Toronto Eaton Centre shooter Christopher Husbands receives life sentence

Christopher Husbands, who fatally shot two men at Toronto's Eaton Centre mall nearly three years ago, has been sentenced to life in prison.

He will not be eligible for parole for 30 years. When Husbands was sentenced in Ontario Superior Court on Thursday, Judge Eugene Ewaschuk decided he would serve 15 years without parole for each conviction of second-degree murder.

Husbands showed no emotion when his sentence was handed down, but his lawyer, Dirk Derstine, told reporters that his client was "pretty shocked" by the sentence.

"No matter what you're thinking or expecting, you know, the moment at which you're told that you've got to go inside … for 27 some-odd years is going to be a pretty terrible moment," Derstine said, also telling reporters that his client would be appealing the sentence.

The Crown spoke briefly with reporters after the sentence was handed down.

"His honour imposed today a parole ineligibility period of 30 years," Crown attorney Mary Humphrey said.

"This clearly reflects the outrageous nature of Christopher Husbands's crime and it's a just result."

Husbands, 26, was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in December, more than two years after he shot Ahmed Hassan and Nixon Nirmalendran in the food court of the Toronto mall on June 2, 2012.

The shooting occurred on a Saturday night when the food court in the north end of the mall was packed with people.

Hassan, 24, died at the scene, while Nirmalendran, 22, succumbed to his wounds in hospital days after the shooting. Other people in the mall were wounded by the shooting but survived.

Husbands turned himself in to police two days after the shooting.

In December, Husbands was also convicted of five counts of aggravated assault, one count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and one count of reckless discharge of a firearm.