MP office closed after Ottawa shootings

The St. Thomas constituency office of Elgin-Middlesex-London MP Joe Preston closed by lunch on Wednesday, Oct. 22 after shootings in Ottawa that morning resulted in the death of a soldier and non-life threatening injuries to two other men.

Shootings occurred at the National War Memorial, Parliament Hill and near the Rideau Centre, Ottawa police said.

Mr. Preston’s Executive Assistant Karen Vecchio confirmed that he was in a Conservative caucus meeting at the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at the time of the morning shootings and that she had been in regular contact with him since.

“He’s in lockdown at caucus at Parliament Hill,” Mrs. Vecchio said about Mr. Preston when a reporter contacted her by telephone.

She was at her St. Thomas home with her husband watching television news coverage of the events in Ottawa.

“He’s absolutely fine,” she said of Mr. Preston. “We don’t have any other information at this time.”

Mrs. Vecchio did not know when Mr. Preston and other MPs would be able to leave the caucus meeting room or Parliament Hill.

“Safety is the most important thing right now,” she said.