Woman dead, 19 wounded in Montreal college shooting
MONTREAL (CUP) -- A lone gunman, known now as Kimveer Gill, entered a downtown Montreal's Dawson college and opened fire on crowds of students Sept. 13, killing one woman and wounding 19 others.
Gill was eventually tracked down by police and killed.
According to police, the woman was in her 20s. The shooter, Gill, was a 25-year-old Quebec man who lived in the Montreal area.
Dawson College students and media reported throughout the day that there were as many as four gunmen involved in the rampage, which caused Montreal Police to close down the metro line and shopping centre connected to the college in order to perform a sweep.
Police, who arrived shortly after the suspect began firing in the cafeteria just after noon, evacuated the school floor by floor, sending thousands of students running into the streets.
But three hours after the shooting began, students on upper floors and in the basement were still locked in their classrooms, supposedly because police were not sure whether more gunmen were roaming the halls.
“There was blood everywhere around the cafeteria and gunshot holes through the main doors,” said Roxanne Michaud through tears and gasps, as she ducked under the police cordon. “I just want to go home.”
Fehr Marouf, a Dawson College student, was leaving for lunch at 12:42 with a friend when he saw a man in a trench coat and black boots approach the school with a large firearm.
“We ran back into Dawson and through the atrium telling people to leave. We got out from the other side,” he said. Other eyewitness accounts corroborate his description of the gunman, though it is still not clear whether the suspect was a current student.
With SWAT teams preparing to enter the building and helicopters hovering overhead, hundreds of police officers manned a five-square-block perimeter of the scene, helping students leave and searching for any suspects who might have escaped.
After being directed away from the school, students and faculty sought refuge at nearby Concordia University, where a group debriefing and counselling were held.
“It's just so surreal,” said Dawson student Samantha Tauby ouside Concordia. “This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen here.”
For many, the shooting brought back memories of the 1989 massacre in Montreal's École Polytechnique, where a lone gunman gunned down 14 women.
Gill was eventually tracked down by police and killed.
According to police, the woman was in her 20s. The shooter, Gill, was a 25-year-old Quebec man who lived in the Montreal area.
Dawson College students and media reported throughout the day that there were as many as four gunmen involved in the rampage, which caused Montreal Police to close down the metro line and shopping centre connected to the college in order to perform a sweep.
Police, who arrived shortly after the suspect began firing in the cafeteria just after noon, evacuated the school floor by floor, sending thousands of students running into the streets.
But three hours after the shooting began, students on upper floors and in the basement were still locked in their classrooms, supposedly because police were not sure whether more gunmen were roaming the halls.
“There was blood everywhere around the cafeteria and gunshot holes through the main doors,” said Roxanne Michaud through tears and gasps, as she ducked under the police cordon. “I just want to go home.”
Fehr Marouf, a Dawson College student, was leaving for lunch at 12:42 with a friend when he saw a man in a trench coat and black boots approach the school with a large firearm.
“We ran back into Dawson and through the atrium telling people to leave. We got out from the other side,” he said. Other eyewitness accounts corroborate his description of the gunman, though it is still not clear whether the suspect was a current student.
With SWAT teams preparing to enter the building and helicopters hovering overhead, hundreds of police officers manned a five-square-block perimeter of the scene, helping students leave and searching for any suspects who might have escaped.
After being directed away from the school, students and faculty sought refuge at nearby Concordia University, where a group debriefing and counselling were held.
“It's just so surreal,” said Dawson student Samantha Tauby ouside Concordia. “This sort of thing isn't supposed to happen here.”
For many, the shooting brought back memories of the 1989 massacre in Montreal's École Polytechnique, where a lone gunman gunned down 14 women.
