Roundup: Little hysteria in the face of a gunman

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The brief recap of yesterday’s madness here in Ottawa – a gunman identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial before he headed up to Parliament Hill, made it into the building and injured one guard before he was eventually taken down. (Timeline)

Peter Henderson was nearby when the shooting happened, and his tweet stream is here. This photo was taken shortly thereafter of people trying to give first aid to the soldier.

https://twitter.com/scottbix/status/524957978806743040

Minutes later in Centre Block, a second shooting happened, captured by the Globe and Mail’s Josh Wingrove. Also, Cormac Mac Sweeny of Rogers Radio captured this audio.

In the end, it was the Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers, himself an RCMP veteran, who put the shooter down just outside of his own office, and once it was clear, he went back, reloaded, and went back out to ensure there were no more shenanigans. Everyone is calling him a hero.

Elizabeth Thompson writes about her experience being in lockdown throughout the remainder of the day, in her case, trapped in the Commons cafeteria.

At the end of the evening, all three leaders gave statements – Harper was shaken, but delivered little emotion and used the word “terrorist” and described it as an attack on our society. Mulcair tried to go for warm and reassuring, but ascribed all kinds of motivations to the attack that we simply have no confirmation about. Trudeau, for his part, spoke of Canadian values, used the term “criminals,” and reached out to the Muslim community, and refused to play into the “lost innocence” narrative, which is important.

Michael Den Tandt has questions about the way things happened today, and the official silences that resulted. John Geddes chats with an American security expert about access to public buildings. A few other experts in the field give some thoughts about the circumstances of the attack:

Here are some reflections of the incident from Kate Heartfield, Paul Wells, Stephen Maher, Matt Gurney, Jonathan Kay, and Andrew Coyne.

Harper, incidentally, cancelled his meeting with Malala Yousafzai given events.

And here is some praise for CBC’s coverage from an American source, who appreciated the measured tone unlike American cable news. Well, at least until Evan Solomon started up and used the flashy graphics and dramatic music. And then there’s this comparison:

https://twitter.com/scottbix/status/524998822557409280