Christopher Husbands, the man behind the deadly 2012 Eaton Centre shooting that left two men dead, has been denied parole after more than a decade in prison.
The Parole Board of Canada rejected Husbands’ applications for unescorted temporary absences, day parole, and full parole. A written decision outlining the board’s reasoning will be released in 15 days.
Now 36, Husbands has spent 13 years in custody. During that time, he completed high school, earned a college diploma in business management, and trained as a welder. He told the board that, if released, he hoped to work as a welder and mentor troubled teens.
In his final statement, Husbands apologized to the victims and their families.
“I understand that any attempts at release could be hurtful and reopen old wounds,” he said. “I hope that seeing my dedication to turning my life around and my want to help other individuals going down a similar path to do a U-turn is any consolation. My intention is to help prevent similar crimes from recurring.”
No victim impact statements were submitted during the hearing.
2012 Eaton Centre shooting
On June 2, 2012, Husbands opened fire inside the crowded food court of the Toronto Eaton Centre. He discharged 14 bullets into the lunchtime crowd, killing 23-year-old Ahmed Hassan and 24-year-old Nixon Nirmalendran.
Several others were injured, including a 13-year-old boy who was struck in the head by a stray bullet while shopping with his mother.
Husbands was later convicted of two counts of manslaughter and five counts of aggravated assault. In 2019, he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years. Husbands was also found guilty of five counts of aggravated assault, one of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, and one of intentionally discharging a firearm while being reckless as to the life or safety of another person.Â
Earlier this year, Ontario’s top court upheld that sentence.
Trial details
At trial, jurors heard Husbands, who was 23 at the time, was at the Eaton Centre with his girlfriend shortly before 6:30 p.m. when he spotted Nirmalendran and his brother Nisan Nirmalendran — two men he said had been part of a group that stabbed and left him for dead a few months earlier.
Husbands pulled out a fully loaded semi-automatic handgun that he said he was holding for another man and opened fire in the food court, which had more than 700 people at the time. He fired 14 shots and then escaped, only to turn himself in a few days later, the court heard.
The trial heard that Husbands had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the stabbing in early 2012. The defence urged jurors to find him not criminally responsible on the grounds that he was in a dissociative state at the time of the shooting.
The jury rejected that defence but found Husbands, who was being tried for second-degree murder, guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The Crown initially sought to challenge the acquittals on second-degree murder, and the defence sought the convictions, but both dropped those appeals. The defence appeal proceeded on the sentences alone.
With files from The Canadian Press
