to those killed and injured in the shooting, adding that it “strongly condemns the views and ideologies that have been attributed to the shooter in media reports.”
Those views are laid out in a 104-page document with Hatfield’s name, which surfaced in the hours following the attack and was reviewed by The Gazette. The Gazette has chosen not to publish or link to the document, to avoid amplifying its message.
The document contains rhetoric associated with the so-called “incel” movement, an online ideology centred on grievances about women and relationships. It blames feminism, liberalism and capitalism for what the author describes as male suffering and advocates political violence against a range of institutions and perceived enemies. It also lists dozens of “valid potential class A targets,” including international real estate brokerages, private equity firms, bankers, politicians, influential Zionists, health and oil executives, plastic surgeons, cryptocurrency leaders, the headquarters of corporations with ties to Zionism and “pickup artists.”
Online, Hatfield also left a modest digital footprint. According to verifications The Gazette made against his email address, he held accounts on LinkedIn, Etsy, the multiplayer game Club Penguin, Duolingo and Chess.com. On Chess.com, he played 22 games in 2024.
A now-deleted YouTube account featured a public playlist of 51 videos. It was last updated in December 2022. It included videos from far-right commentator Paul Joseph Watson attacking Black Lives Matter and feminism, among other topics; a livestream on fascism from a channel called Gott Mit Uns; and tributes to anti-communist White Army forces of the Russian Civil War, as well as crude humour clips.
Police have so far not publicly commented on the motive behind Monday’s attack.
In Alberta on Tuesday, the Lethbridge Police Service executed a high-risk search at a residence on Lemoyne Crescent, near the University of Lethbridge.
Several neighbouring homes were evacuated and residents were asked to avoid the area while officers conducted the operation.
Quebec’s police watchdog is also investigating the circumstances of the shooting, while the Sûreté du Québec has launched a parallel criminal investigation.
With files from Noah Brennan of the Calgary Herald
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