Gunman liked Columbine-game
2006-09-14 20:40
Montreal - A man with a black trench coat whose shooting rampage in a Montreal college killed one person and wounded 19 others before he was slain by police said on a blog in his name that he liked to play a role-playing internet game about the Columbine high school shootings.
The gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday was Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval, near Montreal, a police official said on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He also said police had searched Gill's home.
Six shooting victims remained in critical condition, including two in extremely critical condition.
'Good man'
A woman who answered the phone at Gill's home and said he was her son, described him as "a good man".
"Just ask anybody. Ask the neighbours. He was a good son," the woman told The Associated Press.
She refused to give her name.
The woman added that police took his computer. "I don't know what they found in the computer. They took everything," she said.
In postings on a website 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 black trench coat and combat boots.
One photo has a tombstone with his name printed on it and the epitaph: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."
Mood 'crazy and postal'
The last of six journal entries on Wednesday was posted at 10:41 (14:41 GMT, about two hours before the gunman was shot to death at Dawson.
He said on the site that he was drinking whiskey in the morning and described his mood the night before as "crazy" and "postal".
He said on the site that he liked to play Super Columbine Massacre, an internet-based computer game that simulates 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 has met a handful of people in his life who are decent.
"But he finds the vast majority to be worthless, no good, conniving, betraying, lying, deceptive."
'Life is a video game'
He wrote that he hates jocks, preppies, country music and hip-hop.
"Work sucks ... school sucks ... life sucks ... what else can I say? ... Life is a video game you've got to die sometime," he added.
Below a picture of Gill aiming the barrel of a gun at the camera there's the inscription: "I think I have an obsession with guns ... muahahaha."
"Anger and hatred simmers within me," said another caption below a picture of Gill grimacing.
Of Indian heritage
He wrote that he is 6-foot-1 (1.85m), 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".
In another posting he wrote: "Stop Bullying. It's not only the bully's fault you know!!
"It's the teachers and principals fault for turning a blind eye, just cuz it's not their job.
... It's the police's fault for not doing anything when people complain."
In another he wrote "stop making fun of each other because of the clothes you wear, or the way people talk or act, or any other reasons you make fun of each other.
"It's all the jocks' fault."
Loner
Gill wore a black trench coat during the shooting and opened fire in the cafeteria just as Columbine students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did in 1999.
Gill also maintained an online blog - similar to Klebold and Harris - devoted to Goth culture, heavy metal music such as Marilyn Manson, guns and journal entries expressing hatred against authority figures and "society".
A neighbour who lives across the street from Gill said he was a loner.
"There were never any friends," Louise Leykauf said. "He kept to himself. He always wore dark clothing."
Another neighbour, Mariola Trutschnigg, said she noticed a changed in appearance in recent months when he "started wearing a mohawk and black clothes".
- AP