There were two attacks on Oct. 22, 2014: one at the National War Memorial and one on Parliament Hill.
First, a gunman killed 24-year-old Corporal Nathan Cirillo while the reservist was on sentry duty at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Using a Winchester rifle, the gunman shot Cpl. Cirillo three times in the back. He then made his way to Parliament Hill and managed to get in the front door of Centre Block. Gunfire broke out and the gunman was killed in the Hall of Honour.
An untold number of lives were touched by the events of that traumatic day a decade ago. These are four of their stories.
Barbara Winters was one of the first on the scene when Cpl. Cirillo was shot, and spoke with him as he died.
Barbara Winters
Ms. Winters says on the 10th anniversary of the attacks in Ottawa, her thoughts turn to Cpl. Cirillo and his family. “For me, it’s always about Nathan and the people who were there at the Cenotaph on that day and those 10 minutes. Those 10 to 12 minutes.”
Ms. Winters is a government lawyer who found herself rushing to Cpl. Cirillo’s aid. She had been walking in downtown Ottawa on what she remembers as a clear, beautiful October day. “I remember pretty much everything,” she says.
On her way to a meeting, she had walked past the National War Memorial, where she stopped to take a photo of two men in argyle kilts who were standing guard at the Cenotaph. There was a clear, blue sky and fall colours and Parliament as a backdrop. “It was just such a beautiful, beautiful picture and I had a little camera with me and I just stopped.”
Ms. Winters was nearby when she heard the sound of shots. “I remember exactly where I was on Sparks Street and I turned around, and I started running towards the Cenotaph. And I remember passing people running the other way.” Ms. Winters recalls that when she was running, with a briefcase and purse in hand, she was thinking that if she could see just the soldiers, she would know that they were okay. As she got closer, she couldn’t see them.
When she arrived at the memorial, she recalls kneeling on the ground near Cpl. Cirillo’s shoulders and then being part of resuscitation efforts to try to save him. “I remember thinking, quite clearly, he can hear all this,” she says. “He can hear the noise and he can hear people talking about him. And I remember thinking someone should talk to him. And so I started talking to him.”
Ms. Winters is often associated with the events of that day after she conducted a memorable interview with CBC’s As It Happens about what she said to Cpl. Cirillo. She remembers telling him how proud everyone was of him and that he was standing guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. She wanted him to remember that. “Your family loves you,” she recalls telling him. “Your military family loves you.”
Ms. Winters’s message moved parliamentarians, including NDP MP Charlie Angus, who wrote a song for his band, Grievous Angels, called The Morning After. In it, he includes a line that references Ms. Winters’s words: “You are loved,” it says.
Margaret Lerhe
Ms. Lerhe remembers the morning of Oct. 22, 2014, in a crystal-clear way, almost as if it were yesterday.
She, too, recalls it being a spectacular October day. She was working for Bruyère Continuing Care in Ottawa, where care is provided for seniors and individuals with chronic illnesses. She was downtown, walking from one location to the next.
As she approached Elgin Street, she thought she’d better hurry because she could be late for her next appointment. As she was crossing the street near the Cenotaph, Ms. Lerhe heard shots and saw a shooter and soldiers.
She wondered if it was a drill. It was not.
She then saw Cpl. Cirillo on the ground. The former intensive-care nurse’s instinct and training kicked in and she asked how she could help.
She remembers taking direction from Corporal Kyle Button, who was on sentry duty with Cpl. Cirillo. Soon, others arrived to help. “It was like we were an emergency response team where everybody knew their role,” she says.
Instinct and training kicked in for former intensive care nurse Margaret Lerhe when she came to Cpl. Cirillo's aid after the attack.
Ms. Lerhe says in pictures taken that day, she can be seen scowling. She recalls being bothered because she had to tell onlookers to stop filming.
It still really bothers her that she had to tell people this, she says. She was concerned that the events could be posted on social media, and for the fear it could generate for individuals whose loved ones were part of the sentry program.
Even though she says she is not a spiritual or religious person, she believes there was some force that brought the group of six “who all came together” to help Cpl. Cirillo.
“Everybody played a role,” she says. As CPR was being performed, she was applying pressure on a wound.
In the aftermath of that day, Ms. Lerhe says she’s tried to focus on being part of meaningful acts to help others. “We need to find purpose and meaning to make sense of things,” she says.
Ms. Lerhe retired shortly after the attack and joined Doctors Without Borders. She also became a live kidney donor in 2020.
