Susan BibeauThe mother of the Muslim convert accused of killing a soldier guarding Ottawa’s war memorial on Wednesday offered an apology “for all the pain, fright and chaos” her son created.
“No words can express the sadness we are feeling at this time,” Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother, Susan Bibeau, wrote in a statement released to the Associated Press on Thursday.
“We are so sad that a man lost his life. He has lost everything and he leaves behind a family that must feel nothing but pain and sorrow. We send our deepest condolences to them although words seem pretty useless. We are both crying for them.”
In a tear-filled conversation with the AP, she said she’s mourning for the victims — and not her son, who was shot dead after storming Ottawa’s packed Parliament building.
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, slain Ottawa shooter, had criminal record in Quebec, B.C. http://t.co/LqKca7h9OJpic.twitter.com/iA0v5RYpRv
— CBC News (@CBCNews) October 22, 2014
“We have no explanation to offer,” she said in the statement. “I am mad at our son, I don’t understand and part of me wants to hate him at this time. You write that our son was vulnerable, we don’t know, we (he) was lost and did not fit in.”
Bibeau, who works as deputy chairperson of the Immigration Division on the Immigration and Refuge Board of Canada, added that she saw her 32-year-old son for the first time in five years during a reunion lunch they shared last week.
Flowers are placed against a barricade surrounding the National War Memorial.EPA“So I have very little insight to offer,” she insisted.
She made no mention of his religious conversion or mental state.
“We don’t wish to be part of any media circus, we don’t think it will add anything to the conversation,” she said. “Please respect our privacy although many may not feel we deserve any.”
Her ex-husband, Bulgasem Zehaf, is a Libyan national who once owned a cafe called Café Tripol in Montreal. He appears to have fought in Libya in 2011, according to media reports. The couple divorced in 1999.
Zehaf-Bibeau was born Michael Joseph Hall in Quebec, according to the DailyMail. He was raised in Laval, a suburban community just north of Montreal, where he attended private schools and enjoyed an idyllic upbringing, a former neighbor said.
“I know that [his] mother was very caring and a very involved parent,” Janice Parnell told CTV. “Actually both parents seem to have been. The boy seemed to have had a very good upbringing. He had a good home base. He was involved in community things.”
Zehaf-Bibeau eventually moved to western Canada to become a miner and laborer, a friend told the Globe and Mail. His conversion to Islam came after years of trouble with the law.
He has an extensive criminal record that dates back to June 2001, according to The Chronicle Herald.
In a publicly available database, the newspaper found 13 court records, with 12 of them resulting in convictions. Four were drug-related and one was for impaired driving.
In 2003, he was slapped with a six-month sentence on a weapons charge. Zehaf-Bibeau was also convicted for assault causing bodily harm in 2001.
A small memorial at the gates of the John Weir Foote Armory in memory of slain Canadian soldier Nathan CirilloAP He was sentenced to two years behind bars for robbery, possession of break-in tools, theft and conspiracy with a co-suspect in 2002.
The court records show he was seeing a psychiatrist during one of his stints in jail and was found fit to stand trial.
David Bathurst, a fellow convert who met Zehaf-Bibeau at a mosque three years ago, said his friend lived in a tiny, sparse apartment, the Globe and Mail reported.
While he didn’t appear to be violent at first blush, Bathurst said some of his comments were disturbing.
“We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don’t know how he worded it: He said the devil is after him,” Bathurst said. “I think he must have been mentally ill.”
Just six weeks ago, Zehaf-Bibeau told Bathurst he wanted to travel to the Middle East to learn more about his new faith and study Arabic, but he was never able secure the necessary travel documents, according to the Globe and Mail.
He was allowed to visit the United States at least four times, according to CNN. US law enforcement officials are interviewing people he met with on those trips, one official said.
