The first reports of a shooting at Canada's National War Memorial in Ottawa came just before 10 a.m. E.T. Wednesday, as Ottawa police confirmed there had been gunfire.

The memorial is at Elgin and Wellington Streets, across Wellington from the East Block of the Parliament Buildings and the Chateau Laurier Hotel farther to the east.

The shooting victim was a Canadian soldier, one of two standing guard at the memorial, as the military does every day in Ottawa. Police and ambulances converged on the downtown scene.

A man who was walking along the street nearby said he heard the shots and saw the gun aimed at a Canadian soldier. Another witness, standing less than two metres from the gunman, said the man was wearing a bandana and carrying what he described as a double-barrelled shotgun.

A first responder could be seen performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the soldier, trying desperately to keep him alive.

CBC's Hannah Thibedeau said Wednesday that the eyewitnesses told her he took off in the direction of Parliament.

"They did describe a car, however at that point in time, there was so much commotion going on that they didn't see what he was doing," Thibedeau said, noting that there is some confusion around the precise flow of events around this time.



A video that appears to show a gunman getting into a car parked into the eastbound land behind the memorial was later submitted to CBC News by someone who was driving in the area at the time. The exact flow of events is not yet clear, but witnesses said that car was later abandoned in front of Parliament Hill. From there, witnesses said they saw a man jump a stone barricade and commandeer another car and drive it up the eastern driveway towards Centre Block where he got out and ran up the ramp.

This is video that appears to show a gunman, later identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, leaving the National War Memorial and getting into a illegally parked vehicle on Wellington St. 0:20

"There is a gap there," CBC's Evan Solomon said Wednesday evening on CBC News Network. "This is where questions will remain...How did he actually get into Parliament Hill?"

The shooting began in the Centre Block lobby around 9:55 a.m. ET.

The Globe and Mail posted a video shot by a reporter in a Parliament Building hallway. It was later announced that police had shot dead one man.

That raised the possibility that more people were involved in what was now being described as an attack on Parliament. The Parliament Buildings and much of the downtown area were locked down by police. A search of the buildings began:

As police swarmed the area around Parliament Hill, CBC chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge spoke by phone with Steve Day, the former head of the Joint Task Force 2, a military commando unit potentially involved in the response: