Canada's first ISIS casualty? A man described by authorities as a "radicalized" convert to Islam and possible recruit to the militant group ran down two soldiers in Quebec on Monday, killing one. Martin Couture-Rouleau, 25, who had apparently waited for hours near a strip mall used by service members, was shot dead by police after a high-speed chase, reports the Toronto Star. Friends and relatives say he developed extreme views after converting around a year ago, but there was no sign that an attack was imminent. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, however, says it arrested Couture-Rouleau in July when he was making plans to travel to Turkey, possibly to join ISIS, and he was among 90 potential militant recruits under surveillance.
The RCMP says it confiscated his passport in July but didn't charge him because there was no evidence he planned to commit any crimes in Canada or overseas. A spokesman says that even if he had been under 24-hour surveillance, the hit-and-run ambush might not have been stopped. "We didn't know his intention to use his car as a weapon," he says. Authorities are now trying to determine whether he acted as a "lone wolf" or had direct ties to ISIS. "Based on what's public right now, I don't think he had any links with any groups, but clearly he had an extremist ideology. So he must have influences," a former Canadian intelligence officer tells the CBC. (More Canada stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
