Gunman yelled 'For Iraq:' Ottawa shooting eyewitness

An eyewitness toWednesday'sshooting of Cpl. NathanCirillo, who was killed while standing guard at the National War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, says he heard the shooter yell 'for Iraq'.

Hayden Trenholm, a policy advisor for N.W.T. Senator Nick Sibbeston, says he was on the plaza at the war memorial when he heard the first shot.

• Click thelink on the left to hearTrenholm speak with Trail's End hostAllison Devereaux

"It was very loud," Trenholm said, adding that he was about 12 metres away from the shooter.

"I actually thought, when I first heard it, that it was some sort of ceremonial event."

Trenholm says he then turned towards the area where he heard the shot come from and says he saw a man wearing a scarf with a rifle over his shoulder.

Trenholm says in total, he heard four shots go off as he followed one soldier dressed in uniform who was running.

"Then I saw the solider [Cpl. Nathan Cirillo] on the ground, not moving."

Trenholm says there wereabout 10 people just standing in the area around the soldier, not moving, no one saying anything.

And then he says the man with the rifle who Trenholm describes as having tanned skin and long, dark hair pulled down his scarf, held his rifle one-handed over his head and yelled "For Iraq."

"It was kind of unreality because he had no expression," Trenholm recalled.

"You know, it was not passionate, it was not anger, it was not anything. He just said the words, you know, in a loud voice."

Trenholm says the man then ran and got into the driver's seat of agrey car on Wellington Street and drove east.

"That was sort of the last I saw."

Suspect had 'extremist views:' RCMP

The alleged shooter,Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, who was shot dead inside the main Parliament building, had a long criminal record in Quebec and British Columbia.

Wednesday'sshooting comes just days after one soldier was injured and another was killed in Quebec by a man who officials say wasmotivated by Canada's involvement in the fight against ISIS in Iraq.

No similar link has been made in this case, though RCMPCommissioner Bob Paulson saysZehaf-Bibeau had"extremist views."

Paulsonalso says Zehaf-Bibeau'semail was found in the hard drive of someone RCMPhave charged with a terror-related offence.

And RCMP also saythe shooter'smother told officers Zehaf-Bibeauwanted to travel to Syria.

Paulson says the shooterwasnot one of 90 "high-risk" individualsbeing investigated by the RCMP, though Paulson says he would have been on the list if RCMP knew he wanted to go to Syria.

Must 'do my duty:'Trenholm

Hayden Trenholmsays he called 911 after he saw Cpl. Nathan Cirilloon the ground at the National War Memorial,and told police what he saw. He says everyone standing in the area where he was"had the same sense of stunned confusion."

Trenholm says today,he doesn't feel angeror fear, but simply that he has a duty to go back to Parliament Hill and do his job.

"When I think of Cpl. Cirillo, who died being proud and doing his duty, that's the only tribute I can honestly give him, is to do my duty.

"And that's what I'm going to do."