Irish Canadian Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers has been officially hailed a hero after new details emerged of the gun attack on the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa.
Vickers’ swift reaction as he shot and killed gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau ensured no more lives would be lost, according to CBC News.
The station’s website has published the dramatic details of the face-to-face encounter between the pair when the 58-year-old Vickers confronted Zehaf-Bibeau and killed him at point-blank range.
Zehaf-Bibeau had exchanged gunshots with parliamentary security at the entrance of Centre Block.
He then ran down the long Hall of Honour towards the doors to the Parliamentary Library.
The CBC site reports that as the attacker ran down the hall, pursued by RCMP officers, he passed barricaded doors on his left, behind which the prime minister and the Conservative MPs were meeting.
On his right, the doors to another caucus room where NDP MPs were diving for cover.
The gunman shot at both doors, with one bullet penetrating the outer doors to the NDP caucus room.
He then continued down the hall toward the wooden doors of the Library of Parliament and lodged himself behind a stone pillar beside an alcove to the right of the library’s entrance.
Hearing gunshots Vickers emerged from his office around the corner after grabbing his side arm, a semi-automatic pistol.
The report says that his security team yelled to Vickers that the suspect was hiding in the alcove.
Vickers then ran behind the other side of the pillar, an arm’s-length away from Bibeau.
Guards have reported that Vickers could see the barrel of Bibeau’s gun pointing out, a foot away.
CBC News reports that in one motion he dove to the floor around the pillar, at the feet of Bibeau, turning on his back as he landed and simultaneously firing his weapon upwards at Bibeau.
It adds that Bibeau was hit multiple times and fell to the ground while Vickers kept firing, emptying his entire magazine.
As soon as Bibeau dropped, the rest of the security team sprinted forward and opened fire.
The report says several bullet holes in the walls in the alcove give a sense of the numbers of rounds fired, and many more hit Bibeau.
One bullet passed right through the wooden library doors, hitting the librarians’ desk deep inside but nobody else was injured in that final exchange of gunfire.
Sources say Vickers calmly got up after the firing, went back to his office to reload his gun in case a threat remained.
He then went to the Conservative caucus room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his MPs had barricaded the room’s doors with chairs.
After identifying himself to gain entry to the room, Vickers strode to the microphone at the front of the room and explained what had happened:
He said: “I engaged the suspect and the suspect is deceased.”
The report says the entire room erupted in cheers, as Vickers left to continue to secure the grounds.
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