Mental breakdown not key factor in Parliament Hill shooting, RCMP boss says

Canada's top Mountie says the gunman who stormedParliament Hill in 2014 would havehadadifficulttimepleadinginsanity had he lived to face charges.

But RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson acknowledges Michael Zehaf-Bibeau could have benefited from mental-healthcounselling beforethe rampage that saw him die in a hail of bullets.

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A rifle-toting Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, raced into Parliament's CentreBlock in October 2014 after fatally killing Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, anhonour guard at the nearby National War Memorial.

Shortly before his attack, the gunman made a video in which hecited retaliation for Canada's military involvement in Afghanistanand Iraq as his motivation.

Paulson told a Commons committee last year that the Mounties considered Zehaf-Bibeau a terrorist, and that he would have been charged with terrorism offences under the Criminal Code had he survived.

The commissioner told a security conference Fridaythat Zehaf-Bibeau might have then blamed his actions on mental illness butPaulson doesn't believe such a breakdown was the main factor.