SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The gunshots that took the life of an unarmed soldier at the National War Memorial yesterday in Ottawa will have lasting effects for one former Yellowknifer.

Hayden Trenholm: Researcher for NWT Senator Nick Sibbeston remembers it was exactly 9:52 a.m. when he saw a lone gunman shoot Cpl. Nick Cirillo at the National War Memorial Wednesday morning. - photo via Facebook

Hayden Trenholm, who works as a researcher for NWT Senator Nick Sibbeston, was on his way to a doctor's appointment at 9:52 Wednesday morning when he saw a gunman fire at Cpl. Nick Cirillo, an honour guardsman at the memorial.

"Eight or 10 of us were just standing there on the sidewalk stunned. No one even moved it was unreal - I wondered if it was a movie," he said.

"Only then did I see Cpl. Cirillo on the ground, not moving, and the man sort of stood facing us. He was wearing a face scarf, sorta black and white, which fell from his face and he just looked at us with no particular expression ... and he held the gun over his head and yelled, 'for Iraq' but it sounded like a cartoon.

"It made it seem even less real. It's serious - deadly serious - and yet it was like he was imitating something he had seen on television, not something he understood in any way."

Trenholm said he dialed 911 as he saw people run to Cpl. Cirillo's aid. It was then he said he "sort of went into shock." After giving a statement to police he eventually found his way home.

"I had a tough day," he said.

"I've always seen myself as a resilient person but I can tell you there is nothing in my life - there is nothing in anybody's life -- that prepares you to see somebody murdered."

Trenholm is also a novelist who was back in his hometown of Yellowknife this January for Northwords, an NWT-based literary festival.

He told Yellowknifer he plans to keep his friends and family close and work through the experience with his writing.

He also said he would head to his office on Parliament Hill for at least part of the day Thursday.

"It's my duty and the best way I can honour Cpl. Cirillo is to do my duty," he said.

Sibbeston was on his way to Parliament Hill when he heard the news there had a been a shooting at the National War Memorial.

He spent yesterday at his Ottawa home outside the security perimeter that kept his colleagues under lockdown until 10 p.m. He described a transformed Parliament Hill when he returned to work yesterday morning.

"I had a hard time getting in because it's all secured," he said, explaining his normal route to work was blocked off by RCMP.

"I had to make a detour and eventually got in closer to Parliament where they were letting in senators, MPs and staff, but not the general public. There was a lot of police activity, a lot of yellow tape and a lot of streets in the area were blocked off."

Sibbeston predicted the end of an open, easy-to-access Parliament Hill after the gunman was able to make it past metal detectors into the main foyer yesterday and fire shots.

Previously, the senator said guards at the entrance to Parliament Hill were unarmed and the public could come in without much formality.

"Parliament will become much more secure in the sense that they will have guards with guns at the entrances," he said.

"They will certainly be concerned that this occurrence doesn't happen again. It could have been really bad had there been MPs and politicians milling about, but everybody was at caucus. That's what prevented a lot of people being shot. It will be sad, we've had a peaceful country without this kind of an incident before."

Northwest Territories' MP Dennis Bevington, who was in the air on the way to Yellowknife Wednesday morning, only realized what had happened after his plane landed.

He said he called his fellow MPs in caucus right away.

"There would have been upward of 90 people in the committee room next to the main foyer of the House of Commons where the shooting took place," he explained.

"I talked to them by cellphone, it was very disturbing for them ... it was just a barrage of shots and if you're in that chamber there are enormous echoes. It would be simply deafening what went on in there."

Bevington is vice chair of the Arctic Council and flew to Yellowknife to observe a meeting at the Explorer Hotel this week. He told Yellowknifer he can't remember the last time he wasn't in Ottawa mid-week while Parliament is in session.

He also confirmed his Ottawa legislative assistants, Doug Johnson and Stella Desjarlais, stayed safe and were not under lockdown Wednesday with the rest of Parliament Hill.

Johnson is attending an Arctic conference on the coast guard and Desjarlais "was just arriving on the bus (in Ottawa) when the incident occurred and she just turned around and left."

Johnson and Desjarlais are both from Northwest Territories.

Matthew Grogono, one of five city residents who received bravery medals in Ottawa on Tuesday morning for helping to evacuate a floatplane that crashed in Old Town in 2011, was also en route to Yellowknife on Wednesday. He was on a layover in Calgary Wednesday morning when he heard about what happened.

"My partner and I are fine," he said.

"What timing, just yesterday morning we were at Rideau Hall."

Heavy security presence remains in Ottawa after the shooting.

Media reports say Kevin Vickers, Parliament's sergeant-at-arms, a former RCMP officer who spent time stationed in the Northwest Territories and has family in Yellowknife, shot at the gunman during a wild melee inside the House of Commons.

Jackie Jacobson, speaker of the legislative assembly, opened yesterday's proceedings with words of condolence for everybody affected by yesterday's tragedy.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with them," he told the room.

Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins also used his member's statement to reflect on the occurrence.

"I have spoken to many today and so far, everyone without question is finding this an incredibly disturbing issue," he said.

"It's hard not to feel emotional about those who were attacked, all of whom were innocent and didn't deserve anything like this."

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