Driver’s bomb didn’t fully detonate, say RCMP
TARGET UNKNOWN
TORONTO • The bomb that ISIL supporter Aaron Driver tried to trigger inside a taxi when he was confronted by police on Aug. 10 never fully detonated, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana said in an interview.
Police now believe the blast that occurred was caused by the detonators and that the more powerful explosives never actually ignited, he said, although he added the forensic investigation of the bomb was still underway.
“Primary indications are the only thing that exploded were the homemade detonators,” Cabana, the deputy commissioner for federal policing, told the National Post on Saturday. “The forensics are going to confirm that but that’s what it looks like.”
The explosives appear to use a formula common among terrorists that uses readily available materials. Police found a similar formula on his computer when they searched his home in Winnipeg on June 3, 2015. “I think so but I don’t think the forensics are complete on that, but I think essentially he followed the same recipe.”
The target of his alleged attack remains unknown, he added. While Driver had told the taxi driver to take him to Citi Plaza in London, Ont., there is still no indication that was where he intended to detonate the bomb.
Cabana noted there was a train station near the mall. “Was he going there to hop on the train? We don’t know yet so we’re doing the forensics on the computer, hoping that we’re going to find something there but so far we have nothing,” he said.
Almost two weeks after Driver was killed by police in Strathroy, Ont., as he was allegedly about to conduct a bombing, the deputy commissioner’s responses show what investigators now believe happened and what they have learned so far.
Once Driver was identified as the masked man in a video pledging allegiance to ISIL and threatening an attack on Canadians, surveillance and emergency response teams were sent to his home in Strathroy and also to his workplace, Cabana said.
The surveillance team was still trying to determine if Driver was at home when a taxi pulled into the driveway at 4:18 p.m., he said. Also at 4:18, Driver came out carrying a backpack and got into the cab and it began to reverse towards the street.
Confronted by police, Driver tried to detonate his explosives and there was a blast, he said. Photos released by the RCMP show little damage to the taxi’s interior. Driver survived and the cabbie, Terry Duffield, suffered minor injuries. Duffield told the London Free Press last week he heard an officer say, “He’s still twitching” before police opened fire.
Cabana said Driver got out of the taxi and was “standing up and was not following the direction that was provided and was playing — and again all of that’s going to be confirmed, this is all based on preliminary information — but he was playing with his backpack and his chest, touching his chest in the front.”
Cabana said Driver said Allahu Akhbar, “God is great.” Apparently concerned he was trying to detonate the explosives, police shot him.
The apparent close call has led to debate about terrorism peace bonds, which police have been using to restrict suspected ISIL and al-Qaida extremists. A Winnipeg judge had approved a peace bond against Driver but he was not under surveillance.
Cabana said peace bonds would be more effective if they included a verification component that allowed police and security agencies to monitor electronic transmissions from the suspects, to make sure they are complying with the terms imposed by the courts.
Asked why the cabbie was allowed to pull into the driveway, Cabana said police were uncertain Driver was at home. “So our position at that point in time was very much to put surveillance on the place to make sure we could keep on eye on who was coming and going,” he said.
“And if we saw him the order had been passed: if you see him arrest him. But for all we knew he might have been away from the residence coming back. So it was important for us to be as inconspicuous as possible. When the taxi showed up, the taxi showed up.”
He said it was “very unfortunate that (Duffield) was put in that position and if we could have prevented it we would have prevented it.” But he said an Ontario Provincial Police investigation would reconstruct exactly what happened.
“We’re going to have a look at the OPP report and see if there’s anything that could or should have been done differently.
“We’re going to own up to this if we did something wrong. But right now preliminary indications seems to be that everything was done by the book.”