The NYPD is dispatching additional security to the Canadian consulate in New York City as a precaution after a gunman shot and killed a Canadian soldier standing guard at a war memorial in the country's capital Wednesday, officials said.
Witnesses said the soldier was gunned down at point-blank range by a man carrying a rifle and dressed all in black, with a scarf over his face. They said the gunman then ran off and entered Parliament, a few hundred yards away, where dozens of shots soon rang out.
The gunman was killed. A U.S. official identified him as 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. It's not clear if anyone else was involved. Parliament was placed on lockdown for a time. President Obama was briefed on the attack and the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa stepped up its security, officials said.
The NYPD said it is also sending extra officers to the British consulate out of an abundance of caution and to other sites associated with the Candian government.
"We still do not know the motive and who is involved," a department spokesman said of the shootings in Canada. "We will further adjust our response as appropriate when we learn more."
Peter Donald, spokesman for the FBI in New York, said the agency reminded field offices and government partners to be vigilant in light of recent calls for attacks on government personnel. Donald said that there have been no new specific threats targeting the metropolitan area.
"We stand ready to assist our Canadian partners as they deal with the ongoing situation in their capital," Donald said.
Military officials told NBC News that NORAD has gone on a “high alert posture.” The Ottowa Hospital said that it had received three patients, two of whom were in stable condition.
The attack came two days after a recent convert to Islam killed one Canadian soldier and injured another in a hit-and-run before being shot to death by police. The killer had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.
Canada had raised its domestic terror threat level from low to medium Tuesday because of "an increase in general chatter from radical Islamist organizations," said Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for the public safety minister.
In Wednesday's attack, Ottawa police Constable Marc Soucy said shots were also fired at a shopping mall near Parliament. All three sites — the National War Memorial, Parliament and the mall — are within less than a mile from each other.
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The top spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Harper was safe and had left Parliament Hill.
Cabinet minister Tony Clement tweeted that at least 30 shots were heard inside Parliament, where Conservative and Liberal MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings.
"I'm safe locked in a office awaiting security," Kyle Seeback, another member of Parliament, tweeted.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned people in downtown Ottawa to stay away from windows and rooftops.
