A gunman, recently converted to Islam, kills a soldier at the Ottawa War Memorial and fires shots in the parliament building before being killed by the sergeant at arms. Chris Hayes has the latest.

Ottawa was rocked by violence Wednesday after a gunman fatally shot a soldier guarding the National War Memorial. The gunman then opened fire in the Parliament building, unleashing terror in the Canadian capital before he was shot and killed by a sergeant-at-arms.

The gunman, identified as 32-year-old Michael Joseph Hall, was a convert to Islam and had been using the name Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, sources told NBC News. The victim, identified by his aunt as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, died hours later.

“Corporal Cirillo was killed today, murdered in cold blood,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in address to the nation Wednesday night. “But let there be no misunderstanding, we will not be intimidated, Canada will never be intimidated.”

The attack began shortly before 10 a.m., according to Ottawa Police Service Chief Charles Bordeleau, when local law enforcement officials received multiple emergency calls reporting a shooting near the National War Memorial. “I thought it was just firecrackers going off,” a witness told NBC News. “So I looked across the street, and there was a man with a rifle shooting at a bunch of people.”

The gunman then hijacked a car, according to NBC News, and drove about a third of a mile to the Parliament building, where lawmakers were in session.

Some members of Parliament, responding to the sounds of shots fired, barricaded meeting room doors with furniture as police and security forces put the entire complex on lockdown. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was also on Parliament Hill at the time, was… read more at msnbc.com