On the 10-year anniversary of the lethal Parliament Hill capturing, former sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers says there’s “not a day that goes by” the place he does not give it some thought.
On Oct. 22, 2014, a gunman shot and killed 24-year-old Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, a member of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, who was standing guard on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the Nationwide Battle Memorial.
The gunman then ran up Parliament Hill and stormed Centre Block, earlier than he was stopped and killed by RCMP and safety officers, and Vickers.
In an interview on CTV Information Channel’s Energy Play, in honour of the anniversary, Vickers informed host Vassy Kapelos that on the day, he all the time thinks about Cirillo’s mom, Kathy, and a dialog the 2 had a few month after the capturing.
“There have been so many heroic guys that day, particularly our Home of Commons guys that have been unarmed,” mentioned Vickers, who has not spoken concerning the occasions of that day to the media within the decade since they happened. “I salute them and thank them from the underside of my coronary heart as effectively.”
The previous sergeant-at-arms recalled the “sickening sound” of the gunman’s “deep, wheezing” respiratory, as Vickers stood inside simply ft of him, as one thing that “stays with you.”
The gunman had already been shot a number of occasions by Home of Commons safety. Vickers recommended the “very courageous RCMP officers who got here up the Corridor of Honour that day.”
“He shot and fired in direction of them,” Vickers mentioned. “The second he shot and fired, I’m going out in entrance of him, firing my weapon, and I landed straight at his ft.”
“I seemed up, he seemed down. I seemed up at him, he seemed down at me, and I continued to fireplace my weapon, and he fell down, not on high of me, however straight beside me,” Vickers continued.
Vickers acquired an emotional five-minute-long standing ovation by members of Parliament on the day following the capturing.
“There’s, I believe, completely different accounts got here out with completely different recollections, and I simply thought it finest to let issues go, and simply stay with my recollections of what occurred myself,” Vickers mentioned, when requested by Kapelos why he hadn’t spoken a lot concerning the day publicly till now. “And 10 years on, I mentioned, maybe it is time to unload what I recall of the incident.”
The Parliament Hill capturing happened simply two days after a person drove his automobile into two Canadian Armed Forces officers in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., killing Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent.
You possibly can watch Vickers’ full interview within the video participant on the high of this text.
