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School shooting in Montreal
Brigid
Veteran
Today at 12:45pm, a 25 year old man with a short blond mohawk, dressed in black, parked his car in front of Dawson College in downtown Montreal and started walking towards the entrance to the school. As he approached he pulled a semiautomatic rifle out from under his long black coat and started shooting indiscriminately. He entered the school and continued his shooting rampage until police officers shot him dead. By the time the dust settled, and as of 11:52pm, there are 18 wounded, 1 female student (18 years old) dead from gunshots to the head and 1 dead gunman. 8 of the wounded are in critical condition and 4 are in serious condition. The rest are stable.
When I was in Wales during my third year of university in 1989, Marc Lepine walked in to the Ecole Polytechnic at the University of Montreal on December 6th and shot and killed 14 women because he felt that feminists had ruined his life. My family were still in the flower business at that time and our shop was just down the road from the Polytechnic and we got the bulk of the orders for that horrible week. In fact, unbeknownst to me, the president of my college in Wales sent flowers to the Polytechnic on the first day on behalf of our college in Wales and that order ended up coming to my family's shop. When my mother and sister saw who the order was from they finally broke down and cried after trying to hold it in for hours.
Since that time, and also as a result of Columbine and other similar shooting rampages, police tactics have changed. At the time of the Montreal Massacre in 1989 the protocol was to secure the outer perimeter and wait for the tactical teams to respond. Today the police know better. The first officers to respond are to secure the outer perimeter and go into the building right away in order to neutralize the assailant(s) as soon as possible. They learned this, in part, because at least one woman would have survived her gunshot wounds on December 6th, 1989 if police officers hadn't waited to go in.
This afternoon the first officer to respond was a very brave woman who secured the outer perimeter and as hundreds of students were running out of the building, she ran in. Dawson College is in downtown Montreal and there is no shortage of police officers in that area. Within a few minutes the whole area was flooded with police and emergency personnel. The response was lightning fast and due to their tactical training and coordination expertise they managed to find the assailant before he had a chance to cause much worse damage. He was armed with three assault weapons and no motive has been made public yet.
It took hours to evacuate the college. There are over 10,000 students enrolled there and because of the size of the building and the nature of the attack, there were conflicting stories from witnesses. Some said there were two, three or possibly four gunmen. Some said the shooting started in a nearby shopping mall before the shooters came to the college. News footage showed hundreds of students literally running for their lives toward the outer perimeter and to safety. Witnesses said it was pandemonium inside the school, with multiple rounds of gunfire going off and people screaming and blood everywhere. Students barricaded themselves in classrooms, staying quiet for fear they would draw the gunmen to them. Others watched friends and classmates getting shot while they themselves escaped unhurt. I watched the whole thing unfold on television for four hours and felt chills running up my spine as I saw aerial footage of hundreds of students, most between the ages of 16 and 18, running to safety. Cell phone service in the area was quickly overwhelmed and kids couldn't reach parents and vice versa. There were dozens and dozens of police officers, EMTs, SWAT and other emergency personnel inside and outside the school. It took hours to secure the area because police had to make sure that the one gunman they shot dead had been alone and not accompanied by others as witnesses had at first thought.
I saw the dead gunman on television. He was beside one of the police cars under a yellow sheet and his blood was on the steps to one of the entrances and ran all the way down into the street. His blood ran from his covered body down to the other side of the street as well. There was a lot of blood.
My heart goes out to all of them and their families, including the gunman. My heart goes out to all of us trapped here in samsara, in this violent, cruel and unsatisfactory world. It's at times like these that I'm most grateful to The Way and the way out.
When I was in Wales during my third year of university in 1989, Marc Lepine walked in to the Ecole Polytechnic at the University of Montreal on December 6th and shot and killed 14 women because he felt that feminists had ruined his life. My family were still in the flower business at that time and our shop was just down the road from the Polytechnic and we got the bulk of the orders for that horrible week. In fact, unbeknownst to me, the president of my college in Wales sent flowers to the Polytechnic on the first day on behalf of our college in Wales and that order ended up coming to my family's shop. When my mother and sister saw who the order was from they finally broke down and cried after trying to hold it in for hours.
Since that time, and also as a result of Columbine and other similar shooting rampages, police tactics have changed. At the time of the Montreal Massacre in 1989 the protocol was to secure the outer perimeter and wait for the tactical teams to respond. Today the police know better. The first officers to respond are to secure the outer perimeter and go into the building right away in order to neutralize the assailant(s) as soon as possible. They learned this, in part, because at least one woman would have survived her gunshot wounds on December 6th, 1989 if police officers hadn't waited to go in.
This afternoon the first officer to respond was a very brave woman who secured the outer perimeter and as hundreds of students were running out of the building, she ran in. Dawson College is in downtown Montreal and there is no shortage of police officers in that area. Within a few minutes the whole area was flooded with police and emergency personnel. The response was lightning fast and due to their tactical training and coordination expertise they managed to find the assailant before he had a chance to cause much worse damage. He was armed with three assault weapons and no motive has been made public yet.
It took hours to evacuate the college. There are over 10,000 students enrolled there and because of the size of the building and the nature of the attack, there were conflicting stories from witnesses. Some said there were two, three or possibly four gunmen. Some said the shooting started in a nearby shopping mall before the shooters came to the college. News footage showed hundreds of students literally running for their lives toward the outer perimeter and to safety. Witnesses said it was pandemonium inside the school, with multiple rounds of gunfire going off and people screaming and blood everywhere. Students barricaded themselves in classrooms, staying quiet for fear they would draw the gunmen to them. Others watched friends and classmates getting shot while they themselves escaped unhurt. I watched the whole thing unfold on television for four hours and felt chills running up my spine as I saw aerial footage of hundreds of students, most between the ages of 16 and 18, running to safety. Cell phone service in the area was quickly overwhelmed and kids couldn't reach parents and vice versa. There were dozens and dozens of police officers, EMTs, SWAT and other emergency personnel inside and outside the school. It took hours to secure the area because police had to make sure that the one gunman they shot dead had been alone and not accompanied by others as witnesses had at first thought.
