Posted on 07/25/2018 5:16:49 AM PDT by Johnny Diamond
The quiet sibling from a family often visited by tragedy. A shy young man with few close friends. A mass shooter who does not appear to have been on the radar of either federal national security agencies or provincial law enforcement.
Faisal Hussain, the 29-year-old gunman in Sunday's fatal rampage on the Danforth, had a complicated past replete with family misfortune — including his older brother's drug overdose, which put him in a vegetative state — and mental health challenges including psychosis, his family said.
But if there were warning signs, they weren't foretold in a criminal rap sheet. According to the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, Hussain has no criminal court files associated with his name. Nor was he in the sights of national security agencies, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters Tuesday.
Based on what's known so far, there is "no national security connection between this individual and any other national security issue," Goodale said. A senior member of the Ontario Provincial Police, who spoke to the Star on the condition of anonymity, likewise said Hussain was not known to that force.
Hussain did have at least two prior mental health-related interactions with police, according to a source with knowledge of the encounters. However, Toronto police would not confirm whether Hussain was known to them, as there are no public safety reasons to disclose past interactions he may or may not have had, a spokesperson said.
The shooter's family, along with friends and neighbours in Hussain's Thorncliffe Park apartment complex, say they are shocked and devastated by his final act. The mass shooting killed 18-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old girl Julianna Kozis, leaving 13 others injured.
In what Loblaws is calling a "tragic coincidence," Hussain, Fallon and Samantha Price — a young woman who was injured in the shooting — were all employees of the chain, according to an internal email sent Tuesday and obtained by the Star.
Fallon and Price worked out of a Victoria Park location, while Hussain worked in a different Loblaws and a Shoppers Drug Mart store, according to the email.
The shooting, which occurred just after 10 p.m. Sunday, prompted a flood of panicked 911 calls, and Toronto police were on the scene within four minutes, a spokesperson said.
Hussain exchanged gunfire with two Toronto police officers just south of Danforth Ave. He fled and was found dead of a gunshot wound soon after. Police sources have said the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, however the province's police watchdog, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), has not confirmed the details of his death.
In a statement issued Monday, Hussain's family said he suffered from "severe mental health challenges" and struggled with psychosis and depression. Relatives said they tried their best "to seek help for him throughout his life of struggle and pain," but never imagined the "destructive" path he would choose at the end of his life.
"We've had tragedies in the past in this community, but nothing as devastating as this," said Aamir Sukhera, who was a family friend of Hussain's and is a youth outreach worker with the Thorncliffe community.
"What he did was so horrible, and unfair, and unjust, and it makes me so angry that someone I knew and cared about was capable of something like that."
Sukhera has no idea how Hussain could have got his hands on a gun, particularly since he didn't have any money, Sukhera said.
He said he recently ran into Hussain, who relayed that his hours at work had been reduced, but said he didn't seem upset about it.
Neighbours in Thorncliffe Park described Hussain as quiet, with few close friends. He attended Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute before switching to Victoria Park Collegiate Institute.
His family was struck by tragedy when his sister was killed in a car accident. The event was a turning point for the family, Sukhera said.
Last year brought another blow. Faisal's older brother, Fahad Hussain, suffered a drug overdose last summer and as of January this year remained in a "vegetative" state at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, court records show.
Two years earlier, on July 24, 2015, Fahad was behind the wheel of a rented Hyundai Accent in Saskatoon when police boxed in the vehicle and arrested him and a 22-year-old female companion for allegedly selling crack cocaine. Police seized 26 pieces of individually wrapped cocaine in a Tylenol container weighing 4.72 grams. A summary of the arrest said officers also seized four cellphones that were "ringing off the hook" with people ordering drugs. He had no prior criminal record.
Prosecutors in Saskatchewan agreed to transfer the charges to Ontario, where Fahad, as a condition of his release, was ordered to reside at a Thorncliffe Park address with Faroq and Sutana Hussain.
Back in Toronto, in February 2017, police charged him with possessing ammunition — a shotgun shell — and failing to comply with bail conditions. He was released on Feb. 21 that year on $10,000 bail and ordered to live in Pickering with his surety, a 33-year-old named Maisum Ansari, court records show.
