Police suppressed details on Danforth shooter’s trip to Pakistan: entire magazine emptied into prone girl.

Written By John Goddard, Posted on July 27, 2020

TORONTO—His first target was a group of teenage girls eating ice cream. They stood in their summer dresses and spiked heels at the edge of a parkette, hub to the lively Greektown bar-and-restaurant strip on Danforth Avenue.

The shooter spotted them. Moving briskly along the south sidewalk, opposite the parkette, he passed the Logo Bar, Brass Taps, Mocha Mocha and a Tim Hortons coffee shop, then crossed the street and opened fire.

He shot one girl through the hip, another in the stomach, a third twice in the stomach and kidney, and a fourth, Reese Fallon, three times in the left arm. The first three victims crumpled to the pavement. Fallon staggered away from the street, stunned, and asked a man for help. “Please call 911,” she said, and as the man fumbled with his phone the shooter clicked a fresh magazine into his 40-calibre Smith & Wesson handgun. “Run!” cried a bystander, and when Fallon tripped, the shooter pumped 10 more rounds into the prone 18-year-old girl. “He went back and finished her off,” a witness said.

Reese Fallon

Reese Fallon

Many details of that Sunday night two years ago, on July 22, were never made public. Police never disclosed that Fallon sustained 13 bullets, most of them fired point-blank. News reporters never put together that eight high-school friends stood at the parkette, seven girls and one guy, and that half of them were shot.

Worse, crucial details of the mass shooting went unexplored or were deliberately suppressed, possibly out of political correctness. The next day, police reported a total of fifteen people shot, including two dead, but the civilian Special Investigations Unit ordered the shooter’s name withheld. Late in the day, when the unit relented and announced the name — a Muslim name — police and politicians warned against jumping to conclusions.

“I am certainly not going to invite any type of speculation,” Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters. “At this stage,” said federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, “there is no connection between that individual and national security.”

Goodale knew, however, that a connection might eventually be made. Police cited possible Islamic terrorism when they applied for search warrants, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) began a six-month probe into potential terrorist ties. Authorities also knew that the shooter’s brother was linked to the discovery of a chemical-weapons cache with serious national-security implications.

On the second anniversary of the shootings, the Covid-19 pandemic prevents a large memorial gathering, but no virus can stop a review of the known facts and uncomfortable loose ends.

The shooter was Faisal Hussain. He was 29 years old, a skinny man with a long face, heavy eyebrows, and a close-cropped black beard. He still lived with his parents, devout Muslims from Pakistan. The three shared a two-bedroom high-rise apartment in Thorncliffe Park, north of the Danforth neighbourhood across a bend in the Don River Valley.

Faisal Hussain

Faisal Hussain

Faisal held two part-time jobs. He stocked shelves at Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart. On Sunday, July 22, 2018, he returned home from the grocery, ate dinner, chatted with his fraternal twin brother, who was visiting, and at 9:10 p.m. walked into the warm, humid night toward the popular strip everybody calls “the Danforth.”

At 9:56 p.m., at the bustling parkette, he started shooting. He used a stolen gun and shot expertly, standing with legs apart and arms outstretched in a two-handed grip. In dark clothing and a black cap, carrying extra ammunition in a shoulder bag, he continued westward for another 400 metres, changing magazines on the fly and sending people screaming.

He shot one waiter through the hand and another through the thigh. On the sidewalk, he yelled at a mother and son, “Get out of my way,” and shot them both. On a restaurant patio, he severed the spinal cord of nursing student Danielle Kane, paralysing her from the waist down, and at a dessert café he shot Donny Kozis and his 10-year-old daughter, Julianna. Separate ambulances took them to St. Michael’s and Sick Kids hospitals, respectively, then one ambulance rushed the father to Sick Kids in time to be with Julianna when she died. Ten minutes after the shooting started, as police closed in, Hussain shot himself in the head.

Julianna Kozis

Julianna Kozis

“Our son had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life,” a press statement attributed to Hussain’s family said, but it would prove to be misleading.

Faisal Hussain on Danforth Ave.

Faisal Hussain on Danforth Ave.

