Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, Ottawa gunman, asked B.C. judge to send him to jail

The man who shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and was gunned down himself on Parliament Hill Wednesday morning told a B.C. judge almost three years ago that he was homeless and wanted to go to jail to help break his drug addiction.

• Ottawa shooting: Full CBC coverage
• Michael Zehaf-Bibeau parents' statement: 'We are so sorry'

Montreal-born Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, lived in B.C. in recent years, walking the streets of Vancouver, Burnaby, and Surrey, and may have been staying at a Salvation Army shelter in downtown Vancouver as recently as two weeks ago.

Zehaf-Bibeau was also charged with robbery and uttering threats for an incident in Vancouver on Dec. 16, 2011, which court records indicate may have been an attempt to get help. CBC News obtained the psychiatric assessment and audio recordings of Zehaf-Bibeau's court appearances in Vancouver on Dec. 2011 and Feb. 2012.

'He believes his must spend time in jail as a sacrifice to pay for his mistakes in the past andhe hopes to be a better man when he is eventually released.'-Dec. 2011 psychiatric assessment

The psychiatrist, who met with Zehaf-Bibeauat the Surrey Pre-Trial Centre, found that he wasfit to stand trial, and explained some ofZehaf-Bibeau's motivation for wanting tobeimprisoned.

"The accused is aware of his charge and possible consequences of conviction. He wants to be injail as he believes this is the only way he can overcome his addiction to crack cocaine. He hasbeen a devoted Moslem for seven years and he believes he must spend time in jail as asacrifice to pay for his mistakes in the past and he hopes to be a better man when he iseventually released," the psychiatrist wrote on Dec. 18, 2011.

At Zehaf-Bibeau's bail hearing, he told the judge himself that he wanted to serve time.

'I'm a crack addict and at the same time I'm a religious person... I want to sacrifice freedomand good things... so when I come out, I'll appreciate the things of life more and be clean.'-MichaelZehaf-Bibeau, Dec. 2011

"Yeah, I confessed to an armed robbery 10 years ago. I wanted to come to jail so I could cleanup," he said.

"I went to see the RCMP, I told them, 'just put me in so I could do my time for what Iconfessed.' They couldn't. So, I warned them, 'if you can't keep me in, I'm going to dosomething right now just to be put in.' So I went to do another robbery just so I could come tojail," Zehaf-Bibeau said.

"I'm a crack addict and at the same time I'm a religious person, so I want to sacrifice freedomand good things for a year maybe, so when I come out, I'll appreciate the things of life moreand be clean," Zehaf-Bibeau said.

The prosecutor told the judge Zehaf-Bibeau had been sentenced to two years for the robbery inQuebec, and that he shouldn't be sent to jail just because he wants to go. The prosecutor askedthe judge to release Zehaf-Bibeau.

'If you release me what's going to happen again? Probably the same loop and I'm going to be rightback here again.'-MichaelZehaf-Bibeau, Dec. 2011

"I don't want to be released," Zehaf-Bibeau said. "The reason I am here is because I wanted tocome in. The police said they couldn't keep me, so I went to do a crime to come to jail. So ifyou release me what's going to happen again? Probably the same loop and I'm going to be rightback here again."

The judge agreed to detain him over Christmas.

"Perfect," Zehaf-Bibeau said.

Arrest request before McDonald's incident

Almost two months later, in Feb. 2012, Zehaf-Bibeau was back in court on the B.C. robberycharge. His lawyer said he wasn't guilty, but would plead guilty to one count of utteringthreats. The circumstances of the case were a little odd, the lawyer told the judge.

The story that came out in court was that Zehaf-Bibeau had walked into the Burnaby RCMPdetachment on Dec. 15, 2011, at around 9 p.m. and asked to speak with police about an armedrobbery he committed 10 years earlier, for which he wasn't punished, but now wanted to be.

An officer tried to help him, but couldn't find any record and refused to arrest him. Zehaf-Bibeau was detained under the Mental Health Act, but was released when it was determined he wasneither ill nor intoxicated. He told police he was homeless and wanted to go to jail.

