Anyone know just how close the gunman got to the Prime Minister? I listened to a live stream from CTV yesterday and a commentator said that he’s likely to have gotten within yards of him.
It happened at 10 am (Ottawa) yesterday, and Parliament was just beginning its daily session.
On Wednesdays, there’s no Question Period, but the party leaders meet with their caucuses, and that’s what was happening - all three parties were meeting in rooms on the same (ground) floor not far from where the takedown happened, so technically, the shooter did get “close” to the PM, though there were several walls and locked doors in between.
An interesting side-anecdote - the Conservative caucus has several ex-cops in it, and upon hearing what was happening outside, they immediately took charge - helped their colleages find cover, then stripped the flagpoles in the room to use as possible weapons, and barricaded the doors, refusing to let anybody in - even the RCMP, thinking they might be gunman just pretendng.
Reports I saw said he got within 20 yards of the caucus room.