Another body count

In Québec City:

CBC News has identified two of the six men who died in Sunday night’s shooting at a Quebec City mosque as Azzedine Soufiane, the owner of a grocery store and halal butcher shop, and Khaled Belkacemi, a professor at Laval University.

Soufiane owned and operated the Boucherie Assalam in Sainte-Foy, less than a kilometre away from the Islamic Cultural Centre where the shooting took place.

Belkacemi was a professor of soil and agri-food engineering at the university, also in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood.

In addition to the six confirmed fatalities, five others who were praying at the mosque at the time of the shooting are still in hospital.

CBC talked to a friend of Soufiane’s.

He said Soufiane was known throughout the community as an approachable, supportive figure.

“He was very nice, social, well liked by all his customers,” said Noui. “He was a father to everyone here.”

Noui said when he first moved to Quebec 10 years ago, Soufiane was one of the first people he met, helping him integrate into the community.

Belkacemi earned his bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Polytechnic School of Algiers in Algeria in 1983. He graduated with a PhD from Sherbrooke University in 1990.

His area of research focused on green chemistry and functional foods. Belkacemi was the keynote speaker at the 66th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in Quebec City in October.

Six killed, five in hospitals.

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