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Ottawa shootings Day Two: click here for Thursday updates

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Wednesday, Oct. 22 — The stone halls of Parliament Hill echoed with gunfire and were stained with blood Wednesday as a terrorist struck at the heart of the federal government after gunning down a sentry at the National War Memorial.

The gunman was shot and killed near the Library of Parliament, according to Ottawa police sources, by House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, a former RCMP officer and the man responsible for security on the Hill.

A witness said the gunman, carrying the rifle at his hip, walked deliberately up the west ramp of Centre Block and through the main doors of Parliament as bystanders cowered. It was just before 10 a.m.

The gunman walked right past the Centre Block’s Reading Room — where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with the Conservative caucus — before being confronted and shot.

The dead gunman has been identified as Canadian-born Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, a man who had lived in Aylmer, Montreal and Vancouver, and had a criminal record for relatively minor offences in all cities.