Samearn Son considers himself lucky to be alive after a confrontation with the gunman at Centre Block.
Samearn Son
Constable Son was at the rotunda post in Centre Block on the morning of Oct. 22 when a man showed up at the door with a rifle.
Constable Son was not armed. The gunman’s firearm was pointed at his chest and the officer remembers wanting to direct it away from his vital organs, even though he was wearing a bulletproof vest (the vest was not graded to withstand hits from rifles).
He managed to get the gun to point downward.
“It happened so fast. And then the shot went off.”
He says he didn’t receive a direct hit – the bullet ricocheted and penetrated the skin near his right ankle.
When the gunman proceeded into Centre Block, Constable Son says, he chased after him.
At this point, he didn’t realize he had been hit and he climbed up three or four flights of stairs. He recalls thinking the gunman was within “catching distance.”
“Just gauging body type and everything, I thought I was faster than him,” he says.
But Constable Son says his training then kicked in: He realized his colleagues inside Centre Block would not be able to fire if he was in the location with the gunman. He then made a decision to turn away.
He says he looked to ensure the gunman didn’t have an accomplice, and then did a self-check and discovered some blood on his boots and a hole in his pants. He inserted his pinky finger through the hole and saw blood.
“It’s weird how the mind plays these tricks,” he says, adding this was when pain kicked in. “When I confirmed I actually was hit, then all of a sudden, the sharp pain started coming from the leg.”
Today, he considers himself to be pretty lucky.
He says officers are trained to look for ability, intent and means, and the gunman had them all. Those who were on Parliament Hill were not aware that Cpl. Cirillo had been shot at the Cenotaph shortly beforehand.
After being injured, Constable Son says he was cleared to work less than two months later. After the bullet fragments, which he says look like melted lead, were surgically removed, he kept them in a small bottle at home.
He is now approaching his 20th anniversary of working on Parliament Hill.
Curtis Barrett
RCMP Sergeant Barrett was posted on Oct. 22 to Parliament Hill at the vehicle-screening facility located near West Block.
After returning from a break, Sgt. Barrett says he was chatting with colleagues when he heard a woman’s voice on the police radio saying something about a gun. He stopped and asked others if they heard it too. Everyone became quiet and listened.
He says he moved quickly to unzip hard body armour and put it over his head.
Then, one of his colleagues, Corporal Dany Daigle, came ripping through the RCMP vehicle-screening facility and he fell in behind.
Driving in a Crown Victoria, he says, the pair reached the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill with considerable speed.
RCMP Sergeant Curtis Barrett recalls fearing for his life when he opened the door to Centre Block, where the gunman was on the move.
Sgt. Barrett says they got to Centre Block and learned the gunman was shooting inside. He walked to the front door and they fell into a position to respond to an active shooter.
When Sgt. Barrett opened the door, he recalls the smell of gun smoke hitting him. He also learned that the gunman had a rifle.
He feared he was going to die that day.
As RCMP officers moved down the hallway, trying to draw shots to them rather than others inside Parliament, Sgt. Barrett says he saw Kevin Vickers, the sergeant-at-arms.
Sgt. Barrett recalls being shot at by the gunman and returning fire. He also remembers seeing Mr. Vickers throw himself down to the ground and shoot up at the gunman.
Sgt. Barrett says he shot the gunman in the head.
In the aftermath of the attack, Sgt. Barrett says he felt isolated inside the RCMP and went on to experience post-traumatic stress. He says he considered suicide. He credits the help he received at the Operational Stress Injury Clinic in Ottawa.
He is now part of the RCMP’s reintegration program, designed to support Mounties return to duty after traumatic events or long absences. He says if it weren’t for the program, he probably would have retired early.
Sgt. Barrett says he has struggled with knowing that the gunman was someone’s child. He is a father of two himself.
“It is not a good feeling to shoot anybody,” he says. “Nobody. Even someone who is trying to shoot you. There’s no satisfaction in it at all.”
The Ottawa shootings: More from The Globe and Mail
Video: Coverage from The Globe’s archives
Look back at some of the key moments from The Globe's live coverage of Oct. 22, 2014, including reporter Josh Wingrove's exclusive footage from inside Centre Block as the shots rang out.
Podcast: Kristy Kirkup on The Decibel
Reporter Kristy Kirkup gave The Decibel a recap of what happened on Oct. 22, 2014, and the lasting effects it had on those who helped Corporal Nathan Cirillo in his dying moments.