Toronto shooting suspect had mental illness, says family

TORONTO: The man accused of fatally shooting two people and wounding 13 others on a bustling street here struggled with severe mental illness, his family said on Monday as police sought a motive in the rampage.

Less than a day after a 10-yearold girl and 18-year-old woman were killed, the suspect was identified by the independent Special Investigations Unit as Faisal Hussain, 29, a Toronto resident. He was found dead shortly after the shooting, authorities said.

“We do not know why this happened,” Toronto police chief Mark Saunders said on Monday, adding that he would not speculate about the gunman’s motive.

“It’s way too early to rule out anything.”

The suspect, armed with a handgun, opened fire at 10pm on Sunday on a stretch of Danforth Avenue filled with restaurants and family-friendly attractions in an area of east Toronto known as the Greektown neighbourhood.

It was the second deadly act of mass violence this year in Canada’s most populous city. In April, a driver deliberately plowed his white Ryder rental van into a lunch-hour crowd, killing 10 people and injuring 15 along a 1.6km stretch of sidewalk.

“We are utterly devastated by the incomprehensible news that our son was responsible for the senseless violence and loss of life,” Hussain’s family said, adding that he suffered from severe mental illness as well as from “psychosis and depression his entire life”.

“While we did our best to seek help for him... we could never imagine that this would be his devastating and destructive end.”