Politicians blamed gun availability. “The city has a gun problem,” Toronto Mayor John Tory said. The federal government is “prepared to consider” tightening handgun laws, said Goodale, a position since supported by a coalition of Danforth victims and families, who have also taken legal action against Smith & Wesson.

Islamic terrorism dropped from the conversation. Heavily redacted documents later obtained by the Toronto Sun’s Anthony Furey revealed nothing of the CSIS probe. The Toronto Police Service, after one year, issued a 23-page report saying Hussain suffered from depression and was diagnosed in high school with “antisocial personality disorder” but not “psychosis.”

Elsewhere, the report raised more questions than it answered. In the shooter’s bedroom, officers found an iPad, two laptops and three cell phones. They found heroin and M.D.A. packaged for trafficking and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for a Glock handgun, Ruger pistol, Winchester rifle and an AK-47 assault rifle. “Given the amount of ammunition on hand, it is reasonable to believe this occurrence was planned,” search-warrant request said, although no matching guns were found.

Police also reported seizing an “Islamic head dress,” without explaining what that meant, and digital files that included material about the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on the United States. In 2001, Hussain’s family left Canada for two years, the report also said, without making clear whether they were in Pakistan on 9/11 or during the subsequent U.S.-led war in neighbouring Afghanistan against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

“Two or three years” before the shooting, Hussain’s father told police, he and his son visited Islamabad and his son was “happy” and “did not want to return” to Canada. Two receipts found in his room showed that, in Pakistan, Faisal paid nearly $10,000 cash to an Islamic centre.

The ammunition, 9/11 material, recent Pakistan trip and cash to unknown recipients apparently drew no serious investigation. Police did not establish how long Hussain spent in Pakistan, where he went, whom he met, what he did, or why he paid the money. “Little information was located due to the challenge of obtaining records from foreign non-digital databases,” the report said, suggesting police confined their inquiry to a data search.

“Final Conclusion,” the report ended lamely, “there is no evidence that Faisal Hussain was directed or assisted in the crimes he committed.”

Hussain’s possible link to a chemical weapons cache went entirely unaddressed. All that is known so far is that his older brother, Fahad, was charged with trafficking crack cocaine in Saskatoon in 2015. He was returned to Toronto to await trail and shared a room with Faisal, but in early 2017 Fahad moved to a Pickering house owned by their childhood friend, Maisum Ansari.

At the Pickering apartment Fahad overdosed. He became a vegetable. A short time later, in September 2017, firefighters responding to a carbon-monoxide alarm at the apartment discovered 33 illegal guns and a massive quantity of carfentanil, cousin to the killer opioid fentanyl and far more toxic.

The U.S. Defense Department ranks carfentanil as a dangerous weapon, and the international Chemical Weapons Convention bans it. A couple of grains can kill a person. A single kilogram, doled out in two-grain portions, could kill millions of people. In Pickering, police seized 42 kilograms of the drug, the biggest ever such bust in North America.

Ansari and an associate, Babar Ali, each face 337 charges. When their trial begins this winter, The National Telegraph will be there.

John Goddard

41 responses to “Police suppressed details on Danforth shooter’s trip to Pakistan: entire magazine emptied into prone girl.”

  1. Mary says:

    Thank you. You have done more than educate us today.

  2. Carlo says:

    I may be wrong , but an early report on the weapons seized in Fahad’s raid were boxed S&W M&P 40 cal pistols with consecutive serial #’s and in the same series as the shooter’s

  3. Lee Bouvier says:

    Any word on the older brother ? Is he still in a coma ?

  4. Bernie W says:

    My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this heinous crime. May their souls rest in peace and God grant unto them eternal rest.

  5. john says:

    Question: If he ate, and then left his home, and went to Danforth Ave. Why didn’t he go into the Thorncliff Mall, and shoot up everyone there, or go across the street to a very popular Wendy’s / Tim’s and do his nasty deed there??

    Answer: Because both places are fill with people from his culture.

    This was an attack on our (freedom) way of life. The coward slime-ball only targeted females.
    I hope he’s rotting in hell.

