Alberta Labour Minister Ric McIver says he came within metres of a gunman during the shootings in Ottawa Wednesday morning.
McIver told the Calgary Sun a gunman near the National War Memorial, where one soldier was killed by gunfire, came so close to him he could have tackled the man.
“I considered my options. I was close enough I didn’t know whether I had to attack to save myself or run. I didn’t think I could get to him before he could pull the trigger so I ran.”
“There was nothing but an open parking lot there for 20, 30, 40 metres. So I booked it across, looked over my shoulder. I found a car and ducked behind it.”
After the encounter, McIver tweeted what he said was a photo of the suspect's car.
McIver's wife Christine told the Calgary Herald her husband "kept calling and calling" her Wednesday morning, which "isn't like him."
“I took his call and he said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, the gunman came within feet of me,'” she told the Herald from a Toronto conference.
She tweeted about her husband's encounter.
McIver was in Ottawa to meet with federal Minister of Employment Jason Kenney, reports 660News.
According to the Herald, McIver ran to Kenney's office after seeing the gunman.
McIver told the Sun the gunman had wavy, should-length hair, was wearing a long, open coat and carried "what seemed like a very long barrel gun."
