Canada police say parliament shooter made video before attack

This image from a close circuit video shown during an Oct 23, 2014, press conference at Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters in Ottawa shows supected shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (circled) running towards the Canadian Parliament. -- PHOTO: AFP
This image from a close circuit video shown during an Oct 23, 2014, press conference at Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters in Ottawa shows supected shooter Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (circled) running towards the Canadian Parliament. -- PHOTO: AFP

TORONTO (REUTERS) - The man who killed a Canadian soldier and attacked the country's parliament building last week made a video of himself just before the attack, evidence that he was driven by ideological and political motives, police said on Sunday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement they were conducting a detailed analysis of the video made by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau and could not release it at this time.

The federal police force also said it believed a knife carried by Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, was retrieved from his aunt's property, but added that it was still looking into the origin of the gun he used.

"It is an old and uncommon gun. We suspect that he could have similarly hidden the gun on the property but our inquiries continue," the statement said.

Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, stormed into the parliament building with a rifle last Wednesday after gunning down Corporal Nathan Cirillo at a nearby monument to Canada's war dead. Zehaf-Bibeau was shot dead in the building.

The RCMP said Zehaf-Bibeau had worked in Alberta's oil fields and had used funds from his employment to finance his activities in the days leading up to the attack. He had been living in an Ottawa homeless shelter just before the shooting.

The RCMP said it is still investigating Zehaf-Bibeau's interactions with numerous people in the days before the attack to find out whether these could have contributed to or facilitated his crime.

The mother of Zehaf-Bibeau denied in a letter to the Canadian news agency Postmedia an RCMP statement that she had told them her son had intended to travel to Syria, a hotbed of militant activity.

Her son, who came to Ottawa from Vancouver seeking a passport, had wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia to study the Quran, Ms Susan Bibeau said in the letter.

Security in normally relaxed Canada has been tighter in the days since the shooting. Two days earlier another man described by the police as radicalised drove over two soldiers in Quebec with a car, killing one.

The attacker, 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, was shot and killed by police.

The attacks, which police said were the work of Canadian citizens who were recent converts to Islam, came the same week as the government sent additional jet fighters to the Middle East to take part in air strikes against Islamic State militants.

Canadian officials vowed to keep up their involvement in the military campaign despite the attacks and planned to reopen the parliament building to the public on Monday, though they said they would begin locking the doors overnight.

The nation also prepared for two funerals, with Ottawa victim Cirillo to be laid to rest in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, on Tuesday. A funeral for 53-year-old Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent was set for Saturday, Nov. 1 in Quebec.

On Sunday, about 100 police, firefighters and other emergency workers held a disaster-response drill in downtown Toronto's deserted financial district.

The drill had been long planned and was not a reaction to the twin attacks, though some acknowledged it took on a more urgent tone in the wake of the incidents. "We had to be very specific with our strategic briefing after what happened in Ottawa," said Staff Sergeant Daniel Martin from the Toronto Police Department.

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