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Ottawa Gunman Had Lengthy History Of Drug Addiction
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Acquaintances of the Ottawa gunman who killed a soldier and shot up Parliament claim that he was a crack cocaine and heroin addict who tried in vain for years to get clean.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, then attempted to shoot up Parliament before he was killed himself. He reportedly entered a detox in 2012 to kick his drug habit, while those who met him at homeless shelters throughout Canada said he relied on constant prayer as a means of trying to get over his addiction. He carried the Koran around with him as a means of trying to “heal” himself from addiction, but became withdrawn when he was abusing drugs.
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“He was isolating himself. He was always sleeping. For three days he wasn’t talking,” said Abdel Kareem Abubakir, a volunteer at the Ottawa shelter that Zehaf-Bibeau stayed in earlier this month. “His intention was to get a passport and get home. He had to stay away from drugs.”
It also appears that Zehaf-Bibeau had a history of being in trouble with the law as a result of his addiction. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in prison in Quebec for drug possession in 2004, in addition to being sentenced to a day in jail in Vancouver for robbery and uttering threats in 2011.
Prior to his Vancouver trial, he asked to go to jail as a means of trying to overcome his crack addiction and “as a sacrifice to pay for his mistakes in the past.” However, psychiatrists did not identify any type of mental disorder in Zehaf-Bibeau.
Susan Bibeau issued a statement last Thursday on behalf of her and her husband, Bulgasem Zehaf, stating they had “no explanation to offer” for the shooting. “I am mad at our son, I don’t understand and part of me wants to hate him at this time,” she said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. “I have very little insight to offer. No words can express the sadness we are feeling at this time. We are so sad that a man lost his life. He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow. We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless.”
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