Atilla Altıkat was a 45-year-old Turkish Air Force colonel serving as military attaché at Turkey’s embassy in Ottawa when he was ambushed on the morning of August 27, 1982. His car stopped at a red light near Island Park Drive and the parkway along the Ottawa River at about 9:00 a.m., where a gunman approached from the passenger side and fired repeatedly with a 9mm Browning handgun. Contemporary accounts put the number of shots at about a dozen; a later Canadian government study recorded 13. Altıkat suffered fatal head and neck wounds and died at the scene; numerous spent casings were found and the weapon was discarded before the attacker fled toward a wooded area.

Responsibility was claimed by the Justice Commandos of the Armenian Genocide, and investigators identified a vehicle they believed the attackers used, briefly questioned a man found nearby, and established roadblocks while alerting New York police. Canadian government research later described the attack as the work of a lone gunman, possibly with a driver. No one was conclusively identified, charged, tried or convicted for the killing, and the murder remains unsolved. A memorial to fallen diplomats near the site includes a special element honoring Altıkat.

Did anyone in Ottawa at the time recall unusual vehicles or people in the diplomatic district around that morning that could still help researchers now?