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.