MONTREAL—A 25-year-old Quebec man killed by police after striking two Canadian Forces personnel with his car was known to national anti-terrorism investigators as someone who had taken to radical Islam, the RCMP says.

The individual, who was shot dead following the incident in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., was identified by friends as Martin Rouleau. They described him as a struggling entrepreneur and father of a young son who converted to Islam and began distancing himself from his large circle of friends south of Montreal.

For those friends who had tried to reason with him over the last year and a half, the last straw came this summer when they say Rouleau was stopped by border authorities trying to leave Canada to fight abroad with the Islamic State.

In the end, Rouleau waged his religious battle in the parking lot outside the Integrated Personnel Support Centre, one of several offices run by Veterans Affairs Canada and the Department of Defence that serve as an outlet for injured veterans accessing support services from the federal government.

St-Jean-sur-Richelieu is also home to the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, the French-language university run by DND at which officers and officer recruits receive their training.

There, a man later identified as Rouleau rammed two Canadian military personnel with his vehicle, a Nissan Altima. The incident left one of them with minor injuries, but sent the other to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

As Rouleau fled from the scene, La Presse reported, he called a 911 dispatcher and explained that he was “acting in the name of Allah.”

All of this happened with local police chasing him along one of the town’s main thoroughfares and into a residential area, where Rouleau lost control of his vehicle, flipped, and landed upside down in a ditch.

He reportedly emerged from the overturned car with a knife in his hands, a threat that drew the gunfire of police.

But it was Prime Minister Stephen Harper, following an afternoon briefing from the head of the RCMP, the Canadian Armed Forces and his national security adviser, who gave the first indication that something more sinister than a simple hit-and-run had occurred. In response to a question from a backbench Conservative MP in the House of Commons about a “possible terror attack,” Harper said the situation was being closely monitored.

“We are aware of these reports and they are obviously extremely troubling. First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” he said.

The RCMP said in a statement Monday night that Rouleau’s activities had been flagged to federal authorities responsible for national security.

“This individual was known to federal authorities including our Integrated National Security Investigations team in Montreal who, along with other authorities, were concerned that he had become radicalized,” RCMP Cpl. David Falls said in a statement.

The RCMP statement was echoed by one from the Prime Minister’s Office, which said “federal authorities have confirmed that there are clear indications that the individual had become radicalized.”

A friend, Jonathan Prince, confirmed that Rouleau had turned toward Islam more than a year ago after having encountered problems with a business he had started with a friend that specialized in cleaning the exteriors of buildings.

Prince also confirmed the authenticity of a Facebook page Rouleau had operated under the name “Ahmad Rouleau.”

The page includes several photographs of Harper and other world leaders posing for photographs with Jewish leaders. He also rails against “Jews” and “Zionists” and cites passages from the Qur’an.

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An individual by the name of Ahmad Rouleau also registered a Twitter account under the name “Abu Ibrahim AlCanadi.”

He made no posts of his own on the social media account, but followed several dozen other individuals whose accounts espouse the ideals of Islamic State, also known as ISIL, the radical Islamic terror group operating in Syria and Iraq.

Canada’s top general has already warned that military personnel in Canada could be at risk because of Ottawa’s decision to launch combat operations against Islamic State extremists in Iraq.

When the first contingent of military personnel headed to Kuwait from CFB Trenton in eastern Ontario last week, military officials barred the media from identifying any of the soldiers for fear they could be a target.

“It’s a recognition I think that we want to minimize any risks at all with being posted into this deployment,” Gen. Tom Lawson, chief of defence staff, told a briefing.

The Islamic State “has made it clear they would aspire to present a threat” to the citizens of those nations that have joined the coalition efforts, he said.

“We watch that very closely,” Lawson said.

“There is no indication of direct threats yet but I think we are doing everything we can to ensure that we minimize any threats at all,” he said.

Harper’s Conservative government has deployed up to six CF-18 fighter jets, along with support aircraft, to join the ongoing air campaign against Islamic State targets in Iraq. Those aircraft are exhibited to at their Kuwait base and ready to begin missions by the end of October.