MONTREAL — Kimveer Gill’s lethal rampage at Dawson College ended when he shot himself, provincial police confirmed Thursday.
A preliminary autopsy indicates Gill, 25, was wounded in the arm, “likely by a police bullet,” but then shot himself to death, said Const. Chantal Mackels.
Investigators have turned up no links between Gill, who was unemployed, and the school.
“To my knowledge he was not a student (at Dawson) and had not been in the past. We don’t know yet why he did this at Dawson. That has to be answered,” said Lieut. Francois Dore of the Quebec provincial police, which is handling only the part of the investigation that involves Gill’s death. (By law, a police force in Quebec is not permitted to investigate a fatality that has occurred during one of its own operations.)
Gill had no criminal record and had never been found to have a mental health problem, police say.
One more expert that agrees with me that Kimveer Gill was a cookie-cutter school shooter…
Kimveer Gill’s death-obsessed, rage-filled blog reveals a man that psychologists say was the “the poster boy” and “absolute prototype” for a school shooter.
Robin Kowalski, a psychologist who co-wrote a comprehensive study on school shooters, said the 25-year-old Mr. Gill fits every pattern her colleagues uncovered.
“When I read his blog material, it was almost like I was running down a checklist,” Ms. Kowalski said from her office at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
“You hate to say that this was waiting to happen, but the foundation for this violent act was clearly laid out long before it took place.”
And here’s the last item on the checklist…
In another entry, posted on Jan. 18, Mr. Gill wrote about his hatred for jocks and “preps” — convictions that are eerily similar to those held by infamous Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
“I’m so sick of hearing about jocks and preps making life hard for the goths and others who look different, or are different … Why does society applaude (sic) jocks? I don’t understand. They are the worse kind of people on earth,” he wrote.
“And the preps are no better, they think they’re better than others … We will never be like them. NEVER.”
He’s at least 7 years out of high school and he’s still complaining about jocks and preps? I wonder if he even had a real job. If you’re out of high school and still obsessing about its cliques then there is something wrong with you and you should seek help.
Mr. Gill’s case features the five prevailing factors established by Ms. Kowalski’s research, a study of 15 high-profile school shootings between 1995 and 2001: obsession with guns and death, feelings of ongoing rejection (either bullying, social isolation or romantic rejection), psychological problems such as sociopathic tendencies and depression and “acute rejection” — a final event that pushes a shooter over the edge.
“Just like the Columbine shooters in 1999, the jocks and preps must have been the ones that Gill felt bullied him,” Ms. Kowalski said. “He writes that guns are the great equalizer. For all those who rejected him and made him feel like nothing, he was trying to show those people that he was something — that he had power.”
Do you want to have real power? Then don’t let the people who bullied you win by obsessing over it the rest of your life. Like I keep saying, it’s just high school. It’s a very small part of your overall life if you’re smart about it.
Ms. Kowalski, also the associate editor of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, said she believes the final catalyst for Mr. Gill’s alleged shooting spree may have been a failed romance or unrequited love. In his blog, Mr. Gill discusses meeting a like-minded woman through vampirefreaks.com. On at least two occasions, he discusses a general longing for, or loss of, love, once asking “Where is my Juliet?” In another entry on Feb. 21 he states, “They make you fall in love with them and then they run away.”
There’s no woman (or man) out there that’s worth killing people or yourself over. If you think there is, you’re very immature and need to do a lot of growing up.
While Mr. Gill may be a “poster child” for school shooters, Ms. Kowalski said it’s important not to paint all goths or counter-culture youths with the same brush.
“There are plenty of people who have a fascination with death and guns who would never do something like this,” she said. “All the factors we discovered may be present, but it’s the specific way those factors intertwine, often coupled with an inherent lack of empathy for others, that determine whether someone is going to become a shooter.”
That’s for the rest of you out there that like to stereotype.
Dave Marcus, author of What It Takes to Pull Me Through, a book about dealing with angry, disaffected youth, said there is one key difference between Mr. Gill and typical shooters.
“The surprising thing to me was his age, often people sort of outgrow this alienated phase,” Mr. Marcus said. “This shooter was 25, indicating an adolescence that never ended — he was still working out its terrible kinks in his twenties and that produced tragic results.”
CALGARY/AM770CHQR – The man who led the crisis response team following the Taber school shooting in 1999 is offering some possible insights into what might have driven the suspect in yesterday’s dawson college shooting.
