Born in Quebec on 16 October 1982 as Michael Joseph Hall, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau grew up in Laval, just north of Montreal, and is said to have attended private schools.

The Canadian news channel CTV News named his mother as Susan Bibeau, the deputy chair of the immigration committee at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. CTV also reported that his stepfather, or adoptive father, is a Libyan businessman, Bulgasem Zehaf, who once owned a cafe called Café Tripoli and appears to have fought in Libya in 2011, according to the Globe and Mail . The couple divorced in 1999.

Zehaf-Bibeau stayed at a homeless shelter in Ottawa for some days before carrying out the Ottawa attack. Residents at the Ottawa Mission described him to the Guardian on Thursday as steely and quiet.

“He was handsome but his eyes were cold. Now I know why,” said David Duchesne, who has been at the mission for about a week. Tenants, most of whom did not want to be interviewed, reported that he Zehaf-Bibeau stayed at the mission, which provides resources to help homeless people get back on their feet, for about two weeks.

Duchesne said he hardly spoke to anyone, but he did not stand out from the other tenants. “He didn’t really divulge anything about his life,” Duchesne said. “He gave us no information except for the fact that he was pissed off at Canada because they held his passport and put him on a no-fly list.”

Duchesne said Zehaf-Bibeau was a practicing Muslim, and that tenants saw him pray five times a day and wash his feet regularly.