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Gunman fired 'without warning'
13/09/2006 22:46 - (SA)
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| A woman is evacuated after a shooting incident at Dawson College in Montreal. (Paul Chiasson, AP) |
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Ottawa - The gunman who attacked a
Montreal college on Wednesday was dressed entirely in black,
had "a stone-cold face" and opened fire without warning, said witnesses.
Unofficial reports said several people were wounded, some of
them critically, in the attack on Dawson College in the city
centre. Witnesses said the man started his assault outside the
college before walking through the front door and continuing to
shoot inside.
Student Soher Marous said: "He said nothing. 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."
'Huge machine gun'
One distraught young woman said she had been outside
smoking a cigarette with friends when the attack began.
"There was a guy walking in a black trenchcoat and huge
black boots with this retarded hair cut and he had a huge
machine gun. He was walking down (the street) in broad daylight
with a gun - no one says anything to him - and then he
started shooting," she told CBC television.
"He shot the people right next to us. "They were all running, we were hiding in the bushes, there was debris flying
from the bullets shot right next to us.
"We saw all kinds of
people getting shot outside," she said.
The woman said the shooter was white, about 19, and looked
like "the stereotype, with the long black trenchcoat and all the studs and piercings and stuff like that".
As the gunman walked into the building, student Soher
Marous was leaving.
'Everybody started running'
"I was at the front door and all I saw was this guy with an overcoat and army boots and he was holding a two-handed gun. "All I saw was him just open fire, paff paff paff, and right away everybody started running," he told CBC.
"We ran right through the front doors and he came after us... he was metres behind us," said Marous, who added that he had tried to warn other students as he fled for his life.
"There was chaos, chaos. Everybody was running and
screaming.
"As we were running along, we were trying to (find)
anybody looking around, seeing this whole crowd passing by, we
were trying to (say), 'Move, what are you doing sitting there?
Move, there's somebody shooting'."
Signs of panic
Student Michel Boyer said he had been standing in the
hallway waiting for a class when he saw the signs of panic.
"I went to the atrium part of the school and I heard
gunshots. Immediately I hit the floor," he told CBC.
Boyer said the gunman - whom he said was dressed in black
army fatigues and had a covered face - was carrying a large
firearm.
"It was kind of like a sniper (rifle), but it was bigger
than one, and it wasn't automatic, so he had to press a button each time to shoot.
I heard at least 20 (shots)," he said.
"I ran into a classroom and kind of broke down because it was seriously something from a movie. "It was the most-scary
thing that has ever happened to me. We ran out of the building
as a SWAT team was coming in.
His friend insisted he run
"They were screaming 'Where is he?
Where is he?' and when you have 20 police running at you with
guns you really know that your life is in danger."
Marous said he froze when he saw the gunman and was only
saved because a friend insisted he run away.
"It's hard actually, in that situation, to react the way
you're supposed to ... I was hesitating, I've never heard a
gunshot before, I don't know what it is," he said.
- Reuters
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