A man entered a family’s takeout restaurant and started shooting.
asserted
man → enter → restaurant
He killed one son on the spot, execution-style, and inflicted other terrible injuries — a second son was shot through the neck, the father in the chest.
asserted
son → kill → chest
The attempted mass-murder of a family at their workplace marked a first for Canada, and police arrested three men — shooter, getaway driver and ringleader.
asserted
police → attempt → men
All three were sending money to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Pakistan, prosecutors alleged, and all three planned terrorist attacks in Canada.
asserted
three → send → Canada
When someone at the chicken restaurant discovered their secret, the three tried to slaughter everyone working there.
asserted
three → discover → everyone
In his new book, Chicken Land: Murder in the Name of Allah, Toronto author John Goddard tells the full story of the atrocity that took place five years ago in Mississauga.
asserted
that → tell → Mississauga
He had reddish-brown hair, unusual for a Pakistani, and freckles around his eyes and nose.
asserted
He → have → eyes
In other ways, he conformed to one of the stereotypical profiles of the South Asian Muslim male.
asserted
he → conform → male
His body, even in his twenties, was taking on the pudgy shapelessness that would become characteristic as he grew older.
asserted
he → take → shapelessness
He projected not exactly charisma but enough confidence and charm to hold sway over others, especially those younger and less emotionally mature than himself.
asserted
He → project → himself
He grew up in a reasonably affluent household.
asserted
He → grow → household
Both his parents held good jobs.
asserted
parents → hold → jobs
Within a few years of arriving in Canada, they bought a four-bedroom home in Mississauga, a sprawling conglomeration of villages, towns and suburban developments adjoining the western limits of Toronto, the country’s largest city.
asserted
they → arrive → Toronto
After high school, he enrolled in college to study Customs and International Transportation but didn’t finish.
asserted
he → enrol → Customs
For two years, he worked on the assembly line at the local Chrysler automotive plant and afterward took a job as a truck dispatcher.
asserted
he → work → dispatcher
In early 2012, when Abbasi was 22 years old, he started down his wayward path.
asserted
he → start → path
He visited a friend at a juvenile detention centre, a boy he had known since childhood and regarded as a younger brother.
asserted
he → visit → brother
He had been dating a girl in his high school class and when she broke it off, he reacted badly.
asserted
he → date → it
He phoned and texted her obsessively for months, and the more she insisted they were finished, the more aggressive he became.
asserted
he → phone → months
One day, he tried to break into her family’s home and another time he actually did break in.
asserted
he → try → home
The girl opened her bedroom closet and found him standing inside.
asserted
him → open → closet
Finally, when he threatened to kill her new boyfriend, she called police.
asserted
she → threaten → police
What pushed the boy to such extremes has never been adequately explained.
asserted
pushed → push → extremes
Maybe religion played a role, or culture.
asserted
religion → play → role
A hint of forbidden love might have factored in, or maybe the boy felt obliged to defend his honour.
uncertain
boy → factor → honour
In any case, Abbasi went to see him in detention.
asserted
Abbasi → go → detention
What he and the boy talked about during the visit, Abbasi later said he couldn’t remember.
asserted
he → talk → visit
He might have told the boy to “hold on,” or maybe suggested he pray to Allah.
uncertain
he → tell → Allah
No action of any kind was discussed, he insisted, but ten days later he went to a gun shop to order a Norinco CQ-A 5.56 military-style rifle, a restricted weapon in Canada at the time and since banned outright.
asserted
he → discuss → time
His family originated in what he later described as a rural, mountainous region of Pakistan where firearms of all types were commonplace, including AK-47 assault rifles and other offensive weapons.
asserted
firearms → originate → rifles
He and his family, including his two brothers, would sometimes return to the region to attend weddings where guests would fire into the air in celebration.
asserted
guests → include → celebration
Five days after taking possession of the Norinco, Abbasi drove to a residential street where the girl lived with her family.
asserted
girl → take → family
He stood in front of the house and released a volley of bullets into the front, bay window, shattering the glass.
asserted
He → stand → glass
The projectiles passed through furniture, a television set and an interior wall, and some of them lodged in the kitchen cabinets at the back of the house.
asserted
some → pass → house
It was an outrageous crime, unheard of in Canada, but nobody was hurt.
asserted
nobody → hurt → Canada
They woke up, but none of them, and none of their neighbours, were able to identify a car or a suspect.
asserted
none → wake → car
The gunman had made a clean getaway.
asserted
gunman → make → getaway
Three months later, as fate would have it, Abbasi got into a bar fight.
asserted
Abbasi → have → fight
Allegedly, he broke a pool cue over a man’s head and police charged him with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.
uncertain
police → break → harm
A bail judge released him pending trial on the condition that he surrender any weapons he might possess, so he turned in his Norinco rifle.
uncertain
he → release → rifle
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
