Ottawa shooting: "MPs and staff, we are safe," Gerry Byrne's account
Liberal members in meeting when gunshots heard on Parliament Hill
Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte MP Gerry Byrne wrote this first-person account while Parliament Hill was locked down in the aftermath of the shooting in Ottawa, where a soldier and one gunman were killed Wednesday. When we spoke to Byrne at 4:50 NT, the lockdown was continuing.
Sitting on the floor, waiting for news. Here is my experience.
At around 9:55 a.m., I was in a meeting room within [Liberal Leader] Justin Trudeau's office with five other MPs and a handful of staff.
The meeting was underway.
A crack, crack, crack sound was heard from what I thought was the outside, followed by inaudible words on what I thought was a megaphone or loudspeaker.
This would not be unusual in the least on Parliament Hill; especially on Wednesdays, which is caucus day.
This is the day that protest groups most often assemble on the front lawn of the grass of the Centre Block.
I didn't react initially, but when I heard more crackling, I said, "Something is going on!" No one else reacted, so I went to look out the fifth floor window and witnessed RCMP cars racing to the centre block from where they were stationed around the Parliamentary Precinct.
I stayed looking until I saw police exit their vehicles with machine guns drawn and enter the front doors of the Parliament Building.
I locked the door and told everyone to stay away from the doors.
In the moments that followed, I heard running and yelling down the corridor. Hill constables and possibly RCMP were doing a room-to-room search for assailants.
Security forces came to the door, yelled "Police, identify." I yelled, "MPs and staff, we are safe. Do you want me to unlock the door?" They replied, "Stay inside, stay low, confirm." I confirmed.
After that the sweep continued. We could hear running and yelling right outside of the office as the sweep continued. Outside, police were continuing to arrive. SWAT arrived with a very heavily armed presence.
We could see the downtown core go silent. Police were running street to street. We await the all-clear signal and will remain silent until then.
This story has been edited.