Toronto shooter’s neighbors knew nothing of mental illness

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were killed in the shooting rampage and 13 people – aged 10 to 59 – wounded, some seriously. “I feel bad right now because I wish I had the ability to identify what triggered this sort of behaviour, but I don’t”.

The National Post has learned that Toronto Police files show little evidence of the typical history of a person with a florid mental illness such as “psychosis”, as his family said.

He says Hussain responded, “No, I just want to kill somebody”.

Many are pointing out much Toronto has already endured this year in light of April’s deadly van attack, when a 25-year-old driver intentionally rammed into pedestrians along Yonge Street in North York, killing 10 people and injuring 16 more.

There was no immediate explanation for the knife attack and police were also seeking a motive for Hussain’s overnight shooting spree in Toronto.

“There is no national security nexus at this time”, communications officer Hilary Peirce said.

Police believe that Hussain’s older brother, Fahad Hussain, who has been in a coma since last summer following a drug overdose, may have been the source of the gun.

Multiple news outlets reported Tuesday that Hussain lived with his parents in the Thorncliffe Park neighborhood of Toronto, not far from Greektown. But there were never any signs of trouble, certainly no indications that he was violent. The 29-year-old man also died after the gunfire on July 22. I didn’t identify any triggers.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti said the city would lower its flags to honour the girl and that the community north of Toronto had been shaken and hurt by this “senseless act of violence”.

“It’s really heartbreaking”, Polly Horvay, an employee at BOGO Beauty Supply at the Toronto intersection of Chester Ave. and Danforth Ave., told Yahoo Canada News on Tuesday.

According to The Toronto Star, a former teacher at Victoria Park Collegiate recalled Hussain once saying that it would be “cool to kill someone”.

While authorities tell us to go out and shop and dine as if what happened on Sunday couldn’t possibly happen again, it’s not lost on most that the shooter gunned down innocent and vulnerable adults and children in a tactical-style mission that mirrored radical Islamic terror events in other parts of the world.

“He would talk about beating up his mom”, she said.

That was a typical day for Hussain, said Malik.

Neighbours said the financial support Hussain provided would have been welcome for a family contending with numerous tragedies.

Aamir Sukhera said he was “quiet, reserved, didn’t have a lot of friends, didn’t have a huge social circle”.

“He was found deceased (on Danforth Ave.) after the interaction”, she confirmed. The interventions of professionals was unsuccessful.

Treatment, including counseling and medication, had not helped, the family said, but they had no indication that Hussain posed a danger to others.

According to sources quoted by the Canadian media house Global News, Hussain’s family had been going through major challenges. His lanky body was clad in black.

“My first instinct was to try and find Jason and I saw him crouched behind the fountain and I noticed that the gunman had finished shooting there and was walking away”, he said.