TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • More on the Dawson College shooting

    Carnage at Montreal campus:

    We finally have some definite details from the Dawson College shooting…

    The 25-year-old man used legally registered guns for the rampage at Dawson College.

    As horrific as it was, the attack could have been much worse. Police arrived on site within three minutes of the gunman’s opening fire and, in their words, “neutralized” the shooter a short time later.

    The gunman was not immediately identified, although police said he was born in the province of Quebec and lived in Montreal’s North Shore. Witnesses described him as very tall, with spiky hair and multiple piercings. He carried a rifle and a bag with at least two other weapons, a shotgun and a 9 mm pistol.

    Several published reports identified the gunman as Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval, north of Montreal. Several newspapers published a photograph of Mr. Gill dressed in a long black trenchcoat and holding a long-barrelled gun. Police would not confirm the reports.

    An on-line image gallery on Mr. Gill’s blog contains more than 50 photos depicting the young man in various poses holding a Baretta CX4 Storm semi-automatic rifle and donning a long black trenchcoat and combat boots. “His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death,” he wrote on his vampirefreaks.com profile.

    No relation.

    Shortly after the rampage began, the gunman was killed by police during an intense gun battle inside the school. (Because the man died at the hands of Montreal police, the death is now being investigated by the Sûreté du Quebec provincial police.)

    There have been conflicting reports about how the gunman was shot and killed. Chief Delorme said that officers killed the gunman. However, witnesses told La Presse he shot himself in the head after police a bullet struck him in the leg. Officers then dragged him outside, where he died on the street.

    The incident was, for all intents and purposes, over by 1:10 p.m.

    Montreal police officers are now trained – as a result of other fatal school shootings – to immediately pursue gunmen in such circumstances, rather than just sealing off the area and waiting for a SWAT team.

    Police said the new procedures saved lives Wednesday.

    And also news on the victim that died…

    An 18-year-old woman died at the scene. Five others were in critical condition with severe wounds to the head, abdomen, chest, arms and legs, but were expected to live.

    The dead student was identified by family members as Anastasia DeSousa, 18, of Montreal. “She was full of life, she was the perfect little niece,” her uncle Real Hevy told Montreal Gazette.

    Outside Montreal General Hospital, Natalia Hevey was frantically trying to get help locating her niece, 18-year-old Anastasia De Sousa.

    The first-year Dawson student was apparently shot in the arm while fleeing the gunman, was taken away in an ambulance but could not be found. Ms. Hevey said her niece was last seen being lifted into the ambulance in television news reports.

    And comments from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper…

    Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemned what he called “a cowardly and senseless act of violence,” adding that his “thoughts and prayers are with the injured and their loved ones.”

    My sentiments exactly.

  • Matthew Cogburn

    They’re still showing up:

    It seems that Dateline NBC had another one of their “To Catch A Predator” episodes tonight. I missed it because I wasn’t home. However, a reader by the name of Big Boss tipped me off to one of the guys they exposed…

    Another man who despite seeing our previous broadcasts is willing to take the risk of showing up at a stranger’s house to possibly have sex with a minor.

    He’s 22-year-old Matthew Cogburn- yesterday was his birthday. He’s here to meet a decoy pretending to be a 14-year-old.

    This clean cut all-American looking man has a MySpace page where he says “Jesus rocks” and lists god as his number one hero. But when he goes into a Yahoo chat room, he seems like another person. His chat with a girl he thinks is 14 is so graphic, much of it can’t be shown. He does ask the decoy if her house is secluded so if they use the jacuzzi, “you can moan and squeal all you want.”

    Matthew Cogburn (hidden camera footage): Nice house.

    Decoy: Thank you. Did you have a hard time getting here?

    Cogburn: Well the road that I was looking for didn’t show up.

    Hansen: Why don’t you have a seat there, and get comfortable for a minute

    Cogburn: I had a feeling this was going to happenHansen: You had a feeling what was going to happen?

    Cogburn: Is this the national news thing. The national news all that stuff?

    Hansen: NBC? You mean like Dateline NBC?

    Cogburn: Yeah.

    Hansen: What was your plan here today?

    Cogburn: I don’t. I can’t answer that as I want to because I’ve been in a struggle with myself on what I want, ’cause I’m still a virgin and a just, and it’s stupid that I did this.

