A uniformed Canadian soldier has reportedly been shot the War Memorial in Ottawa. Police are on the scene.
One incident is odd.
But this is the second of late:
A young convert to Islam who killed a Canadian soldier in a hit-and-run had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and had seized his passport, authorities said Tuesday.
The suspect was shot dead by police after a chase in the Quebec city of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu. A second soldier suffered minor injuries in Monday’s attack.
So now we are at the "coincidence" stage.
But do remember that Canada's parliament was targetted by jihadis not all that long ago.
Although to be fair, we don't have a motive for this current incident. So we can't officially be at the "pattern" stage.
Perhaps the current incident has nothing to do with Islamists. We'll see.
UPDATE: If this is jihadi terror, I'll guess that this is home-grown locals since while they may have worked themselves up to kill government (including military and legislative) people, they had not worked themselves up to just kill civilians they ran across:
"He was wearing blue pants and a black jacket and he had a double barreled shotgun and he ran up the side of this building here and hijacked a car at gunpoint," construction worker Scott Walsh told Reuters.
The driver got out safely, then the man drove the car to the Centre Block on Parliament Hill, where construction work is underway, Walsh said.
The suspected gunman rushed past a woman with a child in a stroller, who ran away screaming. He did not attack the woman or child, he said.
I'm sure the after-action terrorist review will mark him down on this oversight.
UPDATE: The shooter was a recent convert:
Court documents show he previously faced a robbery charge in Vancouver and multiple drug-related charges in Montreal.
U.S. officials said they had been advised the dead gunman in Wednesday's shootings was also a Canadian convert to Islam.
I've read elsewhere he may also have been a bit nuts. So that could still be the primary cause rather than Islamist thinking.
