- Michael
Zehaf-Bibeau stayed at Ottawa Mission for around 10 days before his
shooting spree; on Wednesday, police officers collected his belongings
- Other residents said he told them they should be praying five times a day because 'the end of the world is coming'
- He
befriended two English-speaking men and taught them about Islam, other
residents said - but the two men have not been seen since
- Zehaf-Bibeau
shot dead a soldier on Wednesday morning before opening fire inside the
Parliament and being shot dead by the sergeant-at-arms
Published:
19:01 GMT, 23 October 2014
|
Updated:
19:28 GMT, 23 October 2014
The
Muslim convert who gunned down a Canadian soldier outside Parliament
lived at a homeless shelter in the days before the shooting and told
residents the end of the world was coming.
Police collected Michael Zehaf-Bibeau's belongings from the Ottawa Mission homeless shelter after the shooting on Wednesday, CBC reported.
He
stayed there for between one and two weeks, and in that time he had
befriended two other men and they had been trying to track down a
vehicle, residents told the Ottawa Citizen.
Residents
often saw him chatting with the two English-speaking men, both in their
20s, about Islam but ever since the shooting, they have not seen them,
the residents told the Citizen.
Scroll down for video
+7
'Bizarre': Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who
shot dead a Canadian soldier on Wednesday, had stayed at a homeless
shelter in the days before the shooting where he told residents 'the
world is about to end'
One resident said the men had looked 'shifty'.
'There
was three of them all the time going around with each other,' he said.
'He was teaching them about Islam and stuff. He had them doing the
Islamic prayer.'
Resident
John Clothier added to CBC: 'I overheard him trying to buy a car. A
small car, because his car had a misfire, he said. He wanted to buy a
car, desperately, and he was trying to get help from everybody in here
to get a car.
'People were trying to help him, but we didn't understand what he was up to.'
The
'bizarre' man would tell the residents that they should be praying five
times a day 'because the end of the world is coming', Clothier
recalled.
Other
residents told the Citizen that he had said he was anti-Canadian and
that his relatives had fought in Libya. Previous reports said his father
had fought in Libya in 2011.
+7
Shelter: He stayed at the Ottawa
Mission, pictured, for around 10 days before the shooting and while
there, he met two young English-speaking men in their 20s and taught
them about Islam, other residents said
Another
resident told the Citizen that Bibeau would tell people he was on a
no-fly list and that his mother was 'some mucky-muck in the government'.
Bibeau had indeed had his passport seized by the government and was the
son of Susan Bibeau, who is on the country's immigration board.
'Nine times out of 10, you pass it off as bulls***,' the resident, Duncan, said.
Clothier
said that authorities arrived at the shelter on Wednesday evening to
collect Bibeau's belongings and spent a lengthy period of time in the
shelter's computer room.
The
Ottawa Mission's executive director, Peter Tilley, could not confirm if
the gunman had stayed there because of privacy reasons, but he said the
shelter was working closely with police.
There
are records of him previously staying at other shelters, including a
Salvation Army homeless shelter and a rooming house in Vancouver.
+7
Attack: On Wednesday, he fatally shot
Corporal Nathan Cirillo as he stood guard at the National War Memorial
in Ottawa. Police, bystanders and soldiers are seen helping Cirillo
after he was hit
+7
+7
Victim: Cirillo, left in his uniform and right with his six-year-old son and one of his dogs, was a single father
On
Wednesday morning, he approached Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, as he
stood guard at the National War Memorial and shot him in the abdomen.
Cirillo, a single father, died of his injuries.
Zehaf-Bibeau,
32, then ran inside the Parliament, where he opened gunfire. He was
eventually stopped by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who shot him dead.
On
Thursday, Vickers received a standing ovation from MPs as he returned
to the House of Commons and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the
country would not be intimidated by terrorists.
After
the shooting, it emerged tha the gunman, whose full name was Michael,
Joseph, Paul, Abdallah Bulgasem Zehaf Bibeau, had recently converted to
Islam and had a lengthy history of crime, including arrests and jail
time for drugs charges, robbery and assault.
He had also recently been designated a 'high-risk traveler' by the Canadian government and had his passport seized.
+7
Sadness: The Canadian flag flies at half staff on top of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
+7
Showing their respects: Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen lay flowers at the memorial
On
Thursday, his mother Susan released a statement saying she had been
shocked to learn of the tragic events and, because she had long been
estranged from her son, she was unable to shed much light on why he
carried out the crime.
She said she and her ex-husband felt pain for the victims - not for the loss of their son.
'We
are both crying for them,' she told the Associated Press. 'We also wish
to apologize for all the pain, fright and chaos he created.
'We have no explanation to offer. I am mad at our son, I don't understand and part of me wants to hate him at this time.'
No comments:
Post a Comment