Man in trench coat opens fire at Canada school

[MedicCook]

Man in trench coat opens fire at Canada school
Gunman wounds at least 12 in Montreal before shooting himself, police say

MONTREAL - At least one gunman in a black trench coat opened fire Wednesday in the cafeteria of a Montreal college and wounded at least 12 people — six critically — before shooting himself, witnesses and authorities said.

Scores of students at Dawson College near downtown fled into the surrounding streets after the shooting broke out in the school of about 10,000. Some of them had bloody clothes.

CBC-TV showed police with guns drawn standing behind a police cruiser as a SWAT team searched the 12-acre campus in case there was more than one gunman.

The Montreal General Hospital said it admitted 12 people, including six who were in critical condition. Two were listed in serious condition and four were stable.

Martine Millette of the Montreal police said the gunman later shot himself. Constable Philippe Gouin said “in all probability, the suspect has committed suicide.”

Student Devansh Smri Vastava said he saw a man in military fatigues with “a big rifle” storm the school’s cafeteria.

“He just started shooting at people,” Vastava said, adding that he heard about 20 shots fired. He also said teachers ran through the halls telling students to get out.

Other witnesses spoke of a gunman wearing a black trench coat.

'Shooting at everybody'
“We all ran upstairs. There were cops firing. It was so crazy,” Vastava said. “I was terrified. The guy was shooting at people randomly. He didn’t care, he was just shooting at everybody. I just got out.”

Derick Osei, 19, said he walking down the stairs when he saw a man with a gun.

“He ... just started shooting up the place. I ran up to the third floor and I looked down and he was still shooting,” Osei said. “He was hiding behind the vending machines and he came out with a gun and started pointing and pointed at me. So I ran up the stairs. I saw a girl get shot in the leg.”

Osei said people in the cafeteria were all lying on the floor.

Another student who gave her name as Chloe tearfully recounted seeing the gunman pointing a weapon at people.

“All of a sudden I turned around and saw a man who was all dressed in black,” she told radio station 940 News.

“This dude with the clothes started pointing the gun at other people. He was right behind me. He turned around and went in the corner of the cafeteria,” she said.

Another student told 940 News that she had seen two people who had been shot, including one who was hit in the neck. The student said a friend told her four people had been shot.

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Art/WORLD_NEWS/060913/Montreal_SchoolShooting.gif

Ingrid Keigan, a 17-year-old student, said she saw one person outside the school who had been shot in the chest.

A SWAT team and canine units were at the campus, going floor by floor to look for victims, Sgt. Giuseppe Boccardi told CNN.

“Most of the students have exited the college grounds,” he said.

People have also been evacuated from the nearby Alexis-Nihon shopping center.

Tighter gun laws after 1989 mass shooting
Canada’s worst mass shooting also happened in Montreal. Gunman Marc Lepin killed 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnic on Dec. 6, 1989.

That shooting spurred efforts for tighter gun laws and greater awareness of societal violence — particularly domestic abuse. Canada’s tighter gun law was achieved mainly as the results of efforts by survivors and relatives of the victims.

Another shooting in Montreal occurred in 1992, when a Concordia University professor killed four colleagues.

Dawson College was the first English-language institution in Quebec’s network of university preparatory colleges when it was founded in 1969. It is the largest college of general and vocational education, known by its French acronym CEGEP, in the province.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14818183/

[MERV]

MONTREAL - Investigators tried to determine Thursday why a young man in a black trench coat and a mohawk haircut opened fire in a Montreal college in a terrifying rampage that killed one woman and left 19 other people wounded.

At least five victims remained in critical condition.

Police credited aggressive new procedures with stopping the gunman, who died in a shootout with police.

Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the lessons learned from other mass shootings had taught police to try to stop such assaults as quickly as possible.

"Before our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team. Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives," he said.

Witnesses said the gunman started shooting outside downtown Dawson college Wednesday, then entered the second-floor cafeteria and opened fire without uttering a word. At times, he hid behind vending machines before emerging to take aim — at one point at a teenager who tried to photograph him with his cell phone.

Police dismissed suggestions that terrorism played a role in the lunch-hour attack. They said the 25-year-old attacker was from the Montreal area, but provided little other information. His car was still at the school, and police were searching his apartment, said Police Sgt. Francois Dore.

The young man opened fire haphazardly at no target in particular, until he saw the police and took aim at them, Delorme said.

Police hid behind a wall as they exchanged fire with the gunman, whose back was against a vending machine, said student Andrea Barone, who was in the cafeteria. He said the officers proceeded cautiously because many students were trapped around the assailant, who yelled "Get back! Get back!" every time an officer tried to move closer.

Eventually, Barone said, the gunman went down in a hail of gunfire.

Delorme said some officers were at the school on an unrelated matter when the shooting erupted. He said reinforcements rushed to the scene and took part in the shooting.

Scores of students fled into the streets after the shooting began. Some had clothes stained with blood; others cried and clung to each other. Two nearby shopping centers and a daycare center also were evacuated and subway service was disrupted.

"I was terrified. The guy was shooting at people randomly. He didn't care, he was just shooting at everybody," said student Devansh Smri Vastava. "There were cops firing. It was so crazy."

Police said the attacker had a rapid-fire rifle and two other weapons. They did not provide details.

Although police initially suggested the gunman had killed himself, Delorme later said at a news conference that "based on current information, the suspect was killed by police."

Montreal General Hospital said 11 people were admitted, including eight who were in critical condition. Nine others were taken to two other hospitals. One young woman later died, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the victim's next-of-kin had not yet been notified.

The Canadian Press reported Thursday that five people were in critical condition.

"Today we have witnessed a cowardly and senseless act of violence unfold at Montreal's Dawson College," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said. "Our primary concern right now is to ensure the safety and recovery of all those who were injured during this tragedy."

The school was closed until Monday.

The shooting recalled the 1999 attack at Columbine High School in Colorado, where two students wearing trench coats killed 13 people before committing suicide.

Police in Colorado were criticized for moving too slowly to stop those gunmen.

Canada's worst mass shooting took place in Montreal when gunman Marc Lepine, 25, killed 14 women at the Ecole Polytechnic on Dec. 6, 1989, before shooting himself.

That shooting spurred efforts for new gun laws achieved mainly as the results of efforts by survivors and relatives of Lepine's victims.

Dawson, with about 10,000 students, was the first English-language institution in Quebec's network of university preparatory colleges when it was founded in 1969.