'I am unable to find any features or signs of a mental illness and although he seems to bemaking an unusual choice this is insufficient basis for a diagnosis of mental disorder.'- Dec. 2011 psychiatric assessment

A few hours later, at 1:45 a.m. on Dec. 16, Zehaf-Bibeau went into a McDonald's restaurant inVancouver, showed a sharpened stick to the clerk and asked for the money in the till. TheMcDonald's employee initially thought it was joke, as Zehaf-Bibeau was grinning.

Zehaf-Bibeau then reportedly said, "Yes, hand over the money, homeboy."

Police came and arrested him, and he appeared to be happy. Zehaf-Bibeau's lawyer told the judgethat Zehaf-Bibeau felt he had an undiagnosed mood disorder, but the court psychiatristdisagreed.

"I am unable to find any features or signs of a mental illness and although he seems to bemaking an unusual choice this is insufficient basis for a diagnosis of mental disorder," thepsychiatic assessment stated.

• On mobile? Click here to read Zehaf-Bibeau's Dec. 2011 psychiatric assessment

Zehaf-Bibeau had spent 66 days in custody, and the judge sentenced him to one day more.

Zehaf-Bibeau said he has no income to pay a $100 victim impact surcharge, and the judge gavehim until end of August 2012 to pay the fine.

"Good luck to you sir," the judge said.

'Kind of rough and maybe a little rude'

CBC News has also learned Thursday that the 32-year-old had a connection to a mosque inBurnaby, B.C., and may have visited it as recently as last year.

Aasim Rashid, a spokesman for the B.C. Muslim Association, said a few people at the Masjidal-SalaamandEducation Centredealt with Zehaf-Bibeau before his arrest in 2011.

"He apparently was not a very well-mannered person," said Rashid. "The people who haveinteracted with him described him as kind of rough and maybe a little rude."

"At one point, he raised an objection at the Burnaby mosque that he was sort of floating in andout of for a period of three to four months," Rashid said. "He didnt like the fact that themosque was so open and welcoming."

Rashid said that, eventually, mosque administrators sat down with Zehaf-Bibeau and explainedthat the facility was open to other groups in order to work together on common issues.

"[They said] 'If you have a problem with it, its best you go somewhere else,'" said Rashid.

After Zehaf-Bibeau was spoken to, he didn't raise similar concerns again.

Told of a falling out with his parents

Farida Bano Ali, chair of the women's chapter of the B.C. Muslim Association, told CBC News sheknew Zehaf-Bibeau from the mosque, and that he was pleasant and charming.

She asked about his family one time during a workshop for social workers, and he expressed, not for the first time, that he was estranged from his parents.

"I asked him a lot of issues, and he said, 'oh, my parents. I come from a family, they don'tlike me, they don't want me, and so I'm hanging around here,'" Ali recalled.

"As the time went, we noticed some behaviour changes," she said.

Then, one day he seemed to disappear.

Began sleeping in mosque

However, Zehaf-Bibeau did appear at the mosque again, and at one point he started sleepinginside it.

"At some point, when he got in trouble with the law, and he didnt have a place to go to, hestarted sleeping at the mosque without any authorization," Rashid said.

'At some point, when he got in trouble with the law, and he didnt have a place to go to, hestarted sleeping at the mosque.'- Aasim Rashid, spokesman for the B.C. Muslim Association

"When the mosque administration found out, they asked him to leave immediately and asked himnever to do that again.

"He stole the keys, and when they found out he had keys, they changed all the locks," he said.

Rashid said he heard through several people that Zehaf-Bibeau was seen at the mosque again in2013, just hanging around one afternoon.

Rashid said that if there had been any signs Zehaf-Bibeau was becoming radicalized, communitymembers would have likely noticed.

"They dont tolerate that kind of extremist mindset," he said.

"In fact, being around that Burnaby mosque, if anything, would have been therapeutic for him,"Rashid said. "It would have helped him sort of calm down and come into the mainstream, andsort of open up a little bit."

HasibullahYusufzai, aBritish Columbia mancharged under a new anti-terrorism law, is believed to have worshipped at the same Burnaby mosque.

Yusufzai allegedly left Canada to join Islamist fighters in Syria. It is not known whether he andZehaf-Bibeauknew each other.