Villalba-Aleman was charged Thursday with three counts of aggravated assault, four counts of assault with a weapon, two counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and mischief under $3,774, or $5,000 in Canadian currency.

Chief Mark Crowell of the Water Regional Police Service told reporters Thursday during a press conference that Villalba-Aleman, a recent international graduate from the institution, is accused of entering the class of some 40 students at around 3:30 p.m. and speaking with the 38-year-old teacher before attacking her with “two large knives without provocation.”

As some students fled the class and others went to aid their professor, Villalba-Aleman stabbed two students who were trying to escape and attempted to harm a third, Crowell said.

Police, who were called to the scene at 3:37 p.m., apprehended the suspect without incident within the building as he was attempting to pose as a victim. Crowell said they were able to identify him as a suspect based on witness accounts.

All three victims were hospitalized. The professor and a 20-year-old woman received serious but non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to out-of-region hospitals. A 19-year-old man who was also stabbed in the attack suffered non-life-threatening injuries and received treatment locally, Crowell said.

He said investigators believe he attacked the class because of its topic.

“Investigators have reason to believe that this was a planned targeted attack motivated by hate related to gender expression and gender identity,” he said.

The university on Thursday held a gathering in on campus that was accompanied by a moment of silence at 3:37 p.m.

“It is both sad and disturbing that this incident has occurred during Pride Month, a time where we celebrate and recognize members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community,” Crowell said, referring to the initialism used in Canada to represent its two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and additional sexual orientations and gender identities community.

“We hope that this incident does not diminish from these celebrations but instead encourages us all to come together, to continue to celebrate and continue to inspire love over hate.”

Prime Minister Justine Trudeau tweeted his condemnation on Thursday.

“The fact that the stabbings at the University of Waterloo were hate-motivated is absolutely despicable. I strongly conmen this vile act,” he said.

“I want to make this clear: This heinous violence, and the hate that fueled it, have no place in our country. We must — and we will — keep working to build a Canada where everyone is welcome to be who they are, to study what they want and to be safe from violence.”

The attack is reminiscent of the mass shooting of Dec. 6, 1989, when a man gunned down 14 women and injured 10 others before turning the weapon on himself in a hate-motivated attack at Ecole Polytechnique of the University of Montreal.

Decades later, it remains among Canada’s worst school shootings and is commemorated annually on Dec. 6 as National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.

During the Thursday press conference, Crowell told reporters that authorities across Canada have seen a “troubling and disturbing trend” of the LGBTQ community be targeted by hate-motivated crimes, but especially during the Pride Month of June.

“I think we all know that there’s a polarization in society right now, both online and in the real world there’s conversations that are spilling over into every day life, and I can say that we have seen in our community a small uptick in events recently targeting … the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and hate-motivated incidents and we’re absolutely focused on addressing those with the best efforts that we have,” he said.

According to Statistics Canada, reported hates crimes surged 27% in 2021 from a year prior, seeing 3,360 reports compared to 2,646 in 2020.

That jump was a slight decrease from the 36% increase 2020 saw from 2019, it said.

In 2021, there ere 423 hate-crime reports related to sexual orientation in 2021, an increase of 67% from a year prior, it said.