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QUEBEC — Alexandre Bissonnette had visited the mosque before.

Just a few blocks away from the university student’s nondescript apartment in Ste-Foy on Tuesday, a source with close ties to the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec said several of its members had seen the young man before — recently — and urged police investigating the shooting to check the mosque’s surveillance footage.

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Bissonnette, 27, was charged Monday with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder using a restricted firearm.

In the hours after he was identified as the only suspect in the massacre, those who knew him from near or far wondered how the young man allegedly transformed into a cold-blooded killer.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

‘He developed a thick skin’

Michel Kingma-Lord grew up with Bissonnette in the tranquil Quebec City neighbourhood of Cap Rouge.

“We were good friends. He was a really good guy, and his parents were great,” said Kingma-Lord, now an international business consultant in Quebec City.