Montreal Shooter Identified

The gunman who opened fire at Dawson College in Montreal yesterday has been identified as 25 year old Kimveer Gill. The report on him here makes it seem that he was a disturbed psycho more than anything else. I'm sure more detail will emerge as the days go by.

The gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday was Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval, near Montreal, a police official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because authorities were not ready to announce it publicly yet.

Six victims remained in critical condition, including two in extremely critical condition.

The official said police had searched Gill's home.

In postings on a Web site called VampireFreaks.com, blogs in Gill's name show more than 50 photos depicting the young man in various poses holding a rifle and donning a long black trench coat and combat boots.

One photo has a tombstone with his name printed on it — below it the phrase: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."

The last of six journal entries Wednesday was posted at 10:41 a.m, about two hours before the gunmen was shot to death after the college shooting.

He said on the site that he liked to play "Super Columbine Massacre," an Internet-based computer game that simulated the April 20, 1999, shootings at the Colorado high school by two of its students that left 13 people dead.

"His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death," he wrote on his vampirefreaks.com profile. "He is not a people person."

He wrote that he hates jocks, preppies, country music and hip-hop.

"I think I have an obsession with guns … muahahaha," is the inscription below another picture of Gill aiming the barrel of the gun at the camera.

"Anger and hatred simmers within me," said another caption below a picture of Gill grimacing.

He wrote that he is 6-foot-1, was born in Montreal and is of Indian heritage. He said his weakness is laziness and that he fears nothing. Responding to the question, "How do you want to die?" Gill replied "like Romeo and Juliet — or in a hail of gunfire."

Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the lessons learned from other mass shootings had taught police to try to stop such assaults as quickly as possible.

"Before our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team. Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives," he said.

Witnesses said Gill started shooting outside the college, then entered the second-floor cafeteria and opened fire without uttering a word. At times, he hid behind vending machines before emerging to take aim — at one point at a teenager who tried to photograph him with his cell phone.

It sounds like the police techniques have evolved with the times. I'd say their immediate entry instead of forming a perimeter did, indeed, save lives.

UPDATE: Ace worked some serious overtime on this one. He's got a LOT of detail and links up.