"In recent years, Mr. Zehar-Bibeau regularly found refuge at the Beacon, a shelter in Vancouver run by the Salvation Army. Mr. Jarjapka, a peer counselor at the charity's shelters, said he spoke with him often, and described him as immersed both in his faith and in a pitched struggle with addiction.

"He was doing heroin to take the edge off the crack," he said.

Mr. Zehar-Bibeau spoke constantly of his frustration with the involvement of the United States in the Middle East, he said, and the two feuded regularly over his support of the Islamic State. His arguments were extreme — American bombing in Syria, was the moral equivalent of bombing a loaded school bus in the United States, he told Mr. Jarjapka — but they were not delusional.

"His viewpoint was bizarre," he said. "The guy was not deranged. He was articulate. he was intelligent. His rationale was warped."

NY Times