Kevin Cameron, director of the Canadian Center for Threat Assessment and Trauma Response, says the gunman was likely inspired by the Columbine high school shooting. Cameron says the gunman’s mode of dress, the weapon used, and the style of attack all seem to be imitating the Columbine massacre.
Cameron says the fact Gill had a website where he talked about killing was a sign that he was a trouble person, and needed help. He says it’s unfortunate those signs went unheeded.
The Vampirefreaks community has reacted to the fact that Kimveer Gill was among their membership…
Kimveer Gill, also known as Trench, pictured on the vampirefreaks.com website. Administrators pulled his profile from the site this afternoon.
Users of the website Vamperfreaks.com are defending the site following the shooting rampage at a Montreal college by a frequent visitor to the site.
“Yeah, there’s been a couple incidents before with people on the site but the site itself did not make those people do the things they have done,” says a message board contributor identified as Michelley. “ This site does not condone murder or suicide. Blame the man at fault here. The shooter. Not the site. The site did not put the gun in his hand and say ‘go kill people at school.’”
“I offer my condolences to the victims and their families, it really is a tragic event,” writes Jet. “However, we do not condone or influence this type of behavior in any way. Just because someone goes around shooting people and happens to be a member of vampirefreaks, doesn’t mean that this website has influenced him to do such a horrible thing. The goth scene is a very friendly, nurturing, non-violent community and we are very supportive of our users and do not condone any illegal activities.”
An adherent of Goth culture, he had a profile on Vampirefreaks.com under the name Trench.
After his identity became known, his website was inundated with angry comments from other Goth followers, such as: “I hope you’re burning in hell, you sick f—.” Website administrators deleted his profile early this afternoon.
Yesterday I said that I had e-mailed Super Columbine Massacre RPG creator Danny Ledonne looking for a comment on the fact that Dawson College shooter Kimveer Gill played his game. This was his response…
I’ve been fielding press on this one all day. Interesting to note that while Kimveer listed dozens of games as favorites, “SCMRPG” is the one listed in the press. On some level, they are proving my point for me: video games are readily-made scapegoats for violent behavior… this guy was 25 years old and probably needed some serious help.
My one regret is that he never contacted me so I could suggest a different course of action.
I was going back over Steve Huff’s entry on Kimveer Gill seeing what comments he was getting. Steve had updated his entry and I read something that made my heart drop…
UPDATE, 5:52 p.m. EDT
Kimveer Gill, as you might expect, didn’t just start aping the style and mannerisms of past psychos like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. He probably had been going down the deadly road he was on for quite some time.
To my surprise, I found posts by Gill (and at this point, for all I know, others have already found these as well — this story promises to be very heavily covered by everyone because the guy had an online journal) on the Usenet.
I knew that e-mail address well. rogue_warrior_50@yahoo.ca had left comments on this very site. I understand that you’re skeptical. I would be too. Let me provide some photographic proof for you. This is a picture of my blog’s control panel…
He went by the name Rogue and left the following comments…
On an entry about Christopher Penley, the Florida teen who was shot and killed at his school for brandishing a pellet gun at police, entitled “Was lethal force justified?” Gill left this comment…
The police used extreme force. It’s completely unacceptable. The Rebel was moving the gun in all directions, very fast. He didn’t once point, steady, stance and aim it. He was just swinging it around. And everyone knows you can’t kill someone like that, if you’re moving it around, at the sky, and whatever. No shots were fired by the young Rebel, he didn’t even hurt anyone.
That cop is a coward. He was attacked earlier in his life. And ever since that he has become paranoid, and scared. Like a girl after she gets raped. Afraid of everything and everyone. The police had been told earlier that it wasn’t even a real gun. They didn’t even mention that on T.V.
I don’t understand what’s wrong with this country. Two schoolgirls were playing around, joking if you will, and now they’re going to go to jail, just for a joke.
When I was in High School people would say they were going to kill each other all the time, no one got in trouble.
Why have the masses on this earth turned into cowards?
Where are the warriors
This comment on an entry about a teen who made a threat that he was going to use a pitchfork in a school attack…
A student at school makes a joke, and the police spend all their resources to stop him. “A little joke”
The young lad was just letting off some steam. Give him a break. Come on, where’s your sense of humour?
Nobody goes on a killing spree with a pitchfork.
The country is full of child molesters, priests, rapists, and child molesting priests. Can we perhaps take them off the streets before spending all law enforcement resources on a teenager’s prank.