    • Charles says:

      Oh, he is rotting in hell alright. I say this not out of any emotional reaction but because his personal belief system was predicated on lies. The moment his heart stopped beating he was experiencing the anguish of hellfire and his judgement day awaits when he will be cast into a lake of fire for following the reprobate founder of his ideology instead of a Saviour who died on a cross for his sins.

  6. Mike Rosina says:

    John. First, thank you for telling what many knew but couldn’t speak of. That sets up my second point. Shame on you for jumping on the police bashing bandwagon. You’ve given the Federal government the pass on this with a loose reference to Goodale and CSIS. The TPS in eatigated this to the best of their ability but as someone that paid attention to this matter closely and heard whispers it was the Federal government including local politicians of every stripe that killed the story. The police conducted the investigation inside a maelstrom. The blame for not telling the story lay squarely at the feet of the current governments municipal provincial and mostly federal. As a reporter with the Star you full well known also the control the government has over the “free” press in our country. Many reporters had the story and couldn’t run it or couldn’t figure out a way to join in on kick the police to tell the story and leave it to the reader to ask some critical questions. Does a reader believe that a G8 level government doesn’t have access to intelligence which told them exactly who this guy was and where he’d been. Please. Hopefully most aren’t that gullible. In closing thanks for telling an almost accurate story.

  7. If you remember at the time Trudeau was encouraging Muslims from 3rd world countries to come to Canada with little to no vetting. After observing how this disasterous policy was playing out in Europe many old stock Canadians were starting to come to the opinion that these immigrants were coming from a non-compatible culture. The fact that the government and media colluded to keep these facts from public scrutiny are yet another example of how communist type control is being used in Canada to perpetuate the myth of a nonexistent democracy.

  8. BOB says:

    ISLAM IS LARGEST KNOWN AND DOCUMENTED SINGLE NAZI REGIMENT WITH A 26,000 MAN ARMY AND WERE MEMBERS S.S. REGIMETNS WITH THEIR NAMES STILL LISTED IN THE NUREMBERG TRIALS. THERE ARE PHOTOS OF THE GRAND MUFTI SIGNING THE AGREEMENTS WITH THE NAZI REGIME. THEY WERE ALLIES. THE CENTER AND HUB OF ISLAM WAS WORKING WITH THE NAZIS. THERE IS NO RELIGION OF PEACE. TRUDEAU IS A LYING SCUM BAG SOCIALIST GARBAGE RAT JUST LIKE THE NAZI WERE WHICH IS AN ABBREVIATION FOR A SINGLE WORD IN GERMAN THAT TRANSLATES TO NATIONAL SOCIALIST, NOW CALLED FEDERAL SOCIALIST

  9. sd says:

    Its just going to get worse, nothing can be done, all whites will die. There is no future. Global international corporatism is all there is.

  10. Norman says:

    I appreciate that the author pointed out relevant information. It seems that there was suppression of many facts in this investigation because the "progressive" media is attempting to cover up fundamental Islamist extremism. As pointed out by some, he targeted white girls for his victims. The fact that he went to an Islamic school in Islamabad where it is well known that the schools preach fundamental Islam which is not brotherly love more than likely influenced his decision to go out and kill people.
    Many people who suffer mental illness do not go about trying to kill others, in this case I believe certain factors did play into his decision. He probably obtained the gun and ammunition from his brother who was a criminal.
    It is difficult to believe the parents did not know about the gun or ammunition since there was an abundance of ammo. The parents must assume some blame for the actions of their sons.

  11. Uchu says:

    The current covid pandemic has been a perfect distraction for the jihadists to arm and prepare for upcoming terror attacks. It will get worse, I tell you that.

  12. Chaz Martel says:

    Even if this psychotic halfwit acted alone, it is the worst type of ‘official deceit’ to pretend that he had no Islamist associations and motivations. Get with the program people!

  13. Joe Canadian says:

    So – if he had an AK-47 (which has been prohibited in Canada for decades) how exactly would a ban on handguns (or a ban on any other guns) have stopped this?? Laws only effect law abiding citizens. Criminals and those with bad intentions do not follow the law. We should be happy he didn’t set off some sort of bomb with the carfentanil strapped to it. The casualties would have been horrendous.

  14. Passionate Canadian says:

    My sincere condolences to all the families affected in this senseless violent act! Criminals need to answer to their crimes. Politicians need to make the tough decisions and tougher laws and make sure those laws are enforced!