    Hansen: How old are you?

    Cogburn: 22

    Hansen: And how old was the girl you were chatting with on line?

    Cogburn: The girl said she was 13 or 14.

    Hansen: 13 or 14? And you thought that it would be okay to come over here and visit a young girl home alone?

    Cogburn: I wanted it, I wanted to think it was okay, but I guess (he shrugs his shoulders)

    Hansen: Now, I’m looking at this chat log here. Sixteen minutes into this discussion you ask if she can do ‘deep throat’. Explain that to me.

    Cogburn: No reason to explain it.

    Hansen: No reason to explain it. (reading from chat) “How do you feel about sex?” “You on birth control?” or “Are you sticking with condoms?” “you got toys”?

    Cogburn: is there any ah

    Hansen: Well I want you to square that with what’s on your MySpace Website where you talk about “Jesus rocks.”


    You’ll hear more about this man’s inner struggle after he’s in police custody.

    And thanks to Big Boss we have Cogburn’s MySpace. His MySpace username is “crazyforchristcoggy”. It seems he’s crazier for underage girls.

  • Victim dies from shooting in Montreal

    Woman, gunman dead in Montreal school rampage:

    One killed, 19 injured in school shooting spree:

    What’s known so far is that there was one gunman. He’s now dead. It’s unknown if he died by police or his own hands. He was a 25-year-old man from Quebec. His identity has not been released as of yet and there’s still no motive.

    Police have not identified the shooter, but a spokesman said he was armed with three weapons, likely including a semi-automatic rifle. He was also described as “a young man, of Canadian origin.”

    The victim who died was a female in her late teens to early 20s who died from her wounds after being rushed to the hospital.

    My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their friends and families.

  • Only one gunman?

    Twenty people wounded in shootings at Montreal’s Dawson College:

    Now Montreal police are saying that there was only one gunman at the Dawson College shooting but are still being tight-lipped with other details…

    MONTREAL (CP) – An armed man dressed in black and sporting a Mohawk haircut entered a Montreal college on Wednesday and went on a shooting rampage, wounding 20 people and causing widespread panic.

    Montreal police Chief Yvan Delorme said the gunman died and that the 20 injured included three people in serious condition. Police said there was only one gunman. Earlier unconfirmed reports indicated there may have been several suspects.

    “For now, I am limiting it to one suspect who died after a police intervention on site,” Delorme told a news conference.

    He did not say whether the man killed himself or was shot by police.

    Asked whether all the victims were female, Delorme said he did not know the gender of the victims.

    He also 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.”

    I assume the Canadian reporters were asking about the gender of the victims because of what every article has mentioned so far, the shooting spree of Marc Lepine at École Polytechnique.

    Shortly after 5 p.m., Lépine entered the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal. He had applied for admission into the engineering school but was rejected. He blamed it on affirmative action which kept him out in place of a woman. He first went into a mechanical engineering class, separated the men from the women, forced out the men at gunpoint, began to scream about how he hated feminists, and then opened fire. Lépine continued his rampage in other parts of the building, opening fire on other women he encountered. He killed 14 women (13 students and one employee of the university) and injured thirteen others before committing suicide.

    I don’t think this is a copycat of that. Just something deep in my soul tells me this is a Columbine copycat.

    I hope I’m wrong.

  • Another report from Montreal

    4 reported dead in shootings:

    MONTREAL — Up to three gunmen dressed in black army fatigues opened fire at a downtown Montreal college today and four people are reported dead, including two of the gunmen.

    Police said in mid-afternoon that although many people had been injured, 12 were admitted to hospital and six are listed as critical. The others had been treated and discharged.

    The French-language RDI Television network reported that one gunman had turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide, while a second had been shot and killed by police.

    This could not be confirmed.

    “A suspect has been neutralized, which means he is not shooting any more,” said Ian LaFreniere, a police spokesman.

    Montreal police said they believed there were between one and three suspects. A police SWAT team was going floor-by-floor through the college building.

    This is eerily similar to the conflicting reports that came out of Columbine as it was unfolding.

  • Montreal shooting

    2 gunmen dead after Montreal college shooting:

    Two gunmen who opened fire in a downtown Montreal college Wednesday afternoon are dead, and police are hunting for a third suspect.

