Montreal killer obsessed with death
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday September 15, 1:17 AM Reuters
*Montreal killer obsessed with death*
By Robert Melnbardis
MONTREAL (Reuters) - The gunman who went on a shooting spree at a
Montreal college, killing one woman and wounding 19 other people, had an
obsession with guns and death, according to his online journal.
Montreal's police chief, Yvan Delorme, confirmed on Thursday that the
gunman, who died at the scene after a shootout with police on Wednesday
afternoon, was Kimveer Gill, a 25-year-old man from a Montreal suburb.
On a Web site devoted to Goth culture, Gill said his credo was: "Live
fast, die young and leave a mutilated corpse."
Calling himself "Trench," he wrote on the site, www.vampirefreaks.com,
that he loved guns and hated people.
Eyewitnesses at the shooting scene in downtown Montreal said the gunman
wore a black trenchcoat and boots and his hair was cut in a punk Mohawk
style -- close-cropped on the sides.
Montreal health officials said that among the 19 people wounded, six
were in critical condition from gunshot wounds including two who were in
danger for their lives. The victims' ages ranged from 17 to 48.
The shooting took place in and around Dawson College, an
English-language school with about 10,000 students aged between 16 and
19, in the centre of Canada's second biggest city.
Eyewitnesses said Gill began shooting outside the college at 12.41 p.m.
(1641 GMT) on Wednesday, before going though its main doors to continue
firing in all directions inside.
Police, who arrived at the scene almost immediately because they had
been in the area on another call, followed him inside. Gill died after
exchanging gunfire with police.
On his English blog, under the "Fatality666" name he used on the Web
site, Gill posted several photographs showing him brandishing guns and a
hunting knife.
One photo shows the tall, thin man dressed in a black trenchcoat and
holding an automatic weapon. It carries the caption: "Ready for Action."
"Anger and hatred simmers within me," reads another photo caption.
OBSESSION WITH GUNS
In another photo, Gill holds a black weapon he describes as a CX4 Storm
semi-automatic carbine, which is made by Beretta. In another, he
brandishes an automatic weapon, admitting: "I think I have an obsession
with guns."
Gill's online journal entries, which contain mundane accounts of daily
life such as waiting for his contact lens cases to dry, are peppered
with references to grim metal rock lyrics and violent computer games.
The entries also boast of his love of guns, including his favourite:
"Tech 9 (too bad they're illegal in Canada)."
Flags flew at half-mast at public buildings across Quebec on Thursday.
The shooting sent shock waves through the mainly French-speaking
province of 7.4 million, which well remembers the 1989 massacre at
Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique, where a gunman killed 14 women before
ending his own life.
The Ecole Polytechnique gunman, Marc Lepine, 25, left behind a
three-page letter that said feminists had ruined his life and named 19
high-profile Quebec women he wanted to kill.
The Polytechnique shooting spurred Canada's gun control movement, which
culminated in Ottawa's strict, gun-registry legislation. The law was
brought in by the Liberals but the current Conservative government wants
to scrap it in part.