Ottawa Hotel Suspect Reportedly a Former U.S. Navy Veteran

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Several reports have claimed that the suspect arrested after hours-long search operation in an Ottawa hotel is U.S. Navy veteran, Chris Phillips. The suspected was arrested after a complete overnight evacuation of the hotel while the RCMP searched for a man travelling from Nova Scotia with dangerous chemicals in his truck. Prior to the arrest, RCMP named the suspect on a Canada-wide warrant after discovering large quantities of hazardous chemicals in separate residences in two communities near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The 42-year-old resident of Cole Harbour, N.S., is suspected to have been in possession of osmium tetroxide, i.e. a highly toxic chemical. According to his history, Mr. Phillips is an American ophthalmologist who once was married to U.S. Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller. He had listed one of his Nova Scotia properties in court documents filed in the U.S. in 2010, which were searched by the RCMP on Tuesday.

Court documents reveal that Mr. Phillips was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1992 after an injury to his feet. Thereafter, a bankruptcy judge remarked in a 2009 ruling that Mr. Phillips became addicted to painkillers as a result of his injury. The judge wrote that the “defendant testified to having a dependency on opiate narcotics including methadone, [Oxycontin] and morphine,” adding that he checked into “various psychiatric facilities” as he tried to deal with his addiction. It was added that the “defendant testified that the effect of withdrawal from narcotics continues to his day, expressing itself in sleep deprivation, depression, anxiety, anger and weight loss.”