Canadian parliament attacker made video of himself, police say
|
Version 0 of 1. Police say a gunman who stormed the Canadian parliament prepared a video recording of himself that shows he was driven by political motives. Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Bob Paulson said in a statement they had “persuasive evidence” that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack, in which he shot and killed a soldier at the national war memorial before being gunned down himself, was “driven by ideological and political motives”. A detailed analysis of the video was being conducted and Paulson said they could not release the footage yet. The prime minister, Stephen Harper, has called Wednesday’s shooting a terror attack, and the bloodshed raised fears that Canada is suffering reprisals for joining the US-led air campaign against Isis extremists in Iraq and Syria. Police are investigating Zehaf-Bibeau’s interactions with numerous individuals in the days leading up to the attack and whether they could have contributed to or facilitated it. Paulson said a knife Zehaf-Bibeau carried was taken from his aunt’s property in Mont Tremblant, Quebec, and police were looking into how he got the rifle. Paulson called it an old, rare kind of gun that police suspect he could have also hidden on the property. Paulson said investigators also identified where he got his money for the car he bought and his pre-attack activities. He said Zehaf-Bibeau had been employed in the oil fields in Alberta, saved his money and had access to a considerable amount of funds. “The RCMP is confident we will have an authoritative and detailed account of the shooting, including a complete reconstruction of the heroic actions of those involved, in the weeks to come,” said Paulson, who said the Ontario provincial police would investigate the shooting inside parliament. Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, shot dead Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, who was assigned to the honour guard at the memorial. Zehaf-Bibeau was eventually shot inside parliament by the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Commons, Kevin Vickers. The attack in Ottawa came two days after a man described as an “Isil-inspired terrorist” ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring the other before police shot him dead. The man had been under surveillance by Canadian authorities, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey. Zehaf-Bibeau was not being watched by authorities. But Paulson said last week Zehaf-Bibeau, whose father was from Libya, may have lashed out in frustration over delays in getting his passport. Police had said they had been told that Zehaf-Bibeau had wanted to go to Syria, but his mother, Susan Bibeau, said in a letter published by Postmedia News that her son told her he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia where he could study the Qur’an. |