Eaton Centre shootings: Christopher Husbands' path to violence

Christopher Husbands was on his way to LordDufferinSchool on a night in June, walkingthrough the Regent Park neighbourhood he had grown up in.

Then Toronto police stopped him.

Husbands, 12yearsold at the time, said he was thrown against a wall and threatened by officers.

He was on his way, ironically,to appear onCBC's town hall on policing and gun violence, held at the school that night in 2002.When hearrived,he was visibly shaken.

That was almost exactly10 years before Husbands would pull out a guninthe crowded food court at the Eaton Centre and start shooting. He fired 14 times, killing his childhood friend, Nixon Nirmalendran, and a 24-year-oldnamedAhmedHassan.

• How the Nirmalendran family became engulfed in tragedy
• A friend recalls a turning point in Nixon Nirmalendran's short life
• A week before the shootings,Nixon Nirmalendrantalked about going back to school

Husbands would be charged for second degree murder in theEaton Centre shootings.Husbands was given consecutive sentences spread out over 30 years. That sentence is being appealed.

The path Husbands took to violence, along with three other children from his schoolNixon,NisanandNirusanNirmalendranis one CBC's Metro Morning has looked at in depth in its series, The Nirmalendran Brothers: A Story Of Love, Fear and Violence.

Hiding in a hood

Sheena Robertson still remembers the night of CBC's town hall on gun violence and policing. Asa teacher atLord Dufferin Public School, the CBC asked her to select three students to speak.

She recallshow the youngest student, Husbands,arrived more than20 minutes late, with his hoodpulled over his head. Ironically, it was just before arriving to speak at the policing and violence town hall that Husbands had been stopped by police.

"The show is happening, so all I could do was put my arm on the chair around him, and he starts crying, and he's quietly crying through the first segment of the show," she said.

"He'd been thrown up against a wall. They'd sworn at him. He was very upset. He felt it was so unjust. "

Robertsonwanted Husbands to tell his story on the live broadcast. But maybe it was too recent, too raw.

• Listen to Metro Morning's story on Christopher Husbands

When he was invited to the mic, he asked instead about a police hotline for bullying.

Host Andy Barrie:We have at the microphone two young students who wanted to be heard from .. Peter and Christopher .. go ahead, let's hear from you.

Husbands:My name is Christopher.I'm from Regent Park. My question is why isn't there a police hotline or a place for kids, where kids could go and speak out that are being targeted ..

Barrie: Targeted how, Christopher ..

Husbands: Like being bullied, harassed...

Husbands had darker skin than most childrenin Regent, which made him a target for bullying. He often tried to escape attention, said Robertson.

"He put his hood up, and triedto disappear," said Robertson.

A series of mistakes

There were other struggles the young boy faced.

His father worked the night shift and his mother, back in Guyana, struggled with addiction. It sometimes felt to Robertson that Husbandsand his sisters were raising themselves, said Robertson.

By Grade 9, Husbands enrolled in Northern Secondary. A few months into the school year, aclassmate wearing a Halloween mask jumped out at him from behind a locker. Husbandsgrabbed the mask and threw it in his openlocker.

The next day the boy's father came to school, accusing Husbands of stealing the mask, according to Robertson.He was expelled.

Robertson said had she known, she would have gone toNorthern andmade sure Husbands was allowed tostayin school.

"I'm sure if anyone had asked him he would have given the mask back. From my perspective as an educator, if there'd been an advocate for him there in those meetings, I don't think he would have been expelled out of the school at all."

On two occasions after that, Robertsonwent to court to support him as he faced a couple of charges. The crimes were not serious, but she began to thinkher promising, eager student was turning into a young man she was increasingly worried about.

"Sometimes things happen with young peoplewhere they're down the rabbithole. And it's incredibly hard once one thing happens, if you don't have the right resources to climb back out. Specially if you're trying to do it on your own," she said.

But then came a more serious charge involvingdealing drugs. He was givenajail term. By then he was also a father.

"I remember going to pick him up somewhere, and we went to Cherry Beach and we sat and had lunch together," remembers Robertson. "He talked about his dreams and what he hoped for and how he wanted to be a good father, and how much he loved his daughter. And he actually came that summer and worked on an art project I was doing on the Island.

Going to court

A year later, Robertson received more devastating news than she could have imagined: Husbands was the lone shooter in a brazen public shooting at the Eaton Centre food court.

He never denied he shot his former friends, Nirmalendran and Hassan, but he did sayhe was in a state of shock, traumatized from a brutal beating at Nixon's hands four months earlier.

"These stories are not as simple as they seem," Husbands' former teacher said."To look at them and think that it's a one-dimensional thing is a mistake as a society."

During Husbands' trial and sentencing,Robertson was often there in court.

"These young men did not need to end up in this situation dead or in jail for the rest of their lives," she said.

"It's not pre-destined, and there are lots of things we could do to make it better."