A sentencing hearing will continue this morning for a man who opened fire in a food court inside the Eaton Centre in June 2012, killing two and wounding multiple others.
Emotional victim impact statements were delivered to the court on Tuesday at the first day of sentencing for Christopher Husbands, who has been convicted of two counts of manslaughter and five counts of aggravated assault.
Husbands was initially sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole for 30 years after he was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the deadly shooting.
But after appealing the conviction, Husbands was awarded a second trial.
Husbands admitted that he was responsible for the shooting inside the busy downtown shopping centre on June 2, 2012, but during his second trial, his lawyers argued that his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was triggered by an encounter he had with men who had assaulted him months earlier.
He was subsequently found guilty of two counts of manslaughter instead of murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without the chance of parole for seven years.
Husbands, who has already spent seven years in prison, will be given credit for the time he has already served.
Connor Stevenson, who was just 13 years old when he was struck in the head by a stray bullet during the mall shooting, expressed frustration with the outcome of the case.
“I thought we had a system where people who murder people in the middle of mall on camera would go to jail for it and would not be out in seven to 10 years,” Stevenson said outside the courtroom on Tuesday after delivering his victim impact statement.
“That’s what really changed my life. It changed my view of the country we live in.”
