Canadian Police Say Ottawa Attack Was Work of Lone Gunman
A woman stood next to flowers left at the War Memorial on Thursday in Ottawa.
The gunman who terrorized Ottawa with a deadly ambush on a military guard and a shooting inside Parliament acted alone, the Canadian police said on Thursday, but there were new indications that he had hinted of his intentions and may have had collaborators.
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported on its website that the gunman, killed in a fusillade of gunfire on Wednesday in the House of Commons, had been staying at a homeless shelter only minutes away “for some time” and had sought, along with two other men at the shelter, to obtain a vehicle.
The newspaper, which said police officers had visited the shelter several times over the past 24 hours, based its account on interviews with other residents at the shelter.
The police did not immediately confirm the newspaper’s account, but if true it could help explain why, in the confusion and trauma that convulsed Ottawa the day before, officers said they were seeking as many as three assailants.
Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa police told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday that a search of the city’s downtown, with much of the area under lockdown until Wednesday evening, had not found any signs of accomplices to the gunman, identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
The lockdown included a room by room search of the Parliament buildings as well as of nearby office buildings where thousands of workers were locked in. Many members of Parliament were not released from security areas in the main Parliament building until nearly 10 hours had passed.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has blamed the assault on what he has described as radicalism inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, the target of an American-led aerial military campaign in Iraq and Syria that Mr. Harper strongly supports.
“We will not be intimidated,” Mr. Harper said at a special session of Parliament held on Thursday to punctuate its determination to resume normality. “We will be vigilant but we will not run scared. We will be prudent but we will not panic.”
Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms, who was seen on Wednesday rushing after the assailant with a pistol drawn was back in his more familiar role of parading a ceremonial mace. But as he made his way along Parliament’s Hall of Honor, where the gunman was killed, Mr. Vickers passed by walls damaged by bullets.
Parliament broke with protocol and allowed television stations to show the entry of the mace into the House of Commons. Members rose in a prolonged standing ovation for Mr. Vickers that, at times, seemed to put him on the verge of tears.
Mr. Harper walked down the chamber to shake Mr. Vickers’ hand. Normally partisan and rarely given to public gestures of warmth, he also embraced and shook the hands of Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau, the leaders of the two principal opposition parties.
The prime minister and his wife also laid a wreath at the National War Memorial, which sits across the street from his office, in memory of the slain sentry, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a single father of a young child from Hamilton, Ontario.
Panic spread in the city center Wednesday after the gunman, armed with a shotgun, fatally wounded Corporal Cirillo, an army reservist who was part of a ceremonial guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the memorial. He then entered the nearby Parliament building and fired multiple times before he was shot and killed.
The shooting came only two days after another deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces, deepening apprehensions that the attacks could be linked to Canada’s supporting role in the American campaign against the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group also known as ISIS and ISIL. This week, Canada sent six fighter jets to attack Islamic State targets in Iraq following a request for assistance from the United States.
Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, whose parents had changed his name from Michael Joseph Hall when he was a teenager, was originally from Quebec. Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its suburbs in recent years. He had several petty, mostly drug related, criminal convictions.
His parents said in a statement on Thursday that they were shocked and appalled by his actions and saddened by the death of the corporal. “He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow,” the parents, Susan Bibeau and Bulgasem Zehaf, said of the soldier in astatement given to The Associated Press. “We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless.”
Ian Austen reported from Ottawa and Alan Cowell from London. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported on its website that the gunman, killed in a fusillade of gunfire on Wednesday in the House of Commons, had been staying at a homeless shelter only minutes away “for some time” and had sought, along with two other men at the shelter, to obtain a vehicle.
The newspaper, which said police officers had visited the shelter several times over the past 24 hours, based its account on interviews with other residents at the shelter.
The police did not immediately confirm the newspaper’s account, but if true it could help explain why, in the confusion and trauma that convulsed Ottawa the day before, officers said they were seeking as many as three assailants.
Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa police told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday that a search of the city’s downtown, with much of the area under lockdown until Wednesday evening, had not found any signs of accomplices to the gunman, identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
The lockdown included a room by room search of the Parliament buildings as well as of nearby office buildings where thousands of workers were locked in. Many members of Parliament were not released from security areas in the main Parliament building until nearly 10 hours had passed.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has blamed the assault on what he has described as radicalism inspired by the Islamic State extremist group, the target of an American-led aerial military campaign in Iraq and Syria that Mr. Harper strongly supports.
“We will not be intimidated,” Mr. Harper said at a special session of Parliament held on Thursday to punctuate its determination to resume normality. “We will be vigilant but we will not run scared. We will be prudent but we will not panic.”
Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms, who was seen on Wednesday rushing after the assailant with a pistol drawn was back in his more familiar role of parading a ceremonial mace. But as he made his way along Parliament’s Hall of Honor, where the gunman was killed, Mr. Vickers passed by walls damaged by bullets.
Parliament broke with protocol and allowed television stations to show the entry of the mace into the House of Commons. Members rose in a prolonged standing ovation for Mr. Vickers that, at times, seemed to put him on the verge of tears.
Mr. Harper walked down the chamber to shake Mr. Vickers’ hand. Normally partisan and rarely given to public gestures of warmth, he also embraced and shook the hands of Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau, the leaders of the two principal opposition parties.
The prime minister and his wife also laid a wreath at the National War Memorial, which sits across the street from his office, in memory of the slain sentry, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a single father of a young child from Hamilton, Ontario.
Panic spread in the city center Wednesday after the gunman, armed with a shotgun, fatally wounded Corporal Cirillo, an army reservist who was part of a ceremonial guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the memorial. He then entered the nearby Parliament building and fired multiple times before he was shot and killed.
The shooting came only two days after another deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces, deepening apprehensions that the attacks could be linked to Canada’s supporting role in the American campaign against the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group also known as ISIS and ISIL. This week, Canada sent six fighter jets to attack Islamic State targets in Iraq following a request for assistance from the United States.
Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, whose parents had changed his name from Michael Joseph Hall when he was a teenager, was originally from Quebec. Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and its suburbs in recent years. He had several petty, mostly drug related, criminal convictions.
His parents said in a statement on Thursday that they were shocked and appalled by his actions and saddened by the death of the corporal. “He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow,” the parents, Susan Bibeau and Bulgasem Zehaf, said of the soldier in astatement given to The Associated Press. “We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless.”
Ian Austen reported from Ottawa and Alan Cowell from London. Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.
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