I saw the dead gunman on television. He was beside one of the police cars under a yellow sheet and his blood was on the steps to one of the entrances and ran all the way down into the street. His blood ran from his covered body down to the other side of the street as well. There was a lot of blood.
My heart goes out to all of them and their families, including the gunman. My heart goes out to all of us trapped here in samsara, in this violent, cruel and unsatisfactory world. It's at times like these that I'm most grateful to The Way and the way out.
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Comments
I concur, Boo and Q'ZENer..... I completely know where you're both coming from. I had the same train of thoughts.....
The moment I heard about it, I thought of you, Boo.....
I read it with our book club this month and it is extraordinary - very disturbing, moving, annoying: a great read.
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Two of the critically injured patients are on life support. They have head injuries and one them has multiple injuries including his or her head.
The gunman's face has been all over the news. He had a blog on VampireFreaks.com with over 50 pictures of himself holding and pointing guns and hunting knives and he wrote extensively about how he hated most people, wanted to kill everyone, go out in a blaze of glory etc. Very similar to the Columbine shooters.
As the Tibetan Buddhists among us would rightly state, it is important not to lose compassion for anyone involved in this situation, even the shooter himself.
I'm with you dear Brigid.
Just beats why these freaks don't just shoot themselves first, rather than destroy so many more lives. And while I'm at it, who reads their rantings on the internet? Why provide an audience to nutbags? Perhaps it is just me, call me non-buddhist, but sorry my sympathy lies with the victims-not the perpetrator.
My judgement is somewhat coloured after my friends and I were nearly killed on one of melbourne's trains when I was sixteen, by a gang of 14 thugs. all we hear about is the homeless, the poor street gang members etc. WHAT ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF THEIR CRIMES?
Ever sat near a guy being asked to give up his watch or his arm will be snapped? while you have his face bleeding in your lap after his facial bones were broken? I can tell you. Changed my perspective on who needs/recieves a sympathetic ear.
sorry for the rant-but in this case, as with Columbine etc. No sympathy for the perps.
I'm very sorry for the victims and families and others that endure PTSD and lifelong injuries due to these nutbags.
peace.
Yes, absolutely. I was really careful about that when his photos were on the TV. I did everything I could to generate compassion for him. It wasn't hard, actually, believing in karma as I do. Very important point, Kris.
Xray,
We're don't agree on this point but you know it's alright, right? lol!
Maybe if you look at the shooters with the thought that they were ill and on meditcation that seriously effected them in not a good way it would be easier to have compassion for them also.
It is easier for me to always think that ppl who do terrible things like the school shootings etc... are not in their right mind at the time. Due to a mental illness or for what ever the reason may be. This makes it much easier to have love and compassion for them.
I also understand that I have not walked in others shoes.
I'm just trying to explain what helps me........
I am sorry to read this! What a shame! My thoughts and prayers are being said for those affected by this tragedy as well as for you and all other Canadians.
Deb:type:
I think that's a very good way to go about and I think compassion for the shooter and his family is extremely important. Good advice.
Adiana,
Thank you so much for your kindness. It's very appreciated.
I was talking to my doc about the shooting and he said he'd been watching some experts on TV discussing it and they were trying to figure out why this has happened in Montreal, which is a large city, twice. They were saying that school rampage shootings usually happen in small towns where the the shooters feel isolated from the rest of the community. These feelings of isolation are more acute in small towns, yet this has happened twice in Montreal. What is it about the city I love, the city I was born and raised in, that gives rise to these kinds of things? The jury's still out.
Update:
An investigation into the death of the gunman found that he was wounded in the arm by police gunfire and then he shot himself in the head, committing suicide. He had told one of the students, the friend of the girl who was killed, that "I'm going to die today". He was intent on his own destruction and bringing as many people with him as he possibly could.
What could drive a young person to such despair? I don't know if he was being treated for emotional illness (I like that better than mental illness for some reason) but I wish someone had intervened earlier and gotten him help. Montreal has massive emotional health resources and services are free. Canada also has tight gun laws but all the guns he used were purchased legally and were registered. So our laws didn't prevent this tragedy from happening. Having said that, I don't, for the life of me, understand why it's legal in Canada to purchase semiautomatic weapons. Our gun laws were changed after a massive effort on the part of the survivors and their families of the Dec. 6, 1989 massacre. Yet they still didn't work. What the hell is wrong with our #$@$$ government? I've had it. I'm so sick of this g%#damned bullshit. STOP the guns from coming across the border and make all automatic and semiautomatic guns illegal in Canada except under specific dispensation. And that's only for starters...
I realise that this is a peculiarly British way of looking at things and almost incomprehensible elsewhere. As against a 'right to bear arms', we have a 'right not to have a gun pointed at us'. Neither is perfect. Both are illogical.
we need to work on that.
It's not the guns, it's the ammunition. Let people own guns, if you must cleave to a late-mediaeval myth, but ban ammunition sales!
It's both.
But there will always be homicidal people. The least we can do is restrict access to weapons that make it infinitely easier to inflict massive damage. It IS the guns. And gun culture. We have to work on both.
I agree!
Adiana:thumbsup: