The gunman who killed a Canadian soldier in an attack in Ottawa yesterday was on a terror watch list.
The attacker, identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau by Canadian media, was considered "high risk" and had seen his passport confiscated to stop him travelling abroad to join Islamic State terrorists in Iraq or Syria.
But the 32-year-old was able to strike at the heart of his home country's capital, shooting dead Corporal Nathan Cirillo before he was himself gunned down by Sergeant-At-Arms Kevin Vickers as he launched his assault on parliament.
US sources said the killer was a convert to Islam from Quebec who grew up in Laval and Montreal and was called Michael Joseph Hall before he changed his name.
Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper reported that he was the son of Susan Bibeau, a senior civil servant with Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, while his stepfather or adoptive father was Bulgasem Zehaf, a Libyan businessman who once owned Montreal's Cafe Tripoli.
Former neighbour Janice Purnell told CTV Zehaf-Bibeau was privately-educated and a typical teenager. She said she once called the police because he was playing loud music.
Evidence has been emerging that suggests he fitted the common jihadist profile of a troubled young man who had turned to radical Islam.
Canadian network CTV reported he had been jailed for two years for robbery and weapons possession in 2003, four years after his mother and Mr Zehaf had divorced.
Quebec court records also show that he pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to comply with a judge's order and several drug offences, including marijuana possession.
He reportedly stood trial for robbery in Vancouver in 2011 after a psychiatric assessment ruled he was fit for the judicial process.
Family friend Dave Bathurst told the CBC Zehaf-Bibeau did not appear to have extremist views, but had at times shown a disturbing side.
He said: "We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don't know how he worded it - he said the devil is after him."
Mr Bathurst said his friend frequently talked about the presence of Shaytan in the world - an Arabic term for devils and demons, adding: "I think he must have been mentally ill."
Bathurst last saw Zehaf-Bibeau praying in a Vancouver-area mosque six weeks ago and said that he spoke of wanting to go to the Middle East soon - although he claimed he only wanted to study Islam and Arabic.
His case has parallels with that of Martin Couture-Rouleau, a 25-year-old convert who rammed his car into two soldiers in the Montreal suburb of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu on Monday - killing one of them before he was shot dead.
Rouleau also had his passport confiscated in July after he was arrested at an airport on his way to Turkey.
He was among 90 people being tracked by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on suspicion of taking part in militant activities or planning to do so.
