Who is Faisal Hussain? Police and national security agencies appear to have seen few warning signs about Danforth's gunman

The silent brother of a family often visited by tragedy. A shy young man with a few close friends. Faisal Hussain, a 29-year-old Toronto gunman who was murdered Sunday on the Danforth, had a past that was filled with family misfortune – including the drug overdose of his older brother , who put her in a vegetative state – and mental health challenges, including psychosis, her family said.

But if there were warning signs, they were not advertised in a criminal leaf. According to the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, Hussain does not have any criminal court records badociated with his name. Mr. Hussain was also not in the firing line of federal national security agencies, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters on Tuesday.

On the basis of what we know up to now, there is "no national security link between this individual and any other national security problem", -he declares. A senior member of the Ontario Provincial Police, who spoke to the Star on condition of anonymity, also stated that Hussain was not known of this force.

Hussain had at least two previous interactions related to mental health with the police, according to a source with knowledge of dating. However, the Toronto police would not confirm if Hussain was known to the police because there is no reason for public safety to disclose past interactions that he might have or not, said a spokesman. word.

The gunman 's family, alongside friends and neighbors in the Thorncliffe Park complex of Hussain, says they are shocked and devastated by his latest act. The mbad shootings injured 13 people and killed 18-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old Julianna Kozis.

In what Loblaws calls a "tragic coincidence," Hussain, Fallon, and Samantha Price – a young woman who was wounded in the shooting – were all employees of the chain, according to an internal email sent Tuesday and obtained by the Star.

Fallon and Price were working at the Victoria Park site, while Hussain was working at another Loblaws and at a Shoppers Drug Mart store, according to the email.

Filming, which occurred just after 10 pm, caused a flood. Toronto police were on the scene within four minutes, a spokesman said.

After firing, Hussain exchanged fire with two police officers from Toronto just south of Danforth Ave., escaped, and was found dead from a gunshot wound. of time after. Police sources said the bullet wound was self-inflicted, but the province's special police unit, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), did not confirm details of his death

. "Serious mental health problems" and struggled with psychosis and depression. Parents said that they did their best to "seek help for him throughout his life of struggle and pain," but never imagined the "destructive path" That he would choose at the end of his life.

"We have had tragedies in the past in this community, but nothing more devastating than that," said Aamir Sukhera, who was a friend of Hussain's family and a youth worker with the Thorncliffe community.

"What he did was so horrible, and unfair, and unfair, and it makes me so angry that someone I knew and who interested me was capable of something like it."

Sukhera has no idea how Hussain could have his hand on a gun, especially since he had no money. Sukhera said that he recently met Hussain and he relayed that his hours of work had been reduced, but did not seem upset.

The neighbors of the Thorncliffe Park community where Hussain lived described him as being calm, with few close friends. He attended the Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute before moving to the Victoria Park Collegiate Institute

. Growing up, her family was struck by a tragedy when her sister was killed in a car accident. The event was a negative turning point for the family, said Sukhera.

Last year carried another blow. Faisal's older brother, Fahad Hussain, suffered from a drug overdose last summer, and last January he remained in a "vegetative" state at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, according to health officials. the court

. He was driving a Hyundai Accent leased in Saskatoon when police surrounded the vehicle and arrested him, as well as a 22-year-old woman who sold crack cocaine. Police seized 26 pieces of cocaine individually wrapped in a 4.72-gram Tylenol container. According to a summary of the arrest, the officers seized four cell phones that "ring the finger" with people who were ordering drugs.

Saskatchewan prosecutors agreed to transfer the charges to Ontario, where Fahad, as a condition of his release, had been ordered to reside on Thorncliffe Park with Faroq and Sutana Hussain

. Toronto, in February 2017, the police accused him of possessing ammunition – a rifle rifle – and failing to comply with the conditions of bail. He was released on February 21 with a $ 10,000 bond and was ordered to live in Pickering, Ontario, with his surety, a 33-year-old man named Maisum Ansari, court record

. – Fire crews responded to a carbon monoxide alert at Pickering House and alerted police of a suspicious substance in the basement. The Durham Regional Police executed a search warrant, where they found 33 firearms and other prohibited devices, such as overcapacity chargers, and seized 53 kilograms of a substance identified as the fatal carfentanil of the street

. 337 firearms offenses. He is on bail pending his day in court. The Star contacted Ansari through the intermediary of his lawyer, who stated that his case is still before the courts and has no comment.

Fahad, whose name is also spelled Fahd in the court documents, has never been convicted. a request for comment on fees. The Crown suspended the Toronto charges in September, and in January, prosecutors withdrew their drug charges in Saskatoon.

Sukhera, the family friend, said he spoke with the other brother of Hussain, who a lot of emotion.

"He is suffering, you know, he must be strong for his parents – I was like that, your mother needs you now, you are his last." "

The reason for the shooting of Sunday night mbad is not known.The Toronto police continue to investigate the shooting, while the UES continues its investigation into the death of Hussain.

As a result of the shootings, discussions continued on how to address recent gun violence in the city.

On Monday, Mayor John Tory issued the idea of ​​banning handguns in the The federal Liberals have been planning to ban handguns for some time, said Goodale, while pointing out that such a measure would be extremely complex

With records Robert Benzie, Kenyon Wallace and Jacques Gallant

Alex Boutilier is an Ottawa journalist covering national policy. Follow him on Twitter: @alexboutilier