    I also want to offer some insight to the public as a former law enforcement officer. I have also been a firearms owner for over 30 years. This guy was a criminal or call him a terrorist, they are still criminals however you look at it! But neither criminals or terrorists follow the law, that is why they are called criminals. For the Liberals to use this horrendous criminal act and the Nova Scotia tragedy to penalize law abiding citizens by banning legally obtained firearms is disgusting, it is actually a travesty of justice and an insult to the victims and their families.
    It is the responsibility for the government do the right thing. Not make irrational political decisions based on disinformation, innuendo, emotion and bias.

    If the real reason was to protect Canadians, then why has there been no bans on alcohol and cars because more people die each year from drinking and driving than from firearms, hands down. Nope instead Trudeau legalizes weed!

    Banning the inanimate objects, instead of going after the criminals is senseless and is only used as a blanket to make the public feel all warm and fuzzy, and make them feel the government is doing something! Regardless if it is the right thing.

    Do you see where this is going? What the Liberals have done is ban legally obtained personal property, with no democratic process and no valid evidence or justification to ban such (firearms) peoples personal property, that have been used by hunters and sport shooters safely for over 50 years. When 80%-90% of the illegal guns come from the United States. Which puts a question to all Canadians. What if the government decided to ban all 6 and 8 cylinder cars all in the name to protect the environment? How well And you couldn’t drive your cars or move them out of your driveway or you’d be charged? This is what the Liberals are doing to 2.1 million legal firearms owners. And at this time, Canadians still have no property rights.

  15. Glenn Tremblay says:

    It’s sad that we live in a country that is too spineless to take appropriate actions when the evidence is starring you in the face. In principle I would tend to agree with political correctness…but only to a point. I don’t want to live in Nazi Germany but neither do I want to be a victim of some nutbar who thinks god is talking to him. We have a right and a duty to protect ourselves, our family’s and society from the type of people that would like to see our way of life pulled down around our heads because they don’t agree with how we live. All that being said it’s a very delicate balance to sort out the nutjobs from the ones who come here and just want to live in freedom and prosper. Nutbars can be found in ALL ethnic and religious backgrounds, not just the Muslims. However we as a society can’t shirk from exposing any threats to our security from whatever quarter and need to compel our government to grow a set and look after the interests of our country as a whole and not be restrained by a well meaning though obviously flawed policy of political correctness.

    • Charles says:

      A careful study of Islam would reveal an inordinate percentage of the total number are or become radicalized, far more than any other “ethnic and religious backgrounds”. I have yet to see any other group that carries out attacks on a scale as large or diabolical is radicalized Muslims or moderates that turn such a blind eye.

  16. Hugh says:

    You forgot to mention the drop phones mentioned in the police report, and the call he received from a mysterious number just before the rampage.

  17. Chig Walla says:

    One minor point that I didn’t really get:
    "…ammunition for a Glock handgun, Ruger pistol, Winchester rifle and an AK-47 assault rifle"
    Ammo isn’t firearm-specific like that.

    • Nick says:

      From what I remember the amunition was paired with magazines except for the "winchester ammo " which was a single box of 45/90 or some other leaver specific round.

  18. DawnieR says:

    Canada…..your government HATES you! WHEN will you all realize that FACT?!

  19. Jason Whiteley says:

    Great update thanku but I know there more to come .. I dont understand why our governments pander to terrorist groups or people home grown or not .. we see it everywhere .. we have laws I expect the people in power to enforce those laws on all people … justice they say is blind .. bull crap.. it’s very selective .. I last few years have been crazy for all .. time after time we see the RCMP lieing OPP lieing Toronto cops lieing .. why what’s the end game … something big is afoot .. cant put my finger on it but sence this country became a ball less land and voted in a leftist party to lead it it has become so much worse.. in all manners … The PM and his party is the most polarizing party that this country has ever seen .. he made it so every word and thought u make can be turned against u .. freedom has been eroded .. if u say muslim in a depariting way you are bring hell on earth to your carrear and maybe your family .. no wonder the cops only tell half the story … Canadians got to do better and demand justice for all her people and victims not just what suits the naritive of some political leftist spoiled brats politicians like Tory the PM and his fan club .. stand up and call out .. we need to get that facts straight.
    Cheers .. sirrybits so long but I cant even imagine the pain the victims and families feel when they only hear half truths or out right lies.. I feel for them and all victims .. only thing is worse I would think is the government making them a victim again by not telling them the truth ..

