Canadian gunman named
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Thursday, 14, Sep 2006 07:38
The gunman who killed one woman and injured 19 other people after opening fire at a Canadian college yesterday lunchtime has been named by police.
Kimveer Gill, dressed in a black trenchcoat, sent students at Montreal's Dawson College fleeing for their lives before he was shot dead by police.
Police confirmed that a 20-year-old-woman had died at the scene of the shooting, during which 19 others were wounded.
Montreal general hospital said that 11 victims, six women and five men, had been treated at its emergency ward for gunshot wounds.
Gill, from Montreal, called himself an "angel of death" on an online blog in which his motto was: "Lived fast, died young, left a mangled corpse".
Police said that Gill began firing shots outside the college at around 12:45 local time (17:45 BST), before making his way through the front door and continuing to fire inside the building, with much of the shooting taking place within the college's second-floor canteen.
They said Gill appeared to have used a rapid fire rifle and two other weapons in the shooting and that he fired indiscriminately at his victims.
Montreal police chief Yvan Delorme said the gunman was killed by officers after they stormed the building.
"The first policeman took charge of the situation, and shot in the direction of the suspect, and the suspect died," he said.
Detectives had originally said that they thought up to three gunmen may have been involved in the shooting, but subsequently revealed that just one man was behind the attack.
Students spoke of their terror during the shooting, with those who were unable to flee the college campus barricading themselves into classrooms in order to try and escape the gunman's bullets.
"I was terrified. The guy was shooting at people randomly. He didn't care, he was just shooting at everybody," said student Devansh Smri Vastava.
Describing Gill, fellow student Soher Marous said: "He had a stone cold face, there was nothing on his face, he didn't say anything, he didn't yell out any slogans or anything. He just started opening fire. He was a cold-blooded killer."
Dawson College, which teaches around 10,000 students aged between 16 and 19, is expected to be closed until at least Monday following the shooting.
Condemning the attack, Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper said yesterday: "Today we have witnessed a cowardly and senseless act of violence unfold at Montreal's Dawson College."
"Our primary concern right now is to ensure the safety and recovery of all those who were injured during this tragedy."
News of the shooting is likely to bring back painful memories of the December 1989 massacre at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnic, when gunman Marc Lepin, 25, killed 14 women before killing himself.