MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – The father of suspected Ottawa gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau could have fought alongside rebels in the Libyan civil war in 2011, Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reported.
Zehaf-Bibeau, who killed a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday, was born in 1982 to Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman, and Susan Bibeau, an employee of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, according to the newspaper.
In 2011, Bulgasem Zehaf could have travelled to Libya to join the rebels in fighting the government. A Montrealer named Belgasem Zahef was quoted in a Washington Times dispatch from the front, The Globe and Mail said. The man was reportedly detained and tortured in Libya.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, was named as a potential suspect in Wednesday's shooting in Ottawa. Reportedly, he is of Algerian descent and was born in Canada.
On Wednesday morning, a gunman shot dead a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa and then proceeded to Parliament Hill's Center Block where he was killed in a shootout with police.
Three people were injured as a result of the shooting; all of them have already been discharged from hospital.