Canadian police kill man in Ontario after U.S. tip on imminent terrorist attack
Canadian police kill man in Ontario after U.S. tip on imminent terrorist attack
The man killed during a Canadian police raid at his home in Ontario on Wednesday was a supporter of the Islamic State who was in the final stages of attacking a major urban center with a homemade bomb, police said on Thursday. Police raided the home of Aaron Driver after receiving credible information, including a "martyrdom video," from U.S. authorities that he was planning an attack, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said. Driver died after he detonated an explosive device in the backseat of a taxi as police closed in, the RCMP said at a news conference in Ottawa. Police could not say whether he died as a result of that detonation, or because he was shot by officers.
The police did what they had to do. He would not surrender. I'm sure they gave him ample chances. As sad and shocked as I am, it doesn’t surprise me that it has come to this. Aaron was a good kid who went down a dark path and couldn’t find the light again.
Aaron Driver's father confirmed that his son had been shot and killed in an interview with the National Post
The video indicated that Driver had planned to carry out the attack in the next 72 hours, during rush hour. Police said there was no indication that Driver, a 24-year-old Muslim convert, had had any accomplices. Driver, who also used the alias Harun Abdurahman, was arrested last year for openly supporting ISIS on social media, and had not been charged with a crime. In February, he was placed under a court order that restricted his movements, required that he stay away from social media and computers and cut off contact with terrorist groups. Police said at the news conference that although Driver had not been under constant surveillance, he had been monitored. The incident was the first security test for Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was elected in October 2015 and who in February fulfilled a campaign pledge to withdraw Canada from the combat mission against Islamic State and to increase its mission training local fighters against the group in northern Iraq.
