Man in trench coat opens fire at Canada school
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14818183/
MONTREAL - A 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 panicked students at Dawson College near downtown fled into the surrounding streets after the shooting broke out in the school of about 10,000. Some had clothes stained with blood.
Police spokesman Ean Lafreniere said there was just one gunman at the school and the search for any others was over.
Martine Millette of the Montreal police said the gunman later shot himself. Constable Philippe Gouin said “in all probability, the suspect has committed suicide.”
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.
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.
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