Rare shooting in Ottawa prompts questions about shooter

GWEN IFILL:

Well, let's get back to what we do know about what happened today. There is a definite connection as far as we know between what happened at the war memorial and what happened at the Parliament; is that correct?

CAMPBELL CLARK:

That's correct, yes.

Now, there was somebody who was shot and killed at the war memorial, and then just a few minutes away at the Parliament buildings, there were shootings a few minutes later. It's not clear if there was one shooter, two shooters, three shooters, but it appears that the person who did the shooting at the war memorial then ran towards the Parliament buildings.

There was a shooter. The person who was shot and killed was shot dead in the Parliament buildings, right in the main Hall of Honor, they call it in the Parliament buildings. So, you walk in the front door of the Parliament of Canada, and just down that hall, that is where…

GWEN IFILL:

And shot by the sergeant at arms, we understand.

CAMPBELL CLARK:

Shot by the sergeant of arms.

That's a ceremonial position in the House of Commons in Canada, but he's also the head of security, and he's a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, so he was the man who shot the suspect.

GWEN IFILL:

Do we know if there is a connection between what happened today and what happened in Montreal just not too long ago?

CAMPBELL CLARK:

No, we don't.

On Monday, there was a hit-and-run of two soldiers, so they were also soldiers. One of them was killed, and then the assailant, the person who ran over these two soldiers, was shot by police. And what we have learned about that is, you know, it's still a little vague, but we understood it to be man who was inspired by ISIS ideology, and — but was a bit of a lone wolf. There was no connection that we knew of to a cell, to an organization.

He was inspired by the ideology. So now it's very unusual, to say the least, that two days later there is another attack. It was believed that there wasn't any connection to others in Monday's attack, so now another one is certainly perplexing police officers and observers here.

GWEN IFILL:

And there have been reports on and off all day about there being more than one shooter. Do we know whether that's true?

CAMPBELL CLARK:

It hasn't been confirmed by the police. I can tell you the police were certainly acting like they thought there was another shooter. The downtown area of Ottawa for the four blocks south of Parliament Hill was shut off.

And police were running up and down those streets telling people, get back, stay away from the buildings. And this is hours after the initial shooting, saying, get back, go towards the buildings, looking up at the roofs as though they thought there was a shooter on the roof, a gunman on the roof.

So they certainly were acting as though they thought there was someone else. They were searching buildings. But, as yet, the police have not confirmed whether there were other shooters. Earlier in the day, they were talking about two, possibly three shooters. It's not clear whether that is the case now.

GWEN IFILL:

It's very unusual to hear of reports like this coming from Canada. Has there been an unusually tense reaction among people on the streets in Ottawa especially?

CAMPBELL CLARK:

Well, this is very unusual in Ottawa.

And, yes, there's been a tense reaction. I think people are, you know, afraid, tense, concerned. This — Ottawa is a quiet town. It's a city of less than a million people. It's the capital, but it's a quiet capital. It's not an area with heavy security. It's not like Washington, D.C. The Parliament buildings don't have that kind of armed feeling, even though there's security there and heavy security.

But it doesn't have that kind of feeling in the city, and certainly people are surprised that that would happen in this city.

GWEN IFILL:

OK. Well, we will keep following the story as it unfolds.

Campbell Clark of The Globe and Mail, thank you very much.