The Muslim convert who gunned down a Canadian soldier outside Parliament lived at a homeless shelter in the days before the shooting and told residents the end of the world was coming.
Police collected Michael Zehaf-Bibeau's belongings from the Ottawa Mission homeless shelter after the shooting on Wednesday, CBC reported.
He stayed there for between one and two weeks, and in that time he had befriended two other men and they had been trying to track down a vehicle, residents told the Ottawa Citizen.
Residents often saw him chatting with the two English-speaking men, both in their 20s, about Islam but ever since the shooting, they have not seen them, the residents told the Citizen.
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'Bizarre': Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who shot dead a Canadian soldier on Wednesday, had stayed at a homeless shelter in the days before the shooting where he told residents 'the world is about to end'
One resident said the men had looked 'shifty'.
'There was three of them all the time going around with each other,' he said. 'He was teaching them about Islam and stuff. He had them doing the Islamic prayer.'
Resident John Clothier added to CBC: 'I overheard him trying to buy a car. A small car, because his car had a misfire, he said. He wanted to buy a car, desperately, and he was trying to get help from everybody in here to get a car.
People were trying to help him, but we didn't understand what he was up to.'
The 'bizarre' man would tell the residents that they should be praying five times a day 'because the end of the world is coming', Clothier recalled.
Other residents told the Citizen that he had said he was anti-Canadian and that his relatives had fought in Libya. Previous reports said his father had fought in Libya in 2011.
Shelter: He stayed at the Ottawa Mission, pictured, for around 10 days before the shooting and while there, he met two young English-speaking men in their 20s and taught them about Islam, other residents said
Another resident told the Citizen that Bibeau would tell people he was on a no-fly list and that his mother was 'some mucky-muck in the government'. Bibeau had indeed had his passport seized by the government and was the son of Susan Bibeau, who is on the country's immigration board.
'Nine times out of 10, you pass it off as bulls***,' the resident, Duncan, said.
Clothier said that authorities arrived at the shelter on Wednesday evening to collect Bibeau's belongings and spent a lengthy period of time in the shelter's computer room.
The Ottawa Mission's executive director, Peter Tilley, could not confirm if the gunman had stayed there because of privacy reasons, but he said the shelter was working closely with police.
There are records of him previously staying at other shelters, including a Salvation Army homeless shelter and a rooming house in Vancouver.
Attack: On Wednesday, he fatally shot Corporal Nathan Cirillo as he stood guard at the National War Memorial in Ottawa. Police, bystanders and soldiers are seen helping Cirillo after he was hit
Victim: Cirillo, left in his uniform and right with his six-year-old son and one of his dogs, was a single father
On Wednesday morning, he approached Corporal Nathan Cirillo, 24, as he stood guard at the National War Memorial and shot him in the abdomen. Cirillo, a single father, died of his injuries.
Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, then ran inside the Parliament, where he opened gunfire. He was eventually stopped by Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, who shot him dead.
On Thursday, Vickers received a standing ovation from MPs as he returned to the House of Commons and Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the country would not be intimidated by terrorists.
After the shooting, it emerged tha the gunman, whose full name was Michael, Joseph, Paul, Abdallah Bulgasem Zehaf Bibeau, had recently converted to Islam and had a lengthy history of crime, including arrests and jail time for drugs charges, robbery and assault.
He had also recently been designated a 'high-risk traveler' by the Canadian government and had his passport seized.
Sadness: The Canadian flag flies at half staff on top of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa
Showing their respects: Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife Laureen lay flowers at the memorial
On Thursday, his mother Susan released a statement saying she had been shocked to learn of the tragic events and, because she had long been estranged from her son, she was unable to shed much light on why he carried out the crime.
She said she and her ex-husband felt pain for the victims - not for the loss of their son.
'We are both crying for them,' she told the Associated Press. 'We also wish to apologize for all the pain, fright and chaos he created.
'We have no explanation to offer. I am mad at our son, I don't understand and part of me wants to hate him at this time.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2805428/Canadian-gunman-taught-two-men-Islam-staying-homeless-shelter-days-shooting-trio-desperately-trying-hold-car.html#ixzz3H0P68Ron
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