A teacher and a former classmate of the man who shot 15 people on a busy Toronto street on Sunday say he made disturbing comments that once prompted a call to police.
Faisal Hussain’s teacher at Victoria Park Collegiate says the school called the police nine years ago after a conversation he had with Hussain in class.
“I asked him, ‘What do you want to do? Like what do you want to do with your life?’” the teacher told CTV Toronto. “And (Hussain) said 'I want to kill someone.'”
The teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he was stunned by Hussain’s comment, and asked him, “'Why, what did they do to you?'”
He says Hussain responded, “No, I just want to kill somebody ... I think it would be cool.”
Police took Hussain into custody and he was investigated under the Mental Health Act, according to the teacher.
A classmate, who does not wish to be named, says she remembers Hussain carrying around a notebook that he would sketch in during class.
“It was always very dark and hard for me to understand,” she said.
The classmate says she was friends with Hussain on Facebook and that he would post pictures of guns and make worrisome comments.
“He would talk about beating up his mom,” she said. “I vividly remember that because I reached out to him and said, ‘That's super inappropriate and I really hope these are just lyrics and you’re not meaning these things.’”
Hussain has been identified as the man who died after exchanging gunfire with police after rampaging along Danforth Avenue on Sunday night.
Reese Fallon, an 18-year-old woman about to start nursing school, was killed during the shooting. Ten-year-old Julianna Kozis of Markham, Ont., also died.
A source close to Faisal Hussain tells CTV News that the gunman was buried on Wednesday, and that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Toronto Police are still trying to understand what caused the 29-year-old who worked in a Loblaws grocery store to go on the killing spree.
A statement released Monday on behalf of the family says they are “utterly devastated” and that Hussain had “severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life.”
Although ISIS has claimed Hussain was a follower, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said Wednesday that there is no evidence to support that claim.
Police have not yet said how Hussain acquired a handgun, but a source told CP24 that the gun is illegal in Canada and came from the United States.
A source also told CTV News that ammunition and large-capacity magazines were found by police officers searching the apartment Hussain shared with his parents.
Meanwhile, as part of the investigation police are also looking into any possible connection to Hussain’s brother, who is currently in a coma, and a 2017 seizure of more than 30 guns in Pickering, Ont.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Tracy Tong and CP24’s Cam Wooley
