Aaron Driver planned to commit a terror attack within 72 hours when he was killed in a confrontation with police in the southwestern Ontario community of Strathroy, police said today.

“Obviously it was a race against time,” RCMP Deputy-Commander Mike Cabana told a news conference in Ottawa today, noting that things “could have been a lot worse” if police hadn’t located and stopped Driver.

The RCMP showed a video at the news conference in which a masked man they identified as Driver, 24, warns, “O Canada, you received many warnings… You were told many times what would happen.”

?You will pay for everything you brought against us,? says a masked man in the video. The RCMP have identified the man as Aaron Driver.

The man continues: “You saw bodies of the filthy French lying in the streets. You still have much to pay for.”

“For this we thirst for your blood,” he said. “You will pay for everything you brought against us.”

The RCMP says Driver planned to attack a major urban centre during the morning or afternoon rush hour this week, but added they were not sure which community he planned to hit.

“Mr. Driver was looking for a location that was highly populated,” said RCMP Acting-Commander Jennifer Strachan.

Information on Driver was passed on by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation early Wednesday morning, Cabana said, and “we were relatively quickly able to identify and locate him.”

Hours later, Driver was killed in a confrontation with police in a taxi cab in Strathroy.

It wasn’t clear where the cab was heading, Strachan said.

But a dispatcher for Strathroy cab company, Leo’s Taxi, confirmed Driver called yesterday around 4:30 p.m., asking to be driven to Citi Plaza, a London mall.

Police had arrived at a Strathroy house when Driver darted out and got into a cab, carrying a knapsack, Strachan said.

“The taxi – we had no knowledge it was coming and he got in there very quickly,” Strachan said.

The dispatcher, Brandon Carreiro, said Driver was a frequent customer, taking cabs to the auto parts plant he worked at in Strathroy.

“He was actually really polite and friendly,” Carreiro told the Star Thursday. “It’s just crazy that he did that because … he didn't seem like he would do that. He was very friendly and grateful of the service provided.”

Carreiro said he was told RCMP had fired at the cab while Driver was in it, but that the grey cab hadn’t been returned yet, so he did not know what condition it was in. He couldn’t confirm whether a bomb was detonated inside the car.

Carreiro said the cab driver is “OK” except for some back pain.

“It’s just shocking,” he added.

Driver was arrested in Winnipeg under suspicion of terrorist connections and placed under a peace bond last year.

He was under a court order not to associate with any terrorist organization, including Daesh, an Islamist terrorist group also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Citi Plaza did not immediately return the Star’s calls. A VIA Rail train station is of walking distance to it.

RELATED:

RCMP seek terrorism-related peace bond for Winnipeg man

Speaking with the Star in Toronto, Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the regional transit organization was alerted early Wednesday morning about a security threat on a “large urban transportation centre in Canada.”

Union Station is the largest transportation centre in Canada, Aikins said, but she said the threat was not linked directly to Union.

“We raised our level of vigilance and worked closely with national, provincial and local security and police services. Our first priority is always the safety of our customers and employees,” Aikins said.

The Toronto Transit Commission was “advised that there was an investigation underway as to a possible threat,” before noon Wednesday, TTC spokesman Brad Ross said.

Ross said the TTC issued a “see something, say something” notice to its workers, but said the warning did not include any specifics about which stations might have been affected and what the threat was about. “That was the extent of our involvement,” Ross said.

Siobhan Desroches, spokeswoman from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, confirmed the organization received a call Wednesday about a “non-specific threat” to the airports authority.

“We were made aware of a non-specific threat yesterday and as a result of that we did work with our partners that are responsible for airport security to enhance our security posture,” she said.

In terms of specific actions taken, Desroches said for security reasons the GTAA isn’t able to disclose what precautions were taken, but the airports are still being monitored closely.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Mark Pugash, spokesman for the Toronto Police, said the force took extra security measures since Wednesday when they were alerted about a possible threat, along with the TTC and Metrolinx. Pugash wouldn’t disclose what time of day police received the tip or whether they are still working in a heightened capacity Thursday.

“There’s nothing to indicate that Toronto was under threat, but we will always err on the side of caution when it comes to public safety,” Pugash said.

Pugash would not confirm where officers were deployed for security reasons, though a media report signaled a heightened police presence around Union Station.

“We had a heightened profile throughout the downtown and that was out of an abundance of caution,” he said.

Under the online alias “Harun Abdurahman,” Driver had previously called the Parliament Hill attack “justified” as retaliation for violence against Daesh.

After Driver’s arrest in Winnipeg last summer, he was released on a peace bond, court documents show. He agreed to follow a list of conditions: he was made to wear an electronic monitoring device and wasn’t allowed to use a computer. He also had to remain in the city and not move away without court permission, surrender his passport and any firearms or prohibited weapons, observe a 9 p.m. curfew, let the RCMP check his phone upon request and participate in religious counseling.

Driver was allowed to move to Strathroy, where he lived on Park St. for the past several months. Court documents show the conditions of his peace bond also applied in Ontario.

The peace bond’s requirements about cellphone and computer usage were set to expire August 31, while all the other requirements stayed in place. Driver’s peace bond was valid for 10 months and was set to expire Dec 1.

Police and government officials have been tight-lipped about the violent events that unfolded in the small town near London, Ont., but the Canadian Press reported that Driver was killed after speaking with a source close to the situation on condition of anonymity.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he spoke with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday night “to confirm that public safety has been and continues to be properly protected.”

He said the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and other police and security agencies were involved in the operation. “These agencies conducted themselves effectively in the circumstances that developed today.”

Goodale added that the national terrorism threat level for Canada remains at medium, which hasn’t changed since the fall of 2014 when a gunman stormed Parliament Hill and a Taking all relevant information into account, the national terrorism threat level for Canada remains at “medium” where it has stood since the fall of 2014, Goodale added.

The RCMP said because the matter was still unfolding and the investigation remained underway, there would be no further comment.

Winnipeg-based lawyer Leonard Tailleur, who had handled Driver’s peace bond, said he was “shocked” to hear what had happened.

“Saddened to hear that it had to end this way for him,” Tailleur said in an email to The Canadian Press.

Tailleur had not been in contact with Driver since February when “the matter had been resolved to the satisfaction of the Department of Justice, the RCMP and myself.”

In Strathroy, resident Irene Lee said late Wednesday that about 25 marked and unmarked police had been camped outside the Park St. home where Driver lived since about 4:15 p.m.

At about that time, she said she was at her nearby home when she heard a loud noise. A police officer came by shortly afterward to tell residents to stay inside their homes, she said.

Park St. was closed off and silent Thursday afternoon, as the investigation continued away from the public eye.

Mark Demuynck, who lives on Southfield Dr., a few steps away from Park St. went outside when he saw police drive into his street.

“Everyone was descending on it. It was like a fireworks display,” he told the Star.

His first thought was a drug bust was happening, but that changed when he saw a sniper perched in the grass. He went home, and then heard “popping” sounds. He emailed a friend who lives close to the unit police were congregating at, and was told no one was allowed in or out of the area. He then saw police deploy a robot.

“I just got the heck out of there,” he said.

The neighbourhood is always quiet, Demunyck said, and residents are shocked at what has happened. No one he knows knew Driver or who he was staying with.

With files from Jessica Botelho-Urbanski, Oliver Sachgau, Verity Stevenson, Allan Woods and The Canadian Press

Read more about: