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The first image of a gunman who forced the lockdown of nearly the entire City of Ottawa and brought terror to Canadian soil initially appeared to have been first released by what was purportedly an ISIL-related Twitter account. When it came to light Wednesday afternoon, many in the media and the general public first assumed the picture was staged jihadi propaganda, meant to be released to take responsibility for the terror attack and fuel interest in the lonewolf gunman.

The photo showed the suspect, gun drawn, eyes locked on the camera and a keffiyeh-style scarf masking the lower half of his face.

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But hidden in plain sight in the photo is the concrete strength of the National War Memorial. The photo was taken by a tourist as the gunman embarked on his shooting spree, coming around the west side of the monument from the rear.

Ottawa police seized the camera, and it is believed an Ottawa police officer took a picture of that picture with a cell phone. Within hours, every Ottawa police officer had a copy of that photograph in their email inboxes. The photo came to general awareness after Twitter user @ArmedResearch — apparently run by a military historian — tweeted the photo at 4:23 p.m., nearly seven hours after the first shot was fired, saying it had been found on an ISIL-related account. In the lower right corner of the photo, which was initially believed on Twitter to have been first tweeted by ISIL Twitter account @V_IMS, claiming to be a picture of the Ottawa shooting suspect, is the telling rectangular zoom feature of the Blackberry operating system.