More details have emerged about the life of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the convert to Islam who unleashed a terror attack on Canada’s capital Wednesday.

The 32-year-old was the son of Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman who appears to have fought in 2011 in Libya, and Susan Bibeau, deputy chairwoman of a division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board. The two were divorced in 1999.

Zehaf-Bibeau, a petty criminal deemed a “high-risk traveler,” had a religious awakening and appeared to have become mentally unstable within the last several years, according to The Globe and Mail.

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

He grew up in eastern Canada and spent time in Libya before moving to western Canada to become a miner and laborer, according to friend Dave Bathurst, the paper reported.

Bathurst, who met Zehaf-Bibeau in a mosque about three years ago, said his friend exhibited a disturbing side, although he did not at first appear to have extremist views or violent tendencies.

“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 told the paper. He said his friend frequently talked about the presence devils in the world. “I think he must have been mentally ill.”

Bathurst last saw Zehaf-Bibeau praying in a Vancouver-area mosque six weeks ago. He spoke of wanting to go to the Middle East with the intent of learning about Islam and to study Arabic.

Sources told the paper that he intended to travel abroad, but had not been able to secure a travel document from federal officials, who have been taking measures to prevent Canadians from joining extremists abroad.

Bathurst said he recalled his friend being arrested at the mosque a few years ago when he called police to confess a crime he had committed many years before.

In a separate case, Vancouver lawyer Brian Anderson defended Zehaf-Bibeau when he was charged in a 2011 robbery. Canadian media reported that court records apparently showed that he was made to undergo a psychiatric assessment. He was found fit to stand trial, convicted for the robbery and sentenced to one day in jail.

Bathurst also said his friend knew Hasibullah Yusufzai, a Vancouver-area resident who was charged in July by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with traveling to Syria with the intent of joining a deadly terrorist group.

Bathurst said the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had called him to ask about Yusufzai but not Zehaf-Bibeau.

The slain soldier was identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, who was gunned down at point-blank range by Zehaf-Bibeau, who was dressed all in black, his face half-covered with a scarf.

Canada’s justice minister and other government officials credited 58-year-old sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers with shooting the attacker just outside the caucus rooms in Parliament.