Canadian police said they thwarted a "potential terrorist threat" after shooting dead an alleged Islamic State sympathiser said to have been armed with an explosive device. Media reports said 24-year-old Aaron Driver was shot to death Wednesday night during a police raid on a home in Strathroy, Ontario, 220 kilometers (135 miles) south-west of Toronto.
A relative told Canadian public broadcaster CBC that police informed the family that he was shot dead after detonating an explosive device, injuring himself and one other person, whose condition was unclear. They told the family they had to shoot Driver because he had a second device which he was planning to detonate, CBC said. Broadcaster CTV, citing internal government documents, said the suspect allegedly had been planning to set off an explosive device in a packed public space in a major city.
"Earlier today, the RCMP received credible information of a potential terrorist threat. A suspect was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to the public's safety," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement. Driver was described in media reports as a Muslim convert with a troubled childhood who became radicalised on the internet.
"It was like he turned out the lights and put a 'Do Not Disturb' sign on the door," his father told CBC in interviews last year with his son. "When he was living at home, he was very secretive; a lone wolf. He didn't bring friends over, never talked about where he was going and what he was doing," the father said. Driver came to the attention of Canadian authorities in 2014 after posting tweets in support of the Islamic State group and justifying a Muslim convert's killing of a sentry at Canada's national war memorial during an October 22, 2014 attack that spilled into the nearby parliament building.
"If a country goes to war with another country or another people or another community, I think that they have to be prepared for things like" the Ottawa attack, he told the CBC in last year's interview.
"And when it does happen they shouldn't - they shouldn't act surprised. They had it coming to them; they deserved it." He was arrested in June 2015 and released under court supervision. He was ordered to undergo counselling from a religious leader, wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and stay off the Internet. Those restrictions were gradually loosened and were scheduled to expire this month.
According to the order, a peace bond which was signed in February, there were "reasonable grounds to fear that he may participate, contribute directly or indirectly in the activity of a terrorist group," the Canadian Press news agency said. The RCMP said an investigation was under way as the matter "continues to unfold." No other details from officials were immediately available. "Canadians can be confident that whenever credible information is obtained about a potential terrorist threat, the RCMP, CSIS (security intelligence service) and other police and security agencies take the appropriate steps to ensure the safety of this country and its citizens," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said in a statement. "These agencies conducted themselves effectively in the circumstances that developed today."