WATCH: The Eaton Centre shooting occurred in June 2012, yet the trial for admitted shooter Christopher Husbands began Friday. Mark Carcasole reports.
TORONTO – Christopher Husbands went to SportChek and used a coupon to buy skates on June 2, 2012, a matter of minutes before firing several shots and killing two people inside Toronto’s Eaton Centre.
The trial started Friday with Husbands’ admitting to pulling the trigger. However, he has pleaded not guilty, his lawyer Dirk Derstine saying he didn’t go to the mall with the intention of shooting anyone.
Lawyers spent much of Tuesday perusing screenshots from security footage gathered at the mall.
The stills show Husbands and his girlfriend going down an escalator onto the lower level of the mall and shopping in SportChek.
After buying skates, Husbands leaves Sportchek and makes his way to the food court nearby where the shooting happened.
Husbands is seen in security footage released Friday walking passed his eventual victims – Nixon Nirmalendran, 22, and Ahmed Hassan, 24.
Crown lawyer Mary Humphrey said Friday there was no argument before the shooting. Husbands said “What’s up?” to a group of people and then started shooting, she said.
As the shooting started, people can be seen running and diving under tables before Husbands walks back into frame, shooting at Hassan and Nirmalendran, who later died.
He injured four other people during the afternoon shooting as well including a 13-year-old boy and a pregnant woman.
Husbands, who was 23 years old and on house arrest at the time, turned himself into police two days after the shooting.
On top of the various charges, Husbands is also the target of several civil lawsuits filed on the families’ behalf.
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