Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Parliament Hill that took the life of a young soldier on ceremonial sentry duty at the National War Memorial.

Corporal Nathan Cirrilo was shot twice in the back by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau who then went to the Parliament building where he was shot and killed by Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, Kevin Vickers.

On the NL Morning News, Ottawa Citizen reporter Andrew Duffy reflected on the confusion of that fateful day. “Corporal Cirrilo was shot at about ten in the morning and the event was largely over within about half an hour.”

“But in real time it played out for the rest of the day, it played out until late in the evening because there was a belief that Zehaf-Bibeau wasn’t acting alone and that there were half a dozen or a dozen other terrorists who were potentially attacking Parliament Hill.”

Duffy said it could have been a lot worse. “An OPP report basically concluded that we were extraordinarily lucky. I mean that report found, essentially that had there been two attackers with automatic weapons things likely would have turn out very much differently.”

“You have to remember Zehaf-Bibeau went in with an old hunting rifle.”

“You know, he only had about eight shots and had this been a well planned terrorist attack the outcome would have been very devastating and very different.”