Sorry Julianna Kozis and Reese Fallon, they just don’t know why you were murdered by Faisal Hussain on the Danforth on July 22, 2018.
“The one question the family and the public wanted to know is: Why?” Chief Mark Saunders said Friday. “Although we collected all of the evidence that was available to us for this crime, a crime where the shooter died at the scene, we may never know the answer to why.”
To add even more insult to injury, Saunders said there’s “no evidence Hussain was affiliated with radical ideologies, hate groups or terrorist organizations,” but he did have a “mental health history.”
Yet for a guy who police say had no ties and no help, the 29-year-old sure had a lot of firepower and shooting skill to pull off one of the worst shooting sprees in Canadian history.
We have heard what they don’t know, but here’s what they do:
— Two dead girls, aged 10 and 18, gunned down on Danforth Ave. while out for ice cream and a birthday party.
— Thirteen wounded by gunfire including several with life-altering injuries.
— One .40-calibre Smith & Wesson M&P handgun.
— Seven magazines with 12 to 15 rounds per clip.
— Six computer devices (cellphones or iPads).
— Numerous online audio files and images in English, Urdu and Arabic, which include a search for a story on alleged van killer Alek Minassian and audio clips referencing the Columbine High School shooting, Nazis, the 911 attacks and what appears to be Hussain recorded in the Joker’s voice, saying lines that “involve discussions of death and plans for killing large groups of people.”
— Several unexplained phone text conversations with “someone using an alias” in which the discussion was “regarding retrieval of 20-30 something from him to which the alias replied he would link him on the 24th and get more at the end of the month.”
— Two days before the carnage Hussain was arrested but not charged “after he attempted to steal ice cream.”
— Many incidents with schools and police on issues concerning self-harm and threats of suicide.
— One AK-47 magazine loaded with bullets, Glock, Ruger and Winchester magazine rounds, hundreds of loose rounds of ammunition, one bag of heroin and one bag of MDMA.
— One brother in a coma who was previously released on bail after being convicted of dealing crack was asked to stay at his surety’s house where 33 firearms and 42 kg of deadly carfentanil were found.
— One trip to Pakistan.
Homicide detective Terry Browne said they were unable to establish anything from any foreign travel trips that helped the probe.
Police are also not able to determine how Hussain came into possession of the murder weapon or establish any contacts between him and his brother and his surety.
Even July 22 “was no different than any other day” and there was “nothing to indicate he was in crisis on that day” and “nothing that we have learned that any one could have foreseen” what later happened, Browne said.
But there was one act of compassion during this shooting rampage, and that was toward a restaurateur named Jaspal Singh who told the Sun in the days following the shooting Hussain said, “Don’t worry, I am not going to shoot you” and to “stay out of (his) way.”
Police say they have no understanding of why, with so much other blood and carnage, Hussain decided to spare this man’s life.
“The only person who knows why he did what he did is no longer with us,” Browne said.
Added Saunders: “It’s very clear mental health played a critical role.”
Seems for many years there were so many red flags, right up until the arrest two days before the slaughter.
Police so far have been left stumped by this troubled person.
That said, as a city we owe the slain and wounded a more complete result than what this probe has rendered thus far.
Browne said the investigation isn’t over and if there is new information, they will pursue it.
This may have been the only satisfying announcement to come out of this news conference, which not only didn’t provide the media anything new to report to the public but was mostly details that reporters had dug out and told the community about in the first place.
The areas that need more digging into include the trip to Pakistan with his father and how Hussain came into possession of the murder weapon as well as the narcotics and ammunition stashed in his apartment.
If you have information, please tell police so they can keep working to determine what triggered Hussain to head to the Danforth that July day and steal the lives of two girls who were just having a fun summer night.
Keeping this file open until we have some answers is the least we can do for them.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
