Kimveer Gill

Kimveer Singh Gill (July 9, 1981 – September 13, 2006) was the perpetrator of the Dawson College shooting at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 13, 2006. Gill killed one student and wounded nineteen others before committing suicide. Prior to the shooting he had a fascination with 9/11 conspiracy theories, the Iraq War, and the Columbine High School massacre.

Biography
Kimveer Gill was a 25-year-old Canadian born in Lachine, Quebec. His parents were of Punjabi descent, and moved to Saint-Laurent from India in early 1981. The family later settled in the Fabreville area of Laval in 1987.

Gill attended Twin Oaks Elementary School in Laval from 1988 to 1993. He later attended Rosemere High School, where he was remembered by teachers as quiet and unassuming. Despite early media reports, he performed well academically, and most students remember him as having friends and certainly never being bullied. Gill graduated from Rosemere High School in June 1998.

Gill briefly received military training from the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu from January 17 to February 16, 1999. He had told his friends he wished to eventually become a mercenary. Gill did not complete his basic training; for unknown reasons he was deemed unsuitable for military service and was voluntarily discharged before receiving weapons training. Gill was a member of a rifle club and visited the Ville Saint-Pierre facility the day prior to the Dawson College shooting.

On September 13, 2006, Gill arrived at the Dawson College campus in Montreal, armed with a Beretta Cx4 Storm semi-automatic carbine. Before entering the cafeteria, he began shooting people outside the entrance and continued shooting once he had entered the school, killing 18-year-old Anastasia De Sousa and wounding nineteen other people. He held one student hostage before police officer Denis Côté and other officers shot him in the right arm. Gill then turned his gun on himself and committed suicide. Authorities concluded the attack was premeditated after a short suicide note was found strapped inside Gill's trenchcoat.

In extensive interviews with friends, family, teachers, and former colleagues, Gill was described as a quiet, nice, sensitive, generous person as well as "the nicest, gentlest person" with "a heart of gold." His friends say that Gill had a fascination with 9/11 conspiracy theories, the war in Iraq, and the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. He liked Jack Daniel's whiskey and was a user of ecstasy. In the last few months of his life, he ceased contact with his friends and parents, and seemed more depressed than ever.

Gill's funeral was held on September 19, 2006 in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. There was strict security outside, and only invited guests were allowed to attend the ceremony. The ceremony was held the same day as the funeral for Anastasia De Sousa, the only other fatality of the shooting.

In mid-January 2007, the Montreal police released additional information showing that Gill had planned on committing similar attacks at other institutions across the city of Montreal. Among those were the Université de Montréal and a secondary school in Laval. Some plans and maps were found in Gill's car near the site of the Dawson College event.

A handwritten diary was found by police at Gill's home. A police source said, "It was very obvious his state of mind was deteriorating greatly over the last three weeks." In a statement made on October 20, 2006, the head of the major crime squad for Montreal police, Richard Dupuis, stated: "We know he was angry against the world, so it was a kind of vengeance... There is no explanation why Dawson. It could be Dawson, it could be another place"

An online image gallery on Gill's Vampirefreaks.com blog, under his handle "fatality666", contained more than fifty photos depicting him in various poses. In several images, Gill either points a Beretta Cx4 Storm carbine at the camera, or wears a long black trench coat and what he identifies as combat boots. Some of the photos showing Gill with weapons were taken by a friend, according to his mother. Among his many posted grievances, he stated that he hated school and work. The blog was removed sometime prior to September 14, 2006. However, it was accessed heavily in the interval after the killings and its contents were widely reported.