TORONTO SHOOTING: Family says suspect struggled with mental illness

The police in Toronto, Canada are about now seeking to uncover the motive behind the attack of a gunman who opened fire on people in a bustling street killing two victims and injuring 13 others in the process.

“We do not know why this happened,” Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters on Monday, adding he would not speculate about the gunman’s motive. “It’s way too early to rule out anything.”

The identity of the attacker who killed a 10-year-old girl and 18-year-old woman during the shooting spree was later revealed by the independent Special Investigations Unit (SIU) as Faisal Hussain, a 29-year-old Toronto resident.

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Reacting to the fatal incident, the family of the suspect who was later found dead shortly after the shooting, in a statement said he struggled with severe mental illness.

“We are utterly devastated by the incomprehensible news that our son was responsible for the senseless violence and loss of life,” Hussain’s family wrote in a statement, adding 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 throughout his life of struggle and pain, we could never imagine that this would be his devastating and destructive end,” the statement said.

Reports say it was the second deadly act of mass violence this year in Canada’s most populous city.

In April, a driver deliberately ploughed his white Ryder rental van into a lunch-hour crowd, killing 10 people and injuring 15 along a roughly mile-long (1.6-km) stretch of sidewalk thronged with pedestrians.

 

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