Neola Husbands, the sister of the Guyanese man charged with murder and attempted murder after a shooting at a shopping centre in Toronto in June, says that she has not given up on him.
Christopher Husbands, 23, of Toronto, Canada remains in custody as he awaits trial for two counts of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder and a single count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.
Nonetheless, Neola Husbands said they remain close. “I haven’t given up on my brother, I never have and as much as people would like me to, I never will,” she said, according to a report on Toronto’s CBC news website. “I’ve been trying to do as much as I could, to like just influence him even in this time right now and just to basically remain positive,” she added.
The young woman said that she was just seven years old when her family moved to Regent Park, Toronto from Guyana. The move to Canada was a happy experience overall, but she said it was not always easy as she and her siblings adapted to their new home.
Cold weather conditions and a different community proved tough for the family.
“In Guyana, we focus more on the community raising the kid, so coming to Canada, you are more on your own, and kind of had to basically just stick to your family in order to really stay out of trouble,” Husbands said.
As regards the tough neighbourhood, she noted the importance of being able to stand your ground and stake out your boundaries in order to continue to progress in the community. “One of the biggest things that I’ve always said is really not… becoming the product of your environment, but allowing your environment to become the product of your success”, she added.
Recounting the difficulties she faced, Neola Husbands said that her father kicked her out of his home when she was 14, which prompted her to stay away. She said that the two had issues to sort out and she subsequently chose to go into foster care and at one point lived in a group home.
During this period of her life, Husbands attended five different high schools. Through all of the adversity, Husbands persevered and with the support of some key mentors, she finished high school and was granted admission to university.
Husbands said the violence at the Eaton Centre did not surprise her, as it is the type of occurrence that happens in other parts of the city such as at the downtown Regent Park neighbourhood, where she and her siblings lived initially when they moved to Canada.
According to the report, many lives were affected when shots were fired in the basement food court at the Eaton Centre on June 2. Hundreds of other people fled the food court in fear, while some were left trapped inside the mall when it was locked down.
Ahmed Hassan, 24, died after sustaining gunshot wounds during the shooting and it was later revealed that he had stabbed Husbands several months before the shooting. Within hours of the shooting, Christopher Husbands turned himself in. His sister heard about the shooting on Facebook and when he was turning himself in, she received phone call and a text message which informed that her brother had surrendered to the authorities.
“So I knew that he had turned himself in to 52 Division, but it is really different when you know and then when the world knows,” Neola Husbands told CBC News.
Following the shooting, everyone in Toronto and in other cities knew her family name and the story made the news here in Guyana, from where the Husbands family had emigrated in 2000. “It was in a lot of newspapers in Guyana. And my family is actually pretty well known in Guyana,” said Husbands.
