RCMP say 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau lived in Calgary as recently as this past August and Calgary’s police chief says they are looking into the link but made it clear that the gunman had no criminal record here.
“We are looking into the background of the individual but for sure we know he has no criminal background in Calgary. He has no criminal record from Calgary, but we are continuing to look to see what if any connections he may have had within the community itself,” said Calgary Police Chief Rick Hanson.
Chief Hanson says what they do know is that there was a vehicle registered here to a Calgary address and that the vehicle received a photo radar ticket for speeding in early August in Edmonton.
“What we’re doing now is we are endeavoring to investigate any potential linkage to others in town, endeavor to find any address, other addresses that he may be associated to and even find people who can confirm what his activities may have been while he was in Calgary but I will state again that there’s no indication at all of his involvement in any criminal activity here in Calgary or any criminal record arising out of Calgary,” he said.
Hanson says the address that the vehicle was registered to is an Islamic centre in the city and that they will check to see if he was known to people there. “We want to obviously interview folks there and find out if he is known to them and what that relationship may be, by the same token, we will be interviewing a number of people just to determine what if any relationship he has had to individuals in Calgary.”
He says they have no confirmation that Zehaf-Bibeau was driving the vehicle because the ticket was issued by photo radar.
“Because it was photo radar he would not have been pulled over at all so there’s no confirmation he would have been driving that vehicle,” said the chief. “There doesn’t have to be the registered owner driving the vehicle, the ticket is sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.”
Chief Hanson says they will continue to work to determine what Zehaf-Bibeau was doing here and how long he may have been in the city.
“Because there is a link to Calgary through the registration of this vehicle, that we will be continuing to explore whatever relationships may have existed and hopefully determine how long he was in Calgary and what he was doing here,” said Hanson. “We want to know everything about him. We are going to endeavor to find out whatever we can about him.”
Premier Jim Prentice spoke to reporters about the tragedy and says it's worrying to hear about a possible Calgary connection.
“Certainly it is a concern. I don't know the nature of the Calgary connection, there have been a number of things said about that, but again I trust the law enforcement agencies to get to the bottom of it," said Prentice. "We're going to have to stiffen our resolve, we're going to have to make sure that, including the provincial government, that we adequately fund and resource our police services in this province to be vigilant and we're going to have to take sensible precautions,” said the premier.
Premier Prentice says he has met with Chief Hanson to discuss the situation and hear what law enforcements agencies are doing to prevent more attacks.
