On the morning of June 22, a shooter opened fire outside the Montreal headquarters of Aylo, the multinational conglomerate that owns Pornhub, Brazzers, Digital Playground, and many more. When it was over, Montreal police officer Const. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, and a civilian named Michel Mizrahi were dead. The shooter, identified by Quebec’s coroner as Seth Scott Hatfield, 25, of Lethbridge, Alberta, was also killed by responding officers. A second officer was injured and remains in stable condition.
The gunman appeared to be shooting at the sixth floor of the building across from his hotel, where Aylo employees were working at the time. Broken windows were visible in the Aylo building in the aftermath, though none of the victims worked in the adult film industry. Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher confirmed at a press conference that the immediate threat to the public had ended.
What the Manifesto Said
A 104-page manifesto allegedly authored by Hatfield circulated widely after the attack. Metadata attached to the document shows it was created on June 8, two weeks before the shooting. The manifesto criticizes capitalism, Zionism, liberalism, and online pornography, and suggests targeting pornography companies. It lists “the headquarters of international pornography companies” as well as those who “actively promote pornography to the public” among what it calls valid targets, alongside elite politicians, bankers, real estate brokers, and law enforcement — language that places adult performers and content creators explicitly in the crosshairs alongside institutional power structures.
The shooter wrote that online pornography, including Pornhub specifically, was responsible for a large part of the suffering of men. The document frames performers not merely as symbols of a corrupt system but as active agents of harm — people who, in Hatfield’s framing, profit from and perpetuate the sexual and romantic exclusion of ordinary men. The manifesto invokes the concept of “hypergamy,” which it defines as women seeking more attractive partners while the “common man is sexually left behind,” and blames capitalism and feminism for enabling it. Within this framework, women who work in the adult industry are cast as both cause and embodiment of that perceived injustice — a rhetorical move with a long history in incel and anti-pornography extremism alike.
Experts described the manifesto as “clearly linked” to incel ideology (a misogynistic subculture built around the belief that men are unjustly denied romantic and sexual access), and noted that it encourages others to violently overthrow the existing system. The document’s hostility is not abstract: it names an industry, names a company, and names a category of people whose work it deems worthy of lethal retaliation. The manifesto also encouraged attacks on law enforcement, prompting police to issue warnings about potential copycat violence.
Who Was the Shooter?
The University of Lethbridge confirmed after the shooting that Hatfield was a student there. A 2026 Dean’s Honour List page shows he studied philosophy. CBC News, using online investigation tools, connected Hatfield’s email and phone number to social media profiles that included disturbing imagery, a deleted YouTube playlist featuring a former Infowars host, and a VSCO account with a photo of fictional serial killer Patrick Bateman from American Psycho and the cover of Metallica’s 1983 album Kill ‘Em All. The manifesto ends with a phrase that echoes that album’s title.
Aylo’s Response
Aylo issued a statement expressing condolences to the families of Benredouane and Mizrahi and gratitude to the first responders who protected their employees. The company said it would not speculate on motive while the investigation remains ongoing. The Bureau of Independent Investigations, the civilian agency that reviews serious injuries and fatalities involving police in Quebec, has launched an investigation into the police response, supported by the Sûreté du Québec.
Sources: Wikipedia, CBC News, The Globe and Mail, NY Post
