Gunman's Writings Presaged Rampage

Blog Described Fascination With Death, Laid Out Events That Would Unfold in Montreal

MONTREAL, Sept. 14 -- Two hours before he pulled a semiautomatic rifle from under his trench coat and began firing at students at a downtown college, Kimveer Gill wrote in his online journal that he had "whiskey in the morning. Mmmm, good." The night before, he described his mood as "postal," a reference to one of his favorite mass-murder video games.

Gill, identified by police as the gunman who killed student Anastasia DeSousa and wounded 19 other people in a random assault Wednesday before apparently turning the gun on himself, left a dark and foreboding self-portrait on the Internet. He described a fascination with guns, Goth, death and video games and spewed obscenities expressing his hatred for the world. He posted dozens of pictures of himself, mugging for the camera as he brandished an assault rifle and other weapons.

The rampage ascribed by police to Gill, 25, who lived with his mother outside Montreal, left a bright, trilingual 18-year-old student dead, four other people still in critical condition Thursday, and a community asking questions about the dark world of alienated youths and their fascination with violent video games.

Police said Gill drove to Dawson College at lunchtime Wednesday carrying a bag with three weapons: an assault rife, a 12-gauge shotgun and a pistol. He began firing at random outside the school, then went into an atrium cafeteria area where students gather. Police, on the scene within minutes, cornered him. During the firefight, Gill apparently shot himself in the head, Quebec Provincial Police said Thursday.

Authorities at Dawson College said Gill had "no link" with the junior college, and there was no explanation yet as to why he may have targeted the school. Gill's own list of grievances, offered up in his journal, was no more specific: He offered vile assessments of teachers, policemen, employers, bullies and just about everyone. "I hate the world," he concluded.

Investigators combing through his car and the computer from his home disclosed no other motive Thursday. Little was known about Gill other than what he left in his journal. His mother called him "a good kid" but refused further comment. Neighbors said he was a loner, always dressed in black. It was not known if he worked; his blog complained of being unpaid for a day's work at one job.

He had predicted Wednesday's violent gunfight in his written musings on a Web site popular with Goth culture, www.vampirefreaks.com. The site, which has since removed his blog, is a virtual gathering place for hundreds of others, many of whom tout violence and vent their antagonism toward society.

Gill's blog painted fantasies about killing and described the scene much as it would happen Wednesday in Montreal: a lone figure dressed in black coming on a drizzly day to wreak havoc on masses for whom he had contempt.

"Head to toe, all black. Boots as black as tar. Cloak lashing to and fro with the wind," he wrote in one entry. "The disgusting human creatures scream in panic and run in all directions, taking with them the lies and deceptions. The Death Knight gazes at the humans with an empty stare, as they knock each other down in a mad dash to safety. He wishes to slaughter them as they flee."

Gill signed his entries "Fatality666" and once called himself "Trench," an apparent reference to the black trench coat he wore in imitation of the two teenage assailants who killed 12 students and a faculty member at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. He was fascinated by that attack, according to his journal, and played Super Columbine Massacre RPG, a video game that re-creates the rampage. He also raved about "Postal3," a similar assault game, and listed a variety of other favorite games, most of them with themes of mayhem.

"Life is a video game. You've got to die sometime," Gill wrote.

The epitaph reignited the debate over whether such games are dangerous.