Last September — while Fahad was in a coma — fire crews responded to a carbon monoxide alarm at the Pickering home and alerted police to a suspicious substance in the basement. Durham Regional Police executed a search warrant, finding 33 guns and other prohibited devices, such as overcapacity magazines, and seized 53 kilograms of a substance identified as the deadly street drug carfentanil.
Now the media is trying to make us all feel sorry for the shooter and his family, not the actual victims.
When life is hard, the ISIS way is to kill some infidels and get you some virgins.
Gee, I wonder where he got the gun...
Model citizens all.
Has the Canadian media reported on whether or not the perp was a Canadian citizen?
Each and every day the press demonstrates their idiocy.
Faisal Hussain's brother Fahad is a drug dealer. His friend Maisum Ansari was arrested for 337 firearms related charges. But pay no attention to that. The CBC says he had a "million dollar smile" and was "humble and polite". Ignore this whole ISIS thing. https://t.co/yH0i0EliOo
Hmmmm... LOOK! SQUIRREL! Absolutely NO connection with moose limbs. Motive? Unknown? Still piecing it all together? But one thing for sure. More gun control is needed. Even if doesn’t do anything.
Toronto gunman was a ‘kook’ obsessed with Batman: cops
What I found interesting in this article was the fact that his brother seems to have had ample access to both drugs and weapons.
“Sukhera has no idea how Hussain could have got his hands on a gun, particularly since he didn’t have any money, Sukhera said.”
“Last September — while Fahad was in a coma — fire crews responded to a carbon monoxide alarm at the Pickering home and alerted police to a suspicious substance in the basement. Durham Regional Police executed a search warrant, finding 33 guns and other prohibited devices, such as overcapacity magazines, and seized 53 kilograms of a substance identified as the deadly street drug carfentanil.”
“Ansari, who owns the home, was charged with 337 firearm-related offences. He is out on bail.”
“Two years earlier, on July 24, 2015, Fahad was behind the wheel of a rented Hyundai Accent in Saskatoon when police boxed in the vehicle and arrested him and a 22-year-old female companion for allegedly selling crack cocaine. Police seized 26 pieces of individually wrapped cocaine in a Tylenol container weighing 4.72 grams. A summary of the arrest said officers also seized four cellphones that were “ringing off the hook” with people ordering drugs.”
The are saying they had no idea this could happen? Just reading the family ‘rap sheet’ is a glaring RED warning light.
From the tail end of the above post, “Last September — while Fahad was in a coma — fire crews responded to a carbon monoxide alarm at the Pickering home and alerted police to a suspicious substance in the basement. Durham Regional Police executed a search warrant, finding 33 guns and other prohibited devices, such as overcapacity magazines, and seized 53 kilograms of a substance identified as the deadly street drug carfentanil.”
Add all this together and there was no way tragedy was not predictable. Then that babble about ‘mental health issues. He was a walking time bomb. Honestly the authorities are guilty of culpable negligence (or whatever the right phrase is).
Things will not improve as long as people keep averting their eyes and closing their ears. The truth is out there, look and see.
"CBC News has learned from a source close to his family that Faisal Hussain, 29, was apprehended twice by police while he was under age 18. A police source confirmed his prior contact with authorities involved mental health problems. "
Hmmm...where, oh where could he possibly have gotten a gun with no money to spend. Could someone have GIVEN him a gun, perhaps with a little suggestion as to what to do with it?
Hm. I don't know. This is such a puzzle. It seems nearly impossible to solve and figure this out. Everyone is so baffled by this.
And Leftists, being who they are, have no qualms about using a mentally ill person with a specific mission of harming people to accomplish a political goal, as James O’Keefe showed in his incredible Project Veritas undercover videos.
Whenever the Muslim is feeling sad, a good old round of mass murder, rape, and pedophilia are reliable pick-me-ups.
um, AW.
Glad the piece of $h!t is dead.
Agreed. Wish they could have killed him before he killed others. Then his family and friends wouldn’t have had to be puzzled by or agonize how and why he did what he did.
***When life is hard, the ISIS way is to kill some infidels and get you some virgins.***
That is what happened years ago when a moslem shot up the Empire State Building observation floor. But then that was before ISIS, but jihadi syndrome IS THE “default” position.
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