On June 2, 2012, a shooting took place at a food court at the Toronto Eaton Centre, while the mall was heavily crowded with shoppers. Five people were shot; one of them, 24-year-old Ahmed Hassan, died at the scene and another on June 11. According to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, Hassan may have had gang affiliations and he and perhaps one other victim were specifically targeted. Others were injured in the panic as people fled the area, including a 28-year-old pregnant woman who began undergoing labour but did not give birth.[13][14][15]
On June 4, 23-year-old Christopher Husbands turned himself in to authorities, and was charged with first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder in connection with the attack. At the time of the shooting, he was under house arrest. Two months prior to the shooting, he had survived an attack in which he was stabbed more than twenty times by six gang rivals.[16] Jessica Ghawi had just left the food court before the shooting; she was killed a month later in a mass shooting at a movie theatre in Colorado.[17]
