Some news organizations have identified the gunman who walked into a Montreal school, opened fire, and then turned a school cafeteria into a "shooting gallery." According to reports on CNEWS, he is Canadian-born Kimveer Gill, age 25:
CNEWS: "Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval poses for a photo posted on the goth website VampireFreaks.com in a long black coat toting a rifle —- a chilling look at the man Sun sources have identified as the gunman who opened fire on students at Montreal’s Dawson College yesterday, killing one woman and injuring 19."
CNEWS reports:
A trenchcoat-clad shooter with a scowl and a Mohawk haircut turned a college cafeteria into a combat zone with a commando-style assault that left him and a young woman dead Wednesday.
Carrying an automatic rifle, two other guns, and dressed head to toe in black, the man stormed into the sprawling downtown Dawson College and began coldly cutting down students. Another 19 people were injured while hundreds of screaming and sobbing students spilled out onto the city streets in the shadow of the fabled Montreal Forum hockey arena.
At least eight were listed in critical condition. Police said the woman who was killed was 20.
Inside, the cafeteria was transformed for 15 minutes into a shooting gallery in a scene eerily reminiscent of the city's 1989 Ecole Polytechnique massacre in which 14 women were killed.
The gunman took cover behind a row of vending machines and exchanged gunfire with police while petrified students dropped to the floor in an effort to elude the barrage of bullets.
Surrounded by police, he repeatedly barked a single order each time the officers inched toward him: "Get back! Get back!"
The exchange ended with the attacker slumped on the floor, collapsed in a hail of gunfire.
Police Chief Yvan Delorme confirmed that officers killed the gunman, who was described by provincial police as a 25-year-old from the Montreal region.
Delorme said the attacker sprayed gunfire at random targets. He said provincial police had been called in to investigate, which is customary in a killing involving the local force.
"The only thing I can say is that he was a young man of Canadian origin," Delorme said.
He said police were able to respond quickly because two officers were already at the college on a drug-related matter when they heard gunshots and took action right away. . . .
The gunman stormed into the school over the lunch hour, with a scowl on his face and an automatic weapon in his hands.
"He looked really mad," said Mathieu Dominique, 17, who was having a cigarette by the door when the shooter burst in less than three metres away from him.
"He was really into (the) shooting. . . He looked like he really wanted to kill people. . . . It was like, bullet after bullet. It was like a burst - like at least six shots in two seconds."
Another student, Soher Marous, said the gunman said nothing when he entered the college.
"He had a stone-cold face, there was nothing on his face." Marous said. "He didn't yell out any slogans or anything. He just started opening fire. He was a cold-blooded killer."
The gunman continued firing away as he approached the cafeteria. Andrea Barone was sitting there after lunch with his girlfriend when he heard shots ring out.
"At first I thought it was a firecracker," said Barone, 17. "Then I turned around and I saw him. He was dressed in a black trenchcoat and I saw his hand firing a handgun in every direction."
Barone said all the students hit the floor to take cover.
A police officer emerged within seconds from a corner next to the cafeteria and fired on the gunman, he said. The shot missed. . . .
Delorme dismissed suggestions that race or terrorism played a role.
"There's no information that leads us to believe that it's something other than what happened at the scene."
When I went to the site VampireFreaks.com, I couldn't find a picture of the gunman to confirm CNEWS's attribution, but I did find an ad for a black trenchcoat at the bottom of the main page. I don't know whether this ad inspired Gill to buy a trench coat, or even whether he responded to the ad, but the copy for the coat was interesting:
Tough Guy Leather TrenchCoat
Cool way to stay warm this winter! . . .
The aura of brooding masculinity is easy to achieve with this double-breasted full-length leather trenchcoat.
Related Posts (on one page):
- More from Fatality666's Website.--
- Montreal Killer: Meet Trench, the Angel of Death.--
- Montreal School Gunman Identified.--
Nah...
Obviously someone who shoots up a school is acting evily and it is important to stop anyone with that intention. However, in the long run our goal should be to minimize the number of people killed in shootings like this and this means addressing the root causes.
