Canadian Parliament Terrorized by Armed Gunman

A shooter killed a Canadian soldier and stormed the parliament building in Ottawa on Wednesday, where he was himself killed by the sergeant-at-arms.

The violence began at the National War Memorial, where the assailant attacked the soldier, and then moved to parliament nearby.

Authorities have not released the shooter’s name, but they did run a check on his identity with the FBI, yielding no results.

This is the second attack this week in Canada on military personnel, and investigators are concerned the events may be linked and possibly part of a wider plot. It could also be an opportunity for politicians to pass tougher anti-terror legislation, which, according to The New York Times, is on the table.

The New York Times:

The police declined to specify how many more gunmen — if any — they might be seeking, but told reporters at a news conference that the situation was “dynamic and unfolding.”

The soldier died later at a hospital and the gunman was killed inside the Parliament building, the Ottawa police confirmed in a statement. The Canadian Press, without attribution, said the sergeant-at-arms, Kevin Vickers, 58, had killed the gunman.

The shootings came amid heightened concern among Canadians about terrorist attacks. Two days earlier, a radical jihadist ran over two soldiers at a suburban Montreal strip mall, killing one of them. Mr. Harper, an outspoken critic of the Islamic State movement and other militant groups, has been considering the introduction of new antiterrorism legislation.

Read more