Watch above: Christopher Husbands describes paranoia and fear after being stabbed just months before shooting. Marianne Dimain reports.
TORONTO – A man accused of a revenge shooting in a crowded downtown food court testified Monday he had earlier been the victim of a terrifying attack that almost killed him.
Speaking in his own defence, Christopher Husbands said he didn’t believe his assailants had attacked him for having had sex with the mother of one of them.
Husbands, 25, of Toronto, has admitted to opening fire at the landmark Eaton Centre in June 2012, killing two people, injuring five others, and sparking panicked chaos.
However, he denies going to the mall intending to kill anyone, and has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
The prosecution contends the shooting was deliberate payback for an incident months earlier in which several men stabbed and robbed Husbands at an east-end home.
Among the assailants on that February night was Nixon Nirmalendran and a man whose mother Husbands had slept with.
Nirmalendran, 22, was one of the two mall victims. Husbands had known him since Grade 7, he told the five-man, seven-woman jury.
“I’ve heard rumours that he had a problems with me, but I don’t know why he would have a problem with me because I never really do anything to this guy,” Husbands testified.
He later took Nirmalendran aside to ask him what the issue was.
“He told me that I should disregard whatever I’m hearing from people. There wasn’t any problem. I believed him.”
In February 2012, Husbands, a father of a six-year-old girl, went to deliver some drugs to Nirmalendran. He picked up cigars, juice and bag of chips on the way.
He was set on as soon as he entered the apartment, and dragged into an empty bedroom.
They punched him. They taped his legs. At one point, an attacker held a big gun to his head. Their faces covered, they accused him of being a “snake” and disrespecting them.
“How am I snake and I disrespected you and I don’t even know who you are?” he testified he said.
“Tell me, how is this my fault? You guys are the snakes.”
One of the attackers smashed him in the mouth, cracking his tooth.
They tried to drag him to the bathroom. A melee ensued. Husbands said he felt a “heavy” blow that cracked his eye socket.
“I just gave up my fight,” he said, speaking clearly and calmly.
“I’m just laying there. I’m thinking when is this going to end? I’m not having fun obviously.”
He said he felt what appeared to be punches to his back.
“My body was twitching. It all starts to get weird.”
He said he saw Nirmalendran and his brother Nissan standing over him. They then left and everything fell quiet. He realized he’d been stabbed.
“I start feeling like water, water all over me.”
Husbands managed to make it outside before collapsing on the street. He was taken to hospital.
In earlier testimony, he described being raised in Guyana by his grandmother after his dad came to Canada and his mom developed a drug problem.
He immigrated to Canada at age 11 and later fell into drug dealing in his gritty Regent Park neighbourhood and drifted in and out of school even though he held part-time jobs supervising children and had career aspirations.
“I seen what was going on and I guess I wanted some money,” he said.
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