Watch above: Canadians try to adjust back into a routine after Ottawa shooting
SASKATOON – Ag-West Bio CEO Wilf Keller returned home Thursday from Ottawa, where he was attending a gala event this week.
He was staying at the Westin Hotel, about a block away from Parliament Hill, where the shooting attacks happened.
“The hotel was locked down until about four o’clock in the afternoon, so we couldn’t leave the hotel for the major part of the day,” he explained.
People in the area were asked to stay inside and keep away from windows, so Keller got most of his information from watching the news unfold on his hotel room television.
“People were really quite concerned because no one knew the extent of the situation, ” he explained.
FULL COVERAGE: Ottawa shooting
Saskatoon-Humboldt MP Brad Trost was inside the main parliament building at the time of the shooting.
He said nobody panicked, but many were in a state of disbelief.
“We were just sitting, listening to the Prime Minister, and all of a sudden, we heard this ‘boom, boom boom’ going off, and it took us a second to realize what was happening,” Trost said.
Trost said after he got over the initial shock, his first thoughts were with his family.
“I kept thinking, ‘I need to call my wife’,” he explained.
Watch below: Brad Trost talks about the Ottawa shooting
In Saskatoon, many flags have been lowered to half-mast in honour of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, the soldier who was shot and killed while standing guard at the National War Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Allie James comes from a Saskatchewan military family; she said the news is heart-wrenching.
“The fact that it was a soldier standing guard over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier … it’s just senseless. It was honourary, he wasn’t armed at all,” she explained.
Jerel Saeler, an Arkansas resident who flew up to Saskatoon for a hunting trip, said he was very saddened to hear the news.
“It’s a terrible thing. These people who have no morals, no respect for life. And our countries need to come together and get it stopped,” Saeler explained.
“We just need to stick together and take care of one another,” he said.
Comments