Who was Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, gunman killed in Ottawa shootings?

Who was Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, gunman killed in Ottawa shootings?

The gunman who fatally shot a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, then stormed the Canadian parliament and opened fire before being shot and killed by the sergeant-at-arms was identified as 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

Here's what we know about the gunman so far:

• He was a Quebec native. Zehaf-Bibeau was born in 1982; he is the son of Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman, and Susan Bibeau, the deputy chairperson of a division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board. He was raised in the Montreal area. At some point, his parents divorced.

• He had a 'good upbringing.' "I know that [his] mother was very caring and a very involved parent." Janice Parnell, a former neighbor, told CTV. "Actually both parents seem to have been. The boy seemed to have had a very good upbringing. He had a good home base. He was involved in community things."

• His mother is shocked and distraught. "I'm crying for victims, not for my son," Susan Bibeau told The Associated Press. "Can you ever explain something like this?"

• He had a criminal record. According to scattered court records, Zehaf-Bibeau was charged with a series of pretty crimes, including drug possession, credit-card forgery and robbery. In 2011, he was charged with robbery and uttering threats in Vancouver, the CBC reported.

• He was on a watch list. According to the Globe and Mail, Zehaf-Bibeau was "recently designated a 'high-risk traveler'" by the Canadian government, which pulled his passport. It's unclear why he was designated a high risk. Earlier this month, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that they were investigating 63 national security cases and 90 inidividuals with potential links to terrorism.

• He was a convert to Islam. According to NBC News, Zehaf-Bibeau made the religious conversion at least 10 years ago.

• He had purportedly planned to travel to the Middle East. Dave Bathurst, a family friend, told the CBC that he last saw Zehaf-Bibeau six weeks ago in a mosque in the Vancouver area — where Zehaf-Bibeau was reportedly working as a miner — and that he spoke of wanting to go to the Middle East "soon" to study Islam.

• His friend witnessed some 'erratic' behavior. “We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don’t know how he worded it. He said the devil is after him,” Bathurst told the CBC. "I think he must have been mentally ill."

A photo that purported shows Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (CBC)
A photo that purported shows Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (CBC)

• He visited the United States at least four times, most recently in 2013. According to CNN, U.S. law enforcement officials are tracing Zehaf-Bibeau's travel and interviewing his American contacts, but at this point "there's no reason to believe he's connected to any extremists in the United States."

• He appears to have acted alone. While there were initial reports of multiple shooters during Wednesday's melee, police now believe Zehaf-Bibeau was the lone gunman. And authorities say there does not appear to be any personal connection between Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Rouleau, the 25-year-old who died after a shootout with police after driving his car into two Canadian soldiers in a Quebec parking lot, killing one. Like Zehaf-Bibeau, Rouleau was also being monitored by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and had had his passport revoked.