The country is still reeling after two shootings took place in Ottawa yesterday – a soldier at the War Memorial was gunned down and then later police killed that suspect. Police operations are still ongoing in the Nation’s Capital today.
“This week’s events are a grim reminder that Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks we have seen elsewhere around the world,” the prime minister said (as reported by CTVNews.ca). “We are also reminded that attacks on our security personnel and on our institutions of governments are by their very nature attacks on our country, on our values, on our society, on us Canadians as a free and democratic people who embrace human dignity for all. But let there be no misunderstanding – we will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated.”
Just before 10am several 911 calls came in describing gun activity at the National War Memorial. When paramedics arrived, honour guard Nathan Cirillo of Hamilton, Ontario was on the ground with several passers-by trying to help him – he had been shot in the chest and died later that morning. Then the gunman walked into the Parliament buildings and started firing there, letting off a number of shots while MPs hid in their offices and tweeted out updates. The shooter, Michael Joseph Zehaf-Bibeau, was taken down in the building by sergeant-at-arms for the House of Commons Kevin Vickers, who is now being hailed a hero (and rightfully so).
“I looked out the window and saw a shooter – a man dressed all in black with a kerchief over his nose and mouth and something over his head as well – holding a rifle and shooting an honour guard in front of the Cenotaph, point blank, twice,” Tony Zobl, 35, told The Canadian Press (as reported by CJAD). “It looked like the honour guard was trying to reach for the barrel of the gun,” he continued. “The honour guard dropped to the ground and the shooter kind of raised his arms in triumph holding the rifle.”
Three other people were taken to the hospital yesterday for different injuries, but they had all been released by last night.
Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair called the shootings “a cowardly attack designed to strike at the heart of our democracy, the heart of who we are” (CTVNews.ca). But he said Canadians will once again wake up in a country “blessed by love, diversity and peace.”