It's always been my sucpiscion that these shootings often occur because the students at hand feel persecuted and under attack and lack any other effective way to respond. Sure they don't just kill people who are being mean to them but after long enough they likely start feeling angry and mad at everyone. I know when I was at school some kids were subjected to what amounted to fairly extreme psychological torture. Of course since it always occured unobserved, or consisted of many individual acts each of which wasn't very extreme it was never effectively dealt with by the school nor am I sure it ever could stopped.
Adults, however, have the option to leave situations that are emotionally damaging like this. Perhaps a similar option should be offered to the kids. I don't really know but I kinda feel the reactions to these situations should be more like our reaction to other situations where victims go off the deep end and do something evil, namely condemnation of the act but sympathy for the situation that provoked it and discussions of how to change it.
Based solely on the name and pic that you provided (meaning take the following w/the appropriate grain of salt for now):
This looks like it might be his personal photo gallery, presuming that Kimveer Gill is the correct name. The pic you provided is also included in the gallery..
His email was apparently rogue_warrior_50@yahoo.ca and his handle at vampirefreaks seems to have been fatality666.
Also see fatality666's profile at the same site.
I doubt these pages will be left up for long.
He took some of quizzes on vf, which apparently confirmed and/or exacerbated his ongoing anger at the world, that he expected to kill, to die by suicide, and that his was an empty life devoid of purpose.
Here are some samples quotes of what the quiz program told him. They are quite telling:
"WAIT THERE. We're coming to get you now. We've called the guys in white coats to come and get you so don't commit a mass murder before they come or you'll find you'll be in there longer"
"You are longing to kill yourself, you slit your wrists, not for fun, but because the world isn't worth living in."
"You scored as The Undertaker. You are the Lord of Darkness. NOTHING CAN STOP YOU! Why? Because not only are you menacing physically but mentally as well! That's hard to do! Also, the overwhelming respect you get by everyone else adds to your invulnerability! You're engulfed by Darkness no question about it. And if you want, you'll bring unlucky souls WITH YOU!"
"You scored as Black. You're heart is black. You are dead inside, possibly because of your past, you feel you have no emotions left and like you're just waiting to die"
"You scored as Suicide. Your death will be suicide."
"You scored as Murder. You would most likely kill someone, so watch out Mr.anger management."
It appears that there's something of an ongoing game of one-upmanship in the Goth culture to see who can be the most f'd up of all, and that it's encouraged almost as a badge of honor. Play a part and become the part?
The media has reported both automatic shotgun and automatic rifle.
The weapon reported to being used by Gill in the shooting is illegal in Canada (like all semi-automatic rifles). Although we do not know, as of now, where Gill got it from, we know it is fairly easy to purchase them from American suppliers. I have in mind a Journal de Montréal journalist, Michel Auger, who managed to order a few assault rifles from different US suppliers and have them delivered although it was illegal by law.
The problem is not the Canadian law in itself, the real problem rather seems to be its application and how easy it is to get such weapons in US and smuggling them up North.
The same problem occurs with handguns.
2. It sounds like this messed up guy was more interested in suicide by cop than in killing or yes, there would have been a lot more people dead.
At some point, we are going to have start asking why kids are coming out this damaged, this injured, this full of rage--and no one noticed until it was too late.
And yes, the whole Goth subculture isn't just a fashion statement.
A semi-automatic assault weapon, legal. Why don't we give our children bazookas as we're at it?
IMO logicnazi has the right idea, as I've similarly said for years: teenagers are expected to act in every way as responsible adults, yet they are not provided the rights and privileges of adults. This is clearly a recipe for disaster. The world is full of otherwise normal adults who can't handle a full work week without at least one visit to a strip club, or can't get through a day without smoking weed, or handily polish off two cases of beer every week. What makes people think that teenagers are somehow more capable of dealing with the new and unfamiliar stresses we put on them?
The choice is simple: either remove the stress or provide the release. A combination approach would probably be effective, but we have to do something.
Ah yes. Guns don't kill people, trench coats kill people.
It's not in any way illegal or immoral, it's just... wrong. Like going to a site for convicted sex offenders and seeing banner ads for dating services. While the advertisement isn't a necessary component of the undesirable behavior, it is a *desired* component frequently enough to make the ad in bad taste.
Despite the look, Goths are one of the most non-violent groups of young people you might possibly meet. Especially the men, in my experience; if any of them are going to kick your ass, it'll be the girls.