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Canadian Soldier Dead After Attack Near Parliament in Ottawa Gunman Panics Ottawa, Killing Soldier in Spree
(about 2 hours later)
OTTAWA — The heart of the Canadian capital was traumatized and placed in emergency police lockdown on Wednesday after a gunman fatally wounded a soldier guarding the National War Memorial, entered the nearby Parliament building and fired multiple times before he was shot and killed. OTTAWA — The heart of the Canadian capital was thrown into panic and placed in lockdown on Wednesday after a gunman armed with a rifle or shotgun fatally wounded a corporal guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier the National War Memorial, entered the nearby Parliament building and fired multiple times before he was shot and killed.
It was the second deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces in three days. While the motive was unclear, the Ottawa attack heightened fears that Canada, a strong ally of the United States, had been targeted in an organized terrorist plot. It was the second deadly assault on a uniformed member of Canada’s armed forces in three days — again by someone who appeared to have been motivated by Islamic extremism. The Ottawa attack heightened fears that Canada, a strong ally of the United States in its campaign against the Islamic State militant group convulsing the Middle East, had been targeted in a reprisal, either as part of an organized plot or a lone-wolf assault by a radicalized Canadian.
The Canadian authorities provided F.B.I. agents with the name of the dead Parliament assailant, identified by law enforcement officials as Canadian-born Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, born in 1982. Law enforcement authorities in Washington said their Canadian counterparts had identified the assailant as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had changed his name from Michael Joseph Hall, and said he had been a convert to Islam. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said he had a criminal history of offenses that included robbery and drug possession.
By midafternoon Wednesday, the officials said, a search of F.B.I. databases had not come up with anything about the assailant. Downtown Ottawa, ordinarily bustling on a workday, was both shut down and traumatized as police officers rushed to secure the Parliament building, move occupants to safety and hunt for what they initially said were possibly two or three assailants. The lockdown at Parliament dragged into the evening, when armed officers began herding people who had been confined all day into city buses, but the emergency was not lifted.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had a criminal record in Quebec dating back 10 years on drug-related offenses, and that he had lived in Montreal. At a news conference, the Ottawa police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to specify how many more gunmen — if any — they might be seeking, adding to the foreboding in the city, where anxiety ran so high that a National Hockey League game was postponed. The police told reporters that the situation was “dynamic and unfolding.”
Senior American law enforcement officials said Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had been a convert to Islam, and that he had changed his birth name, which was originally Michael Joseph Hall. But much about the shooter’s background and possible motivations remained unclear. The soldier died at a hospital, and the gunman was killed inside the Parliament building, Chief Charles Bordeleau of the Ottawa Police said. The soldier was identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a member of the army reserve from Hamilton, Ontario. Chief Bordeleau said that two people, whom he did not name, were injured, although not seriously.
Police officers rushed to secure the Parliament building and move occupants to safety as they hunted for what Canadian news reports said were possibly two or three assailants. The shootings came amid heightened concern among Canadians about terrorist attacks. Two days earlier, a radical jihadist ran over two soldiers at a strip mall in a city south of Montreal, killing one of them.
The police declined to specify how many more gunmen — if any — they might be seeking, but told reporters at a news conference that the situation was “dynamic and unfolding” and suggested they had no forewarning. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an outspoken critic of the Islamic State movement and other militant groups, had been expected to introduce new antiterrorism legislation on Wednesday. “We will not be intimidated,” Mr. Harper said in a television address Wednesday night. He linked the attacks to radicalism inspired by the Islamic State and called them “despicable.”
“It caught us by surprise,” said Gilles Michaud, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner. As members of Parliament gathered for their weekly caucus meetings in the Parliament buildings on Wednesday morning, much of the city was looking forward to the hockey game here between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators. Then everything suddenly changed.
Canadian officials said the wounded soldier, identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, 24, a reservist from Hamilton, Ontario, died at a hospital and that the gunman was killed inside the Parliament building. At 9:52 a.m. calls flooded into Ottawa’s 911 system to report a shooting at the war memorial, which sits isolated southwest of Parliament Hill in a square ringed by busy roads. Television images showed passers-by attempting to revive Corporal Cirillo before an ambulance arrived. His service rifle lay by his side.
Craig Scott, a member of Parliament, credited the sergeant-at-arms, Kevin Vickers, 58, with shooting the gunman just outside the caucus rooms. In a Twitter posting, Mr. Scott said he and his colleagues “owe their safety, even lives,” to Mr. Vickers. Eyewitness accounts varied widely about what happened next and ranged from tales of a carjacking to the assailant simply walking away from his gravely wounded victim.
The shootings came amid heightened concern among Canadians about terrorist attacks. Two days earlier, a radical jihadist ran over two soldiers at a suburban Montreal strip mall, killing one of them. Although motor vehicles cannot drive onto Parliament Hill, a complex of three buildings surrounding a vast lawn used for national celebrations, without passing through a security inspection, there are numerous, unguarded pedestrian access points.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, an outspoken critic of the Islamic State movement and other militant groups, has been considering the introduction of new antiterrorism legislation and has actively supported the American-led military effort to degrade the Islamic State’s expansion in Syria and Iraq. After dealing with reporters who had buttonholed members of Parliament as they entered their meetings, Greta K. Levy, the New Democratic Party’s caucus press secretary, and a colleague headed out to her office by way of the large, brass doors at the base of the Peace Tower that dominates the center block of Parliament.
President Obama spoke with Mr. Harper by telephone to offer condolences and vowed to provide any assistance that Canada may need. Speaking later with reporters, Mr. Obama recalled visiting the Parliament building that was the scene of Wednesday’s mayhem. “We heard someone yelling ‘gun! gun!’ and we flattened ourselves down on the top of step,” Ms. Levy said Wednesday evening. After nothing apparently had occurred, Ms. Levy looked up to find herself staring at a man walking calmly carrying a rifle or a shotgun aimed forward at his hips.
