Canadian gunman identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau

The masked gunman who shot and killed Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo at the national war memorial has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a “terrorist” known to the Canadian government as a “high-risk traveller”.

At 9:52am (Canadian time) on Wednesday, an unknown gunman (now identified as Zehaf-Bibeau) shot and killed Cirillo at the national war memorial opposite parliament hill, before heading to the parliament to mastermind multiple shootings.

Zehaf-Bibeau engaged the police in a gun battle inside the parliament building, leading to the lockdown of the building before he was shot dead by Kevin Vickers, a 58-year-old sergeants-at-arms.

Canadian officials said Zehaf-Bineau was a 32-year-old born in Quebec, a French speaking province in east-central Canada.

Zehaf-Bibeau was reported by Canadian media as a petty criminal with a string of minor convictions dating back to 2001, and he had recently converted to Islam and dreamed of travelling to the Middle East to study Arabic.

According to CTV news, the Canadian federal government had deemed Zehaf-Bibeau a “high-risk traveller”. It also quoted a source as confirming that officials had seized the suspect’s passport.

Dave Bathurst, a fellow Islam convert, told Globe and Mail he was a friend of Zehaf-Bibeau, but that he had recently been raising concerns about “the devil”.

“I think he must have been mentally ill,” Bathurst added.

Malala Yousafzai, nobel peace prize winner, was to be conferred with honourary Canadian citizenship by Stephen Harper, Canadian prime minister, but this was cancelled due to the multiple shootings.