Canadian parliament locked down, one suspect dead

[Anthea]

Reuters

Canadian parliament locked down, one suspect reported dead

A gunman shot and wounded a soldier in Ottawa on Wednesday and then entered the country's parliament buildings chased by police, with at least 30 shots fired in dramatic scenes in the heart of the Canadian capital.

A suspected gunman was shot dead inside the parliament building, a government minister said.

It was not clear whether the suspect had acted alone. Ottawa police said they were actively looking for one or more suspects.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in a caucus meeting in parliament when gunfire erupted in the building, Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino, a former policeman, told the Toronto Sun.

Harper was later safely removed from the building, and parliament was locked down.

Fantino said parliament's head of security, Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, a former member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), had shot a suspect dead.

"All the details are not in, but the sergeant-at-arms, a former Mountie, is the one that engaged the gunman, or one of them at least, and stopped this," Fantino said. "He did a great job and, from what I know, shot the gunman and he is now deceased."

Dramatic video footage posted by the Globe and Mail newspaper showed police with guns drawn inside the main parliament building. At least a dozen loud bangs can be heard on the clip, echoing through the hallway.

'DANGER HERE'

As the drama enfolded, police in dark bulletproof vests and automatic weapons flooded the streets near parliament.

Some took cover behind vehicles, and shouted to people to clear the area, saying: "We do not have the suspect in custody. You are in danger here."

Members of parliament were told to lock themselves in their offices, and stay away from the windows.

"If your door does not lock, find a way to barricade the door, if possible. Do not open a door under any circumstances," said a security alert issued by parliament officials.

People in downtown Ottawa should stay away from windows and off roofs due to an "ongoing police incident," the RCMP cautioned in a statement.

All cell phones in the area were blocked.

The wounded soldier was taken into an ambulance in which medical personnel could be seen giving him cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

The shooting came two days after an Islamic convert ran down two Canadian soldiers with his car, killing one, near Montreal, before being shot and killed by police.

'DOUBLE-BARRELLED SHOTGUN'

A construction worker on the scene in Ottawa told Reuters he heard a gunshot, and then saw a man with a scarf over his face running towards parliament.

"He was wearing blue pants and a black jacket and he had a double barrelled shotgun and he ran up the side of this building here and hijacked a car at gunpoint," construction worker Scott Walsh told Reuters.

The driver got out safely, then the man drove the car to the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, where construction work is underway, Walsh said.

The suspected gunman rushed past a woman with a child in a stroller, who ran away screaming. He did not attack the woman or child, he said.

Centre Block is the main building on Parliament Hill, a sprawling complex of buildings and open space in downtown Ottawa. It contains the House of Commons and Senate chambers as well as the offices of some members of parliament, senators, and senior administration for both legislative houses.

One member of parliament, Mark Strahl, tweeted from inside parliament: "Very tense situation in Ottawa this morning. Multiple gun shots fired outside of our caucus room. I am safe and in lockdown. Unbelievable."

Security on Parliament Hill is fairly low-key, compared with Capitol Hill in Washington. Anybody could walk right up to the front door of parliament's Centre Block with arms and explosives without being challenged before entering the front door, where a few guards check accreditation.

The room where the caucus of the governing Conservatives meets with Prime Minister Stephen Harper is perhaps 100 feet (30 metres) from that door.

The Canadian military closed its bases across the country following the events in Ottawa, CBC TV said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/10/2 ... QQ20141022

[Anthea]

CNN

Ottawa shooting suspect had ties to jihadists
By Jason Hanna

The suspect in Wednesday's shootings in Ottawa had "connections" to jihadists in Canada who shared a radical Islamist ideology, including at least one who went overseas to fight in Syria, multiple U.S. sources told CNN on Thursday.

The gunman was Quebec native Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a convert to Islam, U.S. officials said.

Zehaf-Bibeau was connected to Hasibullah Yusufzai through social media, according to a U.S. counterterrorism source. Yusufzai is wanted by Canadian authorities for traveling overseas to fight alongside Islamist fighters in Syria, The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, reported.

American officials are reportedly scouring databases and communications for possible links to American-based jihadists.

Other radicalized people connected to Zehaf-Bibeau are still believed to be living in Canada, two U.S. law enforcement officials said.

Harper: "We will not run scared'

Canadian lawmakers returned to work Thursday, giving a standing ovation to the ceremonial Parliament official credited with taking down the gunman who killed a soldier and shook the Parliament area.

Their return came as the country tried to come to grips with the second killing of a soldier on home soil in three days, and questions as to why the attacks came and who exactly was behind them.

"We'll be vigilant, but we will not run scared. We will be prudent, but we will not panic. And as for the business of government, well, here we are -- in our seats, in our chamber, in the very heart of our democracy," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons in Ottawa.

Lawmakers stood and cheered Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who officials say took down the suspect in the halls of Parliament minutes after the killing of Canadian army reservist Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at a war memorial nearby.

Vickers, who regularly leads a procession into the House as sessions begin, stood with his ceremonial mace and appeared to be emotional during the ovation.

He later released a statement saying he is touched by the attention.

"However, I have the support of a remarkable security team that is committed to ensuring the safety of Members, employees and visitors to the Hill," Vickers said.

It was a step toward normalcy for a government district that was widely locked down for hours after the shootings at Canada's National War Memorial and Parliament Hill.

Authorities say a man shot and killed Cirillo, who was standing guard at the war memorial on Wednesday morning. The gunman then entered the nearby main Parliament building in downtown Ottawa, where witnesses say shots were fired -- many by security officers -- before he was shot dead, authorities said.

A plainclothes constable who was working security at Parliament was shot in the leg, according to a House of Commons official briefed on the investigation. The injury is not life-threatening, and the constable was treated at a hospital and released, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The shootings left government workers and others locked inside offices for a large portion of the day while police searched buildings to ensure that no other culprit was loose.

Wednesday's deadly attack was the second on Canadian soldiers this week. On Monday, a convert to Islam who Canadian authorities said was "radicalized" hit two soldiers with a car in Quebec, killing one of them. Police later killed the man.

"When faced with attacks on the country we all love ... I know we will always stand together," Harper said. "Canadians will not be intimidated."

The suspect

Canadian authorities had confiscated Zehaf-Bibeau's passport when they learned he planned to go fight overseas, a U.S. law enforcement official told CNN's Susan Candiotti. The official said it was not clear when that happened.

Who was Ottawa shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau?

Zehaf-Bibeau, who was born as Michael Joseph Hall in 1982, had a history of drug use before he converted, two sources said.

His mother, Susan Bibeau, spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday. She struggled to hold back tears and said she didn't know what to say to those hurt in the attack.

"If I'm crying, it's for the people," Bibeau reportedly said. "Not for my son."

Police are satisfied that only one person was responsible for Wednesday's shootings, Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau told Canadian media outlet CTV News on Thursday morning.

Lawmakers pay respects to soldier

Before Parliament reopened, lawmakers gathered outside the memorial -- some holding flowers -- for a moment of silence for Cirillo.

"This was very off the cuff," lawmaker Charlie Angus told CNN on Thursday morning. "I think parliamentarians really just felt that before we walked into the Parliament buildings, we had to pay respect to a young man who gave his life for his country."

Angus said the soldiers' killings this week left the government with plenty of questions.

"The questions we need to ask ourselves (include), 'How are these people getting this crazy ideology that's inspiring them to do these copycat killings?' " he said.

Another question, he said: What can society do to deal with people who find themselves on the fringes? Issues of mental health, he said, need to be addressed.

"We cannot let people like this fall through the cracks and end up doing deranged killings," Angus said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/23/world ... ?hpt=hp_t1