“We’re all shaken by it,” Mr. Obama said, “but we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that we’re standing side-by-side with Canada during this difficult time.” “He was clearly looking in our general direction, we were two or three feet away, I don’t know at what,” Ms. Levy said. “I didn’t notice anything in his eyes, nothing in his expression.”
The Ottawa Hospital said in a statement that it was treating three people for wounds related to the shooting, and that they were later released. . Seconds after the gunman disappeared into the building, Ms. Levy said that loud, prolonged gunfire broke out. A tourist crouched beside them, she said, bursting into tears and saying that her children were inside.
The shooting upended a busy day in the capital and paralyzed much of the city. A hockey game here between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators was postponed, the National Hockey League announced. The trio eventually fled across the lawn toward Royal Canadian Mounted Police cruisers.
The United States Embassy in Ottawa reported that it was in lockdown mode, in an advisory to American citizens posted on its website. Inside the building the situation was confused. Numerous people told reporters that they initially thought there might have been a fire when they were told to evacuate.
The police told reporters that they began getting multiple 911 calls about shootings in the Parliament area at 9:52 a.m., just as the leaders of the three major parties in Parliament were holding their weekly meetings, suggesting the possibility that the attack had been deliberately timed for when many lawmakers would have been working. Many of the lawmakers were rushed into secure rooms in the basement by guards. A video taken by a reporter for The Globe and Mail showed a number of House of Commons and Senate guards pursuing someone down Parliament’s marble lined Hall of Honor toward the Library of Parliament, a separate building attached at the rear. Repeated shooting can be heard on its audio.
Chrystia Freeland, a member of Parliament from Toronto, speaking by cellphone from a windowless room in the basement, said she had been just walking into a meeting she heard shots. In the Conservative caucus room, which exits into the Hall of Honor, members of Parliament piled their large leather chairs against the door as a barricade.
“They hustled me and another woman into this room and told us to hide,” she said. “I’m surrounded by more than a dozen House of Commons security guards.” Chrystia Freeland, a Liberal member of Parliament, said by phone that she had heard shots as she was heading to her caucus. Ms. Freeland said she was among many lawmakers rushed to secure basement rooms, when there seemed no way for them to leave the building. “I’m surrounded by more than a dozen House of Commons security guards,” she said.
Mr. Harper had been inside Parliament at the time but several witnesses saw him taken away in a motorcade. The entire downtown area was placed on lockdown as police reinforcements arrived, leaving thousands of workers trapped in office towers. The lockdown was partially eased hours later for the downtown area. Julie Van Dusen, a Parliamentary reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, described a scene of confusion. Unable to leave the building, she pounded on office doors, she told a local C.B.C. Radio show, and the staff of a cabinet minister recognized her voice and let her in. They piled furniture against the door and lay on the floor as silently as possible for nearly five hours until heavily armed police arrived and took them to a secure part of the building.
There had been early reports of a shooting in a shopping mall near Parliament but the Ottawa police said those reports were incorrect. Mr. Harper was whisked away in his motorcade.
Convoys carrying heavily armed police officers continued to race into the area hours after the first shots were fired, apparently in the hunt for other possible gunmen. But the normally congested streets were otherwise ghostlike. As the hours passed, the police extended their perimeter of closed roads ensnaring the core in a ring of gridlock. There was no official confirmation of how the gunman died. But Craig Scott, a member of Parliament, credited 58-year-old Kevin Vickers, sergeant-at-arms and a man better known for carrying a ceremonial mace while wearing robes, with shooting the gunman just outside the party caucus rooms. In a Twitter posting, Mr. Scott said he and his colleagues “owe their safety, even lives,” to Mr. Vickers.
The Ottawa Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned the public in a Twitter post to “stay away from the downtown Ottawa area.” As the police locked down buildings in downtown Ottawa and asked stores to close, an eerie still, broken only by screaming emergency sirens, descended on the district. Long after the drama on Parliament Hill seemed to be settled, groups of heavily armed officers ran through portions of downtown, checking out buildings. Some warned the few people on the streets, mainly journalists, that snipers were a possibility.
Witnesses reported seeing the gunman who shot the soldier running into the House of Commons and firing dozens of rounds. Some witnesses said that he had hijacked a passing car to make the trip to the principal Parliament building in the area, known as Parliament Hill. As thousands of workers were trapped in office towers and shops, and gridlock developed as convoys carrying heavily armed officers wearing military-style helmets poured into the area. A large ambulance, designed for a disaster like an airplane crash, set up operation.
A special ambulance, modified from a transit bus to handle disasters, stood nearby Parliament Hill at the Supreme Court, as did several paramedics, some wearing helmets and body armor. The easy access to the grounds of Parliament Hill reflected the general Canadian view that an attack was unlikely. Mr. Harper and other members of his cabinet, however, have frequently warned that terrorist attacks might come to Canada.
Journalists covering Parliament were ordered by police officers at gunpoint to lie on the floor in the foyer in front of the House of Commons, The Globe and Mail reported on its website. The Globe and Mail’s correspondent, Josh Wingrove, said in a series of Twitter posts that the hallways were filled with the smell of gunpowder. In an audio message last month, the Islamic State’s spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, exhorted sympathizers to carry out revenge killings and included Canadians on the list of target nationalities.
Dozens of Royal Canadian Mounted Police squad cars as well as one armored police vehicle converged on Parliament Hill’s Centre Block, as heavily armed officers wearing bulletproof vests went into the complex. “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be,” Mr. Adnani said.