Minassian attended Seneca College, according to his LinkedIn profile; a spokeswoman for the Toronto-area school didn't immediately respond to an inquiry about him on Tuesday. Another student, Joseph Pham, told The Toronto Star that Minassian was in a computer programming class with him just last week.

Pham described Minassian as a "socially awkward" student who kept to himself: "He didn't really talk to anyone."

Before college, Minassian attended Thornlea Secondary School in Richmond Hill, graduating in 2011. A Thornlea classmate, Ari Blaff, told CBC News he recalls Minassian was "sort of in the background," not the centre of any particular group of friends.

"He wasn't overly social," Blaff told the news broadcaster.

Both Thornlea and Seneca declined to discuss him Tuesday.

Minassian joined the Canadian Armed Forces last year but his stay was brief.

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The Department of National Defence says he was a member of the military from August until October 2017, and he did not complete his recruit training. He asked to be voluntarily released after 16 days, the department said.

Shortly before Monday's attack on a crowded Toronto street, a chilling post appeared on Minassian's now-deleted Facebook account saluting Elliot Rodger, a community college student who killed six people and wounded 13 in shooting and stabbing attacks near the University of California, Santa Barbara, before apparently shooting himself to death in 2014.

Calling Rodger "the Supreme Gentleman," the Facebook post declared: "The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys!"

The 22-year-old Rodger had used the term "incel" – for involuntarily celibate – in online posts raging at women for rejecting him romantically. Like-minded people in internet forums sometimes use "Chad" and "Stacy" as dismissive slang for men and women with more robust sex lives.

Monday's Facebook post mentions that "Private (Recruit) Minassian" is speaking, and Facebook confirmed that the post was on an account that belonged to the suspect. The social networking site took down his account after the attack, saying in a statement Tuesday, "There is absolutely no place on our platform for people who commit such horrendous acts."

AP