    Montreal General Hospital officials say 12 people have been admitted, six of them in critical condition, two in serious condition and the rest in stable condition.

    Montreal police confirmed that at least one suspect was “neutralized,” but did not provide details on how the gunman died.

    “Whether he did it to himself or not, I can’t yet say,” said spokesman Yan Lafrenière.

    Television images showed police officers dragging a bloody body out of the main doors of the building.

    Eyewitnesses say they saw a tall skinny man, wearing a black trench coat and a Mohawk haircut, walk into the cafeteria carrying a large gun. He apparently fired several shots.

    Other reports are saying that the alleged second gunman was in camouflage. More on this as details become available.

    Thanks to Badge and Harding.

  • Craigslist prank outs Seattle perverts

    Craigslist sex prankster outs men:

    This is way too funny and it makes me wonder why I didn’t think of something like this…

    Craigslist, the hugely successful internet classified ad site, has long been known for the rather, um, honest nature of its personal ads. From fetishists seeking out others with the same kink, to office workers looking for quick, anonymous hookups during their lunch break, Craigslist has revolutionised the way people around the world get their sexing.

    But the seemingly anonymous freedom it allows appears to have lulled many into a false sense of security, and in Seattle, over a hundred and fifty of them have just found their personal details published on the web for the whole world to see.

    A ‘prankster’ named Jason Fortuny; a web developer in Seattle – posted an explicit advert (copied from a different city’s personal ads) on the Seattle Craigslist site, posing as a submissive female seeking an aggressive, dominant man for sex. He wanted to see how many responses he could get in 24 hours.

    He received a grand total of 178 responses via email, many including sexually explicit photos of the men  which he then proceeded to post, in their entirety, on the web.

    Many of the men used their real names to contact the ’27 yo sexy str8 woman’. Many used their work email addresses. Some sent phone numbers, or instant messenger screen names. Out of the 178, 145 of them sent pictures  some just of their faces, many others of ruder, less public parts of their anatomy. A good number of them admitted they were married.

    ‘I was a logger, but now I’m in finance. I’m 35 years old, 6’2″ tall, muscular, strong, pushy, and don’t have time to f*** around wasting our time,’ wrote one.

    Another said: ‘Im 22 and i will make you scream in pain but in a good way.’

    And the Microsoft employee, who also provided his cellphone number, sent a message saying: ‘I’m married and looking to fill the needs not being done at home. So if you’re still reading, look at my picture, and think about it…’

    Fortuny published them all in full, and then set his readers the goal of tracking down and outing the real life identities of as many of them as possible.

    At least one man who used a work email address was identified by a colleague; working at Microsoft. Some readers, horrified by the invasion of privacy, emailed many of the men to let them know they’d been had. Fortuny; whose own personal details, including his home address, are readily available online; has already received one threat of violence.

    I’m going to try something like this but with a slightly different twist. Stay tuned.

  • More on the Steve Irwin video debate

    The Irwin video: Would you watch it? :

    Now it’s the BBC’s turn to debate the topic. First the pro…

    While we might question what kind of person would want to watch such a gruesome spectacle, I suggest there are reasons why we should at least consider making the footage available to the public. Steve Irwin was a well-known public figure, whose popular TV shows regularly drew large audiences.

    His death occurred while he was in the process of filming another documentary – hence the existence of the footage in question. The life and death of a public figure are – naturally – of public interest. This is particularly the case when a person is well-known because of the risks he takes.

    Up till now we have witnessed Irwin sporting with crocodiles, poisonous snakes and tarantulas, always emerging unscathed and as lively as ever. The footage of Irwin’s final film can in itself be regarded as a necessary part of our education: these animals are dangerous, and fooling around with them can be deadly.

    And now the con…

    Even if his entourage gives the green light and the tape is released – and many believe this last event will inevitably happen – there remains a question of personal morality. Should you, the viewer, watch the footage?

    Why watch?

    The answer depends on your motives. Are you a marine biologist or ethologist (someone who studies animal behaviour) eager to understand the defensive behaviour of a frightened stingray? Are you a cardiologist or toxicologist interested in aspects of the injury itself?

