A teenage bystander who was caught by a stray bullet during the 2012 Eaton Centre shooting says that he remains “baffled” and “upset” with a verdict that saw the man responsible for the chaos convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Connor Stevenson was 13 years old when Christopher Husbands opened fire inside the Eaton Centre food court on June 2, 2012.

Two people were killed in the shooting and five others were injured, including Stevenson who sustained a gunshot wound to his head and now lives with a permanent plastic plate that protects his brain.

Husbands was initially convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 30 years; however he appealed the verdict and was later awarded a second trial. In that trial, the jury acquitted Husbands on the murder charges and instead found him guilty of two counts of manslaughter.

Husbands will be sentenced at a hearing scheduled to begin Tuesday but in advance of that Stevenson spoke to CTV News Toronto about his life since the shooting and his struggle to accept the fact that Husbands could someday be let out on bail.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years. Husbands, it should be noted, has already spent seven years behind bars.

“I just don’t see how a murderer can get off with manslaughter,” Stevenson said. “Isn’t manslaughter reserved for sort of accidental killings and stuff that wasn’t necessarily your fault but you were just negligent in? He (Husbands) wasn’t negligent. He pulled the gun out himself and he made a conscious decision to shoot people in the mall. I just don’t see how that is manslaughter.”

Stevenson was once a competitive ski racer but was left unable to play any competitive sports as a result of the injuries he sustained in the shooting.

Now 20 years old and studying software development at Sheridan College, he told CTV News Toronto that he still experiences headaches from time to time.

He said that he hardly remembers the gunshots on the fateful day in 2012 and therefor doesn’t have to live with the same emotional trauma as his mother and sister, who were with him and stayed by his side while paramedics worked to save his life.

He said that he believes that they both “deserve some sort of justice” but aren’t getting it.

“Watching your son bleed to death on the floor of the Eaton Centre is not something that you ever get over,” his mother, Jo-Anne Finney, told CTV News Toronto. “I will always live in fear. Connor fell a couple months ago and he had to be rushed to the hospital and have a CT scan to see if there was any sort of hairline crack in his brain. He can’t even be in a car accident or trip on the sidewalk.”

Lawyers argued Husbands was suffering from PTSD

In his second trial, Husbands admitted that he was the shooter inside the Eaton Centre but his lawyers argued that he was dissociative state as a result of PTSD triggered by a chance encounter with men who had beaten and stabbed him months prior.

Stevenson, however, told CTV News Toronto that he believes Husband made a conscious decision to murder two people “in cold blood.”

He said that he believes that public safety will be put at risk if Husband is ultimately released on bail.

“I am not so much concerned for myself but if he gets out the other people, the citizens of Toronto, they definitely have something to fear,” he said. “Do you really want to live in a city where someone has murdered two people gets out back on the street and is just allowed to roam around?”

Stevenson said that he plans to deliver a victim impact statement at next week’s sentencing hearing and is looking forward to the opportunity.

Finney will also deliver a victim impact statement regarding the impact he shooting has had on the entire family.

She said that she also plans to attend any parole hearings that Husbands may have in the future.

“I will tell him exactly what he has done to our family at every single hearing and exactly how he should own up and pay for his crimes. He perpetrated these crimes and he should pay for them,” she said.

With files from CTV News Toronto.