Poor Christopher
He did nothing wrong
Commit no crime
And now they’ve sent him to prison
It’s just not right
Well at least we can rest easy that this young lad will be free and back to his old tricks in a few short months
Here’s hopin’
This comment on an entry about a teen from Michigan who got in trouble for printing out a bomb threat on his school computer…
I can’t believe the school would over-react like that. Children at school can’t even joke around anymore. And for the police to go along with this, I mean, come on…..this is shocking.
They’re slowly turning the country into a police state
My friends and I have said things like that at when we were still in school, and we never thought we would go to jail for it. I don’t understand what kind of society this is. I thought we had freedom of speech.
I had a feeling someone was going to try to do something like this on the 20th of this month. The cops got it all wrong. They wern’t going to do it for real. They’re just kids having a little fun. I hope the pigs don’t actually give them a fine or 2 weeks in jail, cuz’ that would be an injustice.
If they were really going to do this, they would not be posting messages on MySpace and telling people in their school about it.
I can’t believe the police have nothing better to do than waste tax payers money on stuff like this. I mean come on now……Boys will be boys
This comment on an entry about a threat made by a student that he claimed was a joke…
Why would the student face disciplinary action?
It’s just a joke……we’re sending our kids to jail, and ruining their lives over silly childhood pranks
How can the police arrest this young rebel, and send him to jail? He hasn’t done anything wrong. Many teenagers feel isolated and alone, and for such a reason they may create an imaginary reality within their own mind, such as shooting people.
If he was really going to kill alot of people then he wouldn’t be telling people he was going to do it. It’s just common sense. I believe he just wanted a little attention, nothing more.
Lets hope he gets outta jail soon, and the police give him back the guns the seized
For that comment, I banned him from leaving comments on my site.
The last time I heard from him was from an e-mail he sent me, which you can see here.
(UPDATE 7/1/2012: Some of the entries that Gill commented on have since been deleted from the site. However, I have created a standalone blog called Gill Was Here that has all his postings from my site.)
Another sexual predator arrest in Connecticut. It’s officially the MySpace predator capital of the world…
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A city man has been arrested on a sexual assault charge, accused of raping a 12-year-old girl he met on the Internet site, Myspace.com.
Bienvenido Garcia, 19, was arrested Wednesday by members of the U.S. Marshals Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force.
A task force member said that while police knocked on his door, task force members caught Garcia climbing out his back window in his underwear.
Police said the alleged victim’s mother had turned over to police 16 pages of computer correspondence between her daughter and Garcia from the Web site.
The girl said on a number of occasions Garcia had come into her room, pinned her on her bed and raped her, police said.
MONTREAL — On a scary website, Kimveer Gill describes himself as a potential killer and admits that his favourite video game is Super Columbine Massacre.
For those of you just joining us Super Columbine Massacre RPG (or SCMRPG for short) is a homemade video game put out by amateur game designer Danny Ledonne that puts you in the shoes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. I’ve previously called it something along the lines of a sick tribute to one of the most horrific mass murders of all time or something like that. For some of my previous takes on the game, you can go here or here.
I’ve emailed Mr. Ledonne asking for his comment about it but as of this posting I have yet to hear back from him.
I did a phone interview with the Globe and Mail last night about the Dawson College shooting. It was done before we knew anything concrete about the situation. I’m not making excuses just setting the time frame because I still stand behind what I said…
Trench Reynolds, the pseudonym of a Charlotte, N.C., man who runs a website devoted to school shootings, concluded from early reports that the Dawson rampage was another in a long line of copycat incidents that have followed the 1999 shooting at Columbine in which two students killed 12 fellow students and a teacher.
“To me, it sounds like a copycat almost to a T,” he said.
At the time I meant the media reports reminded me of Columbine with the unconfirmed reports going out. However, knowing what we know now I still stand behind my statement that Kimveer Gill was emulating Columbine in someway. The experts disagree…
But analysts say it would be a mistake to draw conclusions based on the gunman’s appearance.
“When you see something like a mohawk or a piercing, that is not a predictive behaviour of anything violent,” said Michael Hoechsmann, a McGill University educational psychologist. “I think it’s a dubious proposition to draw too many parallels to something that is unfolding right now.”
University of Toronto education professor Kathy Bickmore agreed. “It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that there’s a parallel in particular to Columbine,” she said, referring to the gunman’s trench coat. “But it’s not uncommon enough clothing for me to say that has anything to do with it.”
