Ottawa gunman privately-educated son of Canada immigration chief, parents shocked

Flowers, momentos and well wishes are placed at the Canadian War Memorial in downtown Ottawa October 23, 2014 (Reuters / Blair Gable)

Following the Canadian shooting attack which threw Ottowa into lockdown, media raced to identify the perpetrator. A 32-year-old, Quebec-born male was named – and his mother was found to work at Canada’s Immigration and Refugee board.

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau had converted to Islam prior to the attacks in Ottawa and had previously had his passport revoked and been arrested several times. He was privately educated and the son of the deputy chairperson of Canada’s immigration division, Susan Bibeau, reported CTV News.

Despite his education he had been regarded as somewhat disturbed by one of his friends from his youth and in later years had several drug and robbery arrests and one weapons charge – he was also classed as a high-risk traveler despite his mother’s position.

One friend, friend Dave Bathurst, told Canada’s Globe and Mail that he had exhibited some signs of possibly suffering mental illness: “We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don’t know how he worded it: He said the devil is after him,” he said.

Police officers search a man arrested after approaching police tape near the Canada War Memorial while Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid respect to Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the Memorial in Ottawa October 23, 2014. (Reuters / Chris Wattie)

His parents had reportedly gone long periods of time without seeing their son.

On Wednesday, his mother, Susan Bibeau told AP that she was crying for the victims of her son’s attack, 24-year-old soldier Nathan Cirillo, rather than for her son.

“Can you ever explain something like this?” she said through tears, during a telephone call. “We are sorry.”

She added that she did not know what to say to the people who were injured.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen Harper pay their respects to Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the Canada War Memorial in Ottawa October 23, 2014. (Reuters / Chris Wattie)

“No words can express the sadness we are feeling at this time. We are so sad that a man lost his life. He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow,” the parents said in their official statement read.

“I don’t understand and part of me wants to hate him at this time. You write that our son was vulnerable, we don’t know, we (he) was lost and did not fit in. I his mother spoke with him last week over lunch, I had not seen him for over five years before that.”

Bibeau was killed by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers shortly after his attack on Parliament Hill and a shooting at the National War Memorial.

The shootings which shook Canada on Wednesday morning put the capital on lockdown as well as all military bases nationwide. Three people were hospitalized in the storm of bullets he unleashed on Parliament Hill before he was shot dead.

Source: RT