Police said Driver, who used the online alias Harun Abdurahman, pledged allegiance to Baghdadi in the video, in which the man seen wearing a ski mask calls Western powers the “enemies of Islam”.
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At a press conference in Ottawa Thursday afternoon, Mike Cabana, the RCMP’s deputy commissioner for federal policing, said the FBI came into possession of the video and tipped off the Mounties at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Strachan said in a statement that when Driver got in the taxi police “engaged the suspect, there was a detonation inside the taxi, and the suspect subsequently died following a confrontation with the police”.
Police on Thursday killed a 24-year-old man suspected of plotting a terror attack targeting a Canadian urban centre during the rush hour, authorities said. But in February he was placed on a peace bond, a court order that restricted his movements, required that he stay away from social media and computers and not have contact with Islamic State or similar groups.
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Brad Ross said that as a precaution a “vigilance notice” was issued to all staff encouraging them to say something if they saw something of concern.
July 2015 – Driver moves from Manitoba to his sister’s house in Strathroy, Ontario, about 225 km (140 miles) southwest of Toronto. “We have no information at this point to indicate Mr. Driver had any other accomplices”, Strachan said.
At about that time, she said she was at her own home close by when she heard a loud noise.
Driver had been on the radar of authorities for at least a year, as authorities believed he was a threat because he could help terror groups.
– In December 2014, Aaron Driver expresses support in social media posts for an Islamic convert’s killing of an unarmed ceremonial guard and attempted storming of parliament in Ottawa.
Police responded to the “potential terrorist threat” and realised it was Driver, swooping on his small town property.
Driver last spoke to the media outside the Winnipeg courthouse in February after further restrictions were added to his peace bond. He was arrested and released on numerous bail conditions eight days later.
Details of how Driver died have not been released.
He is released on bail later that month wearing an electronic monitoring device, under a peace bond which says he can not apply for a passport, among other conditions.
Regarding the previous case, he said police had meant to charge Driver with terrorism threats based on his social media postings, but Driver and police reached a peace bond settlement allowing the RCMP to monitor Driver for up to a year.
There were 62 instances of people being accused of participating in what the agency described as “activity of terrorist group” in Canada, up from 26 in 2014, and 28 alleged cases of people trying to leave the country to do so, up from seven in 2014. But he was not under police surveillance, the RCMP said.
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“Canadians can be confident that whenever credible information is obtained about a potential terrorist threat, the RCMP, CSIS (security intelligence service) and other police and security agencies take the appropriate steps to ensure the safety of this country and its citizens”, Goodale said in a statement.