  20. Jeff says:

    Here’s a question… how the hell does anyone know what the ammunition was for?? “ammunition for a Glock handgun, Ruger pistol, Winchester rifle and an AK-47 assault rifle”
    That’s not how ammunition and firearms work. This is either poorly researched or the information that this was written from is wrong. This needs to be corrected and/or further researched, or reworded.
    In ANY case, Hussasin was a POS and

  21. Col says:

    Research the One World Order written on the U.S. dollar. Headed by the UN for the reason for all this . Try youtube.

  22. Monti Fitzgerald says:

    The current government is unconcerned with the safety of Canadians. The coverups continue so that they can disarm the population. I suggest that you get in touch with your local Unifythepeople.ca group and work to make your province a Republic. Then we will not be under the tyanny of the globalist politicians.

  23. Barb Barkhouse says:

    this prick should be hung in the street ,the families of these people that being killed by these scumbags ,sue trudeau and the liberal party.MR FORD you are the only honest premier kick them out of your province and take your province back.they are savage and should not be living in this country.

  24. PhyllisWentworth says:

    On the first day of the reporting of who the victims were, MSM mentioned that the other young woman shot, Reese Fallon, was a member of the Young Liberals of Canada. I think she was the person the accused emptied his mag on. After details on the shooter were released, I never saw MSM mention her association to YLC in any report on the subject thereafter.

  25. rick singh says:

    How do Canadians from the west coast to the east never hear this on mainstream. We have to investigate on the alternate internet outlets which our media companies in Canada and U.S. would consider "fake news" "conspiracy theories"

  26. Gerry Addley says:

    The police forces of Canada are so unimaginably corrupt.

  27. Dora says:

    Ansari and Ali will say they had to wait too long for trial and therefore they will be let go. Why the coverup Why do the police and journalists hate White Canadians. Something really needs to be done about this!

  28. laurie says:

    the problem is muslims being allowed to come to our country and let them practice their sick sharia on us all. why ??

  29. Phyllis Wentworth says:

    In the first news reports about this, they said Reese Fallon was a member of the YLC. After the shooter was identified, that item disappeared from every report of it, by any media.

    • Miriam Hancock says:

      In this case what does YLC stand for; Youth Leadership Challenge or Young Liberals of Canada?

  30. Rick says:

    Just a heads up to the author, not sure if you quoted the info directly, or you guessed on it but "hundreds of rounds of ammunition for a Glock handgun, Ruger pistol, Winchester rifle and an AK-47 assault rifle. "
    Ammunition is not weapon specific.
    AK-47 comes in 7.62x39mm. That caliber is also used for a dozen or so other firearms.
    Winchester rifles come in many calibers, and I’m gonna guess it was .30-30 Winchester ammo, which several other firearm manufacturers produce rifles in.
    And lastly, Glocks come in 9mm, .40s&w, .357 sig, .45ACP, 10mm (probably more as well, been a while since I checked.) As do many other handguns. Just an FYI.

  31. Bob Kohlruss says:

    Thanx TRUDEAU……more coming our way no doubt. CLOSE THE DAMN BORDERS!!

  32. Richard Fox says:

    Thank you John Goddard for investigating this story further and keeping it in the light! Political correctness is a destructive force and a scourge on humanity. People are so afraid of ruffling feathers that they are willing to ignore and worse, hide the truth!

  33. Lynette McPeake says:

    I have been talking about sleeper Islamic cells since the early 2,000s. The biggest seems to be CSIS!

  34. Gus Stefanis says:

    "Two receipts found in his room showed that, in Pakistan, Faisal paid nearly $10,000 cash to an Islamic centre."
    What is the source of this information?

  35. JD says:

    On what date was this article originally published? (And why on earth would such a critical journalistic component be omitted?!?)

    Thank-you.