Seven years and two trials later, Christopher Husbands was found guilty Tuesday of two counts of manslaughter in a mass shooting at Toronto’s Eaton Centre that left two dead, injured several others and sparked a panic at the downtown mall.Jurors had spent six days deliberating whether Husbands, 29, was guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter or if he was not criminally responsible due to being in a post-traumatic stress related “dissociative state” where his mind was not in control of his body. The jury also found Husbands guilty of five counts of aggravated assault, criminal negligence through the use of a firearm and reckless discharge of a firearm. Husbands was found guilty of two counts of second-degree murder after the first trial in 2014 but the convictions were overturned by the Court of Appeal and a new trial ordered because the judge made an error in rejecting a defence request for a specific method of selecting jurors.The testimony of two additional defence experts about PTSD and dissociation at the second trial may have contributed to the manslaughter verdict, Husbands’ lawyer Dirk Derstine said after the verdict. “I think it is probably fair to say in all the circumstances that the evidence called by the defence was stronger this time around than the last time around. There have also been developments in the law and understanding about psychiatry that may have played a part as well,” Derstine said.Read more: Was the Eaton Centre gunman in a ‘dissociative state’? Nearly seven years and two trials later, a jury is set to decideOpinion | Rosie DiManno: Eaton Centre shooter will seek finding of ‘not criminally responsible’Crown argues Eaton Centre shooter Christopher Husbands knew what he was doingHusbands opened fire in the bustling mall food court at 6:22 p.m. on June 2, 2012, in the direction of a group of men including Nixon and Nisan Nirmalendran — brothers whom Husbands testifie ...
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