    Before watching the footage, we should ask ourselves: why do I want to watch this? I suspect many people would answer “for entertainment” or “out of curiosity”.

    Is there not something discomforting about these answers? Do they not reflect a morbid desire to witness a fatal tragedy? Sometimes our instinctive “yuk” response to an event or suggestion is not based on reason but on deep-rooted prejudice or ignorance.

    This time, the “yuk” is more firmly grounded. It is a mistake to say that watching the clip in private would harm no one, as the event has already occurred.

    It may well harm the watcher, whose humanity and moral sensibility will suffer. Irwin’s passion for nature and his exuberance leapt out of the screen. Let that memory remain, and let the footage of his pierced heart disappear with the stingray into the depths of the ocean.

    One of the BBC commenters put it best when they said: “Irwin is a public figure but not public property”.

    TOF to Elessarion.

  • Katherine Lester in Seventeen Magazine

    Mich. teen recounts MySpace romance to magazine:

    Our favorite runaway to the Middle East, Katherine Lester, is back in the headlines again for telling her story to Seventeen Magazine…

    GILFORD A Michigan teenager who flew to the Middle East to be with a man she met on MySpace.com has detailed her online romance and the fallout her trip caused in Seventeen magazine.

    In the article in the October issue of Seventeen, which hit newsstands Tuesday, 17-year-old Katherine Lester writes about how she has worked to regain her parents’ trust since her romance was revealed and became international news.

    “While my parents were supportive through the legal issues, I can see how much our relationship has changed because of what I did in good ways and bad,’ Lester wrote. “No matter how many times I say I’m sorry, I can’t get back their trust.”

    Lester developed an online romance with Abdullah Jimzawi, a 20-year-old Palestinian who lives in the West Bank town of Jericho. For months, she kept the relationship secret before disappearing June 5 from her mother’s home in Gilford, 80 miles north of Detroit.

    “I couldn’t imagine going halfway across the globe,” she wrote in the magazine. “But I realized I didn’t want to wait either.”

    Her father, Terry Lester, who lives near Flint, has declined requests from The Associated Press to interview his daughter. He said Thursday that she is back in high school for her senior year.

    Katherine Lester wrote in the magazine that she and Jimzawi talk daily on the telephone for about an hour. And she reiterated her plans to marry him.

    =”Although a lot of people, including my parents, don’t believe us, we really do love each other and we are going to get married someday,” she wrote. “Love is full of tests, and we’re going to pass ours.”

    What a great message Seventeen is sending to its readers. It’s ok girls to run off to marry someone at the age of 16. It’s a guarantee that he’ll love you forever. Please.

    And why is her father still allowing her to talk Abdullah Psycho every day for an hour?

    This whole thing is starting to smell of cashing in. I’ll lay odds that a Lifetime movie gets made about this.

  • Child prostitution booming on craigslist

    Online Child Prostitution, An Alarming Trend:

    This is an article from a Sacramento, CA news station about how child prostitution is proliferating due to the internet…

    (CBS 13) SACRAMENTO FBI agents say child prostitution is moving off the streets and onto the information superhighway. Sacramento Special Agent James Harris said sex peddlers have gotten tech savvy.

    “They figure if pedophiles can entice online, that’s their business, that’s what they do, said Harris.

    Harris says they set up profiles on MySpace or Yahoo to recruit and entice underage girls. Then they advertise them on the internet–through addresses like redbook.com, a bay area erotic services site, or legitimate places like Craigslist, where you can find a car, rent an apartment or an “erotic service.”

    “They’re advertised as of age when you look closer they’re not, said Harris.

    The face is usually cut out or covered in a way so the age is hard to tell and so that law enforcement can’t track them down. Agent Harris says most turn out to be reported missing and runaways.

    The only way to make money is to prostitute. A lot are beginning to see this is a safe way to do it than on the streets, said Harris.

    Hundreds pop up on Craigslist every day in Sacramento. Why the capital city? Harris says it’s a crossroads between Seattle, L.A., San Francisco and Reno, where I-5 and I-80 meets.

    Agent Harris admits these cases are tough to prosecute. Those who post the listings are hard to track down, in some cases out of the country. But the FBI says as their crime scenes shift, they’re investigating child sex for sale with more mouse than muscle.