Federal sources confirm identity of slain Ottawa gunman
Posted October 22, 2014 5:59 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A high-ranking federal official confirms that the gunman killed in Wednesday’s deadly shooting rampage on Parliament Hill has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
Little else is known about the man, but one media report said he is Canadian and was born in 1982.
A Canadian soldier was shot and killed at the National War Memorial before the gunman staged an assault on Parliament Hill, where two others were injured in the ensuing gunfire.
The assailant was shot dead by the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons.
The parliamentary precinct, as well as much of Ottawa’s downtown core, was under lockdown as police combed the area for any other possible attackers.
In a release, Ottawa police said the safety perimeter in downtown Ottawa has now been lifted. However, Parliament Hill remains closed off to the public.
The incident comes just two days after two Canadian soldiers were run over — one of them fatally — in Quebec by a man with jihadist sympathies.
According to reports, Zehaf-Bibeau had recently converted to Islam. His photo surfaced on a Twitter account linked to the ISIS terrorist group. The account has since been suspended.
There are also reports his mother is a high-ranking federal government employee, working as a deputy chairperson for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Reports also say his father is a Quebec businessman who appears to have fought in Libya back in 2011.
Court records show a man named Michael Joseph Paul Zehaf-Bibeau has faced robbery and drug charges in the past, along with uttering threats, and served time in jails in Vancouver and Montreal.
He was also reportedly spotted at a Vancouver mosque a few weeks ago, where he apparently spoke about wanting to go to the Middle East and also changing his first name to “Abdullah.”
U.S. law enforcement are also tracking Zehaf-Bibeau’s activity, saying he had been stateside four times — most recently last year.
Records also show that Zehaf-Bibeau underwent psychiatric assessment three years ago and was found fit to stand trial.
There are reports Zehaf-Bibeau passport had been confiscated by authorities in Canada when they learned the man planned to go fight overseas. This was also the case with Martin Couture-Rouleau, the man behind the hit-and-run attack.
While Rouleau was among 90 people being tracked by the Mounties, police have not confirmed in Zehaf-Bibeau was on the same list.
