The lawyer for Havard McKenzie, the man who was accused in the Garden Restaurant shooting, says his client has been acquitted of second-degree murder.

McKenzie was on trial in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for second-degree murder in the shooting death of Tariq Mohammed, who was gunned down in a brazen attack at the packed downtown restaurant in late 2014.

Lawyer Gary Grill says McKenzie was acquitted on Thursday.

"My client is happy that he will soon be reunited with his family, particularly his young daughter," Grill said in an e-mail to CBC Toronto, adding that McKenzie's "happiness is tempered by the recent loss of his grandmother while he was in custody and his inability to attend her funeral."

"I feel like justice was served by this acquittal."

Tariq Mohammed, a 31-year-old Mississauga man, was killed in the shooting at the Garden Restaurant in Nov. 2014. (Toronto Police Service)

At the time of the shooting, Mohammed and a group of people were eating at the Dundas Street West restaurant when an altercation began involving two other men.

Police say one of the two men at that table fired shots, killing Mohammed, a 31-year-old Mississauga man, and injuring two women in their 20s.