A gunman who killed one woman and injured 19 others at a Montreal college before being shot dead by police left a chilling online profile, saying he wanted to die ”like Romeo and Juliet — or in a hail of gunfire”.
Kimveer Gill (25) was dressed entirely in black when he descended on Dawson College, a post-secondary institution in the heart of Montreal, at lunchtime on Wednesday. He shot students at random in the cafeteria, at least six of whom remained in a critical condition on Thursday.
In accounts on Canadian news websites yesterday a portrait emerged of a young man who loved guns and violent video games. One of his favourites games was Super Columbine Massacre, about the high school in Colorado where two teenage gunmen killed 12 of their fellow students and a teacher before turning their guns on themselves.
In Gill’s postings to a goth website, he was open about his disenchantment with the world and his hatred for authority figures like the police and school principals. ”Work sucks … school sucks … life sucks … what else can I say?” the Toronto Star quoted him as writing. ”Metal and goth kick ass. Life is a video game, you’ve got to die sometime.”
The web page was dismantled early on Thursday morning, but Canadian news sites said it included a photo of Gill’s own tombstone with a chosen epitaph: ”Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse.”
It remained unclear why Gill, who lived with his parents in a northern suburb of Montreal, chose Dawson, an English language college with 10 000 students, as the scene of his rampage. Witnesses said he opened fire with an automatic rifle soon after parking his car outside a nearby mall, continuing his spree as he entered the college. Police shot him dead within minutes.
The rampage was the third mass shooting at a Montreal college since 1989. It spread panic across the city as terrified students fled into busy commercial streets. The city’s underground was shut down for hours after the attack.
In 1989 a student who said he hated feminists shot dead 14 female engineering students. Three years later a professor at another university shot dead four colleagues.
Gill’s postings to the goth website were accompanied by pictures of him wearing a dark trenchcoat and combat boots and holding knives and guns.
But while he vented his anger in his online diary, he gave little indication of the mayhem about to unfold. At 3.33am on Wednesday he wrote: ”As you can tell, I got nothing of importance [sic] to write about today. Poor me.” He went on to write about how he enjoyed flirting, and complained about his contact lenses.
He posted again at 10.41am, about three hours before his rampage ended in the Dawson cafeteria. He wrote: ”Whiskey in the morning, mmmmmm, mmmmmmmmm, good.”
Neighbours described Gill as a loner who kept to himself and dressed in dark clothing. But his mother told the Associated Press her son was a good man. ”Just ask anybody. Ask the neighbours. He was a good son.” – Guardian Unlimited Â