They met in the worst of circumstances.

It was just after 10 p.m. in late February when Todd Irvine, an urban arborist driving home from Home Depot with his fiancée in the passenger seat, saw the silhouette of a man lying on Gerrard St. near Toronto’s Regent Park.

Slowing the car to a crawl, Irvine peered out the car window as he pulled toward the figure on the street. There he saw a young man sprawled out on the eastbound lane, his wrists wrapped in duct tape and blood oozing from fresh stab wounds on his face and chest.

That man, lying alone in a pool of his own blood on the wintry night, would three months later become a household name in Toronto: Christopher Husbands, 23, charged with murder for allegedly opening fire in the Eaton Centre food court, killing one and injuring seven others, including a 13-year-old boy.

More:Accused man Christopher Husbands worked with kids while on house arrest

But on that February night, Irvine met a victim, a fellow human lying alone on a deserted street, his green staff t-shirt from the City of Toronto (where he worked for six months) soaked in dark blood.

Swerving the car into the middle of the road to block oncoming traffic, Irvine ran from the car to Husbands’ side as his fiancée called 911 for help.

As he stood above Husbands, Irvine recalls, he looked down at the face of a man scared, panicked and pleading for his life. For long minutes, Irvine consoled the man, coaxing him to keep his eyes open as they waited for help to arrive.

“It was a matter of life and death,” he said. “I really wanted him to live.”

More: Eaton Centre shooting victim’s family returns to shop

When he returned home that night, Irvine took to Twitter to express his shock: “Tonight I stood over man laying on street bleeding from stab wounds. I talked to him as we waited for help, hoping he would not die,” he tweeted.

More than three months later, Irvine would learn from a newspaper article that the man he so desperately hoped would survive was the same man accused of the deadly rampage at the Eaton Centre on June 2, in which Ahmed Hassan, 24, was shot dead.

According to reports, police believe the Eaton Centre shooting was triggered by tensions within an east Toronto gang — that Husbands killed Hassan in the food court last Saturday in retaliation for the stabbing incident that Irvine and his fiancée happened upon.

It’s alleged that Hassan and other members of Husbands’ gang bound him to a chair with duct tape inside an empty Regent Park apartment on Feb. 28. They then allegedly robbed, stabbed him repeatedly and left him for dead.

It’s not clear why Husbands was stabbed, but the young man’s father told the Star after his arrest Monday that he had fallen into a life of crime in his late teens.

“Gang changed everything,” Burchell Husbands said.

More: Police to crack down on gangs following Eaton Centre shooting

Even as his own city moves to condemn the alleged gunman, Irvine said he can’t help but think back to those moments he spent pleading with Husbands to keep breathing, to wait just a few more minutes for help to arrive.

“I felt so connected to this guy,” he said. “All of this horrible trauma he has inflicted on others — I’m one of the few people in the city who feels empathy toward him. I saw him (nearly) bleed to death in front of me … he was so alone. At that moment, he was a young kid.”

“I’m glad I stopped,” he said.

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro

More on The Star:

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Mother hid with toddlers as shots sprayed across food court

Funeral for food court shooting victim

James: Gang members don’t live by our codes

Read more about: