This post is being updated as new information becomes available.
Update, 6:10 p.m.: More information on the suspected shooter, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who was shot and killed during Wednesday’s attack, is emerging. “Two U.S. officials said that U.S. agencies have been advised that the shooter was a Canadian convert to Islam,” Reuters reports. “Federal [Canadian] sources have identified the suspected shooter as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a man in his early 30s who was known to Canadian authorities,” the Globe and Mail reports. “Sources told The Globe and Mail that he was recently designated a ‘high-risk traveller’ by the Canadian government and that his passport had been seized…”
Update, 5:45 p.m.: The CBC confirmed Corporal Nathan Cirillo was shot and killed during Wednesday’s attack while he was standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Here’s more on the developing story from the CBC:
Parliament Hill came under attack today after a man with a rifle shot and fatally wounded a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa, before seizing a car and driving to the doors of Parliament Hill’s Centre Block nearby… Moments later, MPs and other witnesses reported 30 to 50 shots fired inside the main Parliament building.
It was confirmed later the gunman was shot dead inside the building, felled by the House of Commons sergeant-at-arms and RCMP, according to MPs’ accounts… Police sources have confirmed to CBC News the dead shooting suspect is Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian born in 1982… Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on the Hill at the time of the shooting, but was safely taken away.
Ottawa police say “there is no one in custody at this time…” Police would not say whether they still suspect another shooter is involved. Parliament Hill remains under lockdown late Wednesday afternoon.
Original Post: An armed man has been killed inside Canada’s Parliament building after a Canadian soldier was shot at the country’s nearby National War Memorial, the CBC reports. Another shooter is believed to be at large. Ottawa police say the soldier who was shot has died.
The National War Memorial is across the street from Canada’s Parliament buildings:
Screenshot via Google Maps
A video taken by the Toronto Globe and Mail shows heavy gunfire inside Parliament:
Shots have also been reported at the Rideau Centre, a mall that is less than 1,000 feet from the War Memorial and Parliament Hill. (UPDATE: Police say there was no shooting at the Rideau Centre.)
Another soldier was kiled on Monday and one was injured in Montreal when a 25-year-old “known to federal authorities” for holding radical beliefs ran them over in a car. The suspect—Martin “Ahmad” Rouleau, who was subsequently killed by police after fleeing the scene—was a convert to Islam who reportedly had an “obsession with Islamist extremism.”
The House of Commons was scheduled to debate gun law reforms this afternoon.
Correction, Oct. 22, 2014: This post reported prematurely that the Canadian soldier who was attacked had died. This assertion was based on a New York Times account that was subsequently changed.