O RLY?..ahem…I mean oh really? I’m not basing this on a particular article of clothing but more of a subculture. For the most part since Columbine, school shooters and would be shooters have been considered at some point goth, metal, punk, etc. They feel excluded because of their choice of music and dress. They sympathize with the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold over their mythical status of being heroes to the outcasts and bullied even though Harris and Klebold were neither in my opinion. I can give you names, Jeff Weise (Red Lake), Johnny Casas (Quartz Hill), Joe Nee (Marshfield), and the list goes on.
“There is no real type,” said James Sheptycki, a criminologist at York University in Toronto. “Any psychological profile that people could come up with would identify too many individuals to actually be useful and wouldn’t necessarily fit all potential perpetrators. There simply isn’t a profile that works.”
Maybe not all perpetrators but I think there’s a profile for most of them. Now I’m not saying all goths, punks, and metalheads, are potential school shooters. Just the ones that have a fascination or obsession with a certain Colorado school shooting.
The Dawson College gunman, Kimveer Gill, seems to fit a familiar profile…
Late last night, Montreal police searched the Laval family home of Gill, whose black Pontiac Sunfire was found parked near the school.
The Star found a website last night for a 25-year-old Goth freak who identified by the single name “Kimveer” in which he muses — shadows of the Columbine high school shootings — with banal disaffectedness.
“Work sucks … school sucks … life sucks … what else can I say?
“Metal and Goth kick ass. Life is a video game, you’ve got to die sometime.”
Let’s stop there for a second. Before everyone starts jumping to conclusions metal, goth, and video games did not cause this shooting. I listen to metal, I’ve dated some goth girls in my life and I play video games. These are not triggers to a shooting no matter how many people try to tell you it is. I’m not some kid either. I’ve been listening to metal and playing video games for over 20 years and I lead a nice little boring suburban life with the wife and 2.5 kids and a decent job. Mr. Gill obviously had mental issues that go well beyond metal, goth, and video games.
Bystanders, over and over, described seeing a man wearing a Goth-style overcoat, combat boots, with a Mohawk haircut, studded with body-piercings — walking purposefully toward the school as students milled about outside, carrying what seemed to be an automatic rifle, and abruptly opening fire before continuing, barely breaking stride, into the second-floor atrium cafeteria, ordering those inside to get down on the floor, and then shooting upon them without mercy.
He had, La Presse reports, parked his car close to the college, opened the trunk and removed: a 9-mm semi-automatic rifle, a .45 pistol and a bag containing a 12-calibre gun that can shoot four bullets per shot.
What happened next was so eerily reminiscent of that shocking episode in Montreal 17 years ago when 14 women were slaughtered at L’École Polytechnique by Marc Lépine, who then turned the gun on himself. If this assailant intended the same thing, to take his own life after the horrific deed, it seems he never got the chance — brought down, witnesses say, even as he wielded his weapon and shouted at cops with guns drawn to stay back, stay away.
Yelling at them, according to student witness Nikola Guidi, as reported by the Montreal Gazette: “Get the fuck away from here!”
It is not definitive, and won’t be until an autopsy and forensic tests are conducted, that an officer’s gun extinguished the murderer’s life. But it was this body that was later dragged from the building, leaving a trail of blood. From across the road, office workers reported a limp man, dressed in black, being pulled across the pavement. Police slapped handcuffs on him, but the man never moved. A yellow tarp was later thrown over the body and it remained there for a long time.
There does not appear to be any connecting thread, any common denominator among those shot, save for their fateful presence at a sprawling downtown post-secondary school when a man — purportedly young and cold-faced — with motives as yet unknown, decided to embark on a rampage. There is no evidence, authorities were quick to emphasize, that the shootings were racially or ethnically inspired. The act bore no terrorist imprint.
One man with an undetermined rage and three lethal weapons. He never reloaded.
“Based on current information, the suspect was killed by the police,” said Delorme, who would provide no further details, including whether the shooter was a student at the school, although it was palpably obvious police knew precious little themselves.
“I can confirm that there are no other suspects,” another police spokesperson told reporters in late afternoon. “We don’t know anything about the motive of the suspect.”
I’m not quite ready to throw the “M” word out yet but it’s getting pretty close.
I’m at work so I can’t post any links to his Vampirefreaks profile or anything like that so if anyone has the links feel free to post them in the comments.
