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Two gunmen open fire at Dawson College
Montreal Gazette
Published: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
At least 13 were injured today when a gunman walked into Dawson College and opened fire.
The drama, which started just outside an entrance to the downtown campus, on de Maissonneuve Blvd. near Atwater Ave., began around noon.
By late afternoon, police confirmed the gunman was shot and killed by police.
The Montreal General Hospital said it admitted 11 victims, including eight who were in critical condition. Two others were listed in serious condition and four were stable. Two victims were admitted to the Jewish General Hospital.
Witnesses said a man dressed in dark clothing and wearing combat boots with a Mohawk haircut remove an assault weapon from his car and entered the CEGEP before 1 p.m.
From her office window on the 9th floor of the Alexis Nihon office building facing the CEGEP, Andrea Young saw police drag a man out of the school onto de Maisonneuve Blvd. around 1:30 p.m.
"They were dragging him by the arm," said Young, 24, who works for an export company in the building. "He was totally limp and there was blood pouring from his head. He was dressed completely in black with dark boots on. He was very seriously wounded.
"They handcuffed him, turned him over and he wasn’t moving. Then, they covered his body."
The first 911 call reporting shots fired inside the college came in at 12:45 p.m. Within seconds, 911 was flooded with 400 calls about shots fired.
The first shots were fired on the second floor in the cafeteria Teachers usher students into classrooms.
Nikola Guidi was in the Dawson cafeteria shortly before 1 p.m. when he heard two or three shots ring out. He hit the ground and then saw a young man dressed with a mohawk hair cut and a black trench coat carrying an automatic rifle.
As students crawled on the floor around him, the gunman backed into a corner and fired several shots, hitting three students, The 17-year-old student said.
"I was right beside (my friend) when she was shot," said Guidi, whose white T-shirt was drenched with his friend’s blood.
His friend Lisa was shot in the arm and leg. Guidi dragged her to safety after the shooting and tried to staunch the bloodflow by taking off his belt before the paramedics arrived to tend to her.
Seconds after the shooting, two police officers entered the cafeteria and ordered the gunman to drop his weapon, Guidi said.
The gunman replied: "Get the f--k away from here," the student reported.
Guidi then fled the building.
After the shooting, pandemonium broke out on streets outside Dawson. Hundreds of panic-stricken students and teachers fled from the college in tears, many trying to contact friends on cell phones.
Another student was collecting her belongings from her locker – one floor below the cafeteria – when she saw a man dressed in a black trench coat firing shots.
"Someone fell and we all ran to try and get away from him," the sobbing student said.
When she and her friend left the school via an exit on de Maisonneuve Blvd., they saw an injured man lying on the sidewalk.
"The police were there and they were taking off his sweater," the student said. "There was blood all around his stomach."
Shortly after 1:30 p.m. a large group of hysterical students charged down Ste. Catherine St. after someone reported hearing gunshots near Atwater.
Many students were sobbing as they tried to reach their parents on their cellphones.
Kayla Diorio was sitting in the atrium near the entrance with a friend waiting for her next class when gunfire rang out.
Students thought the first gunshot was firecrackers, Diorio said. "Then when the second, third, forth started going off, everybody was on the ground."
Diorio said the "tall, pale" gunman, who was dressed in black, cursed and yelled at them, telling them to get back.
He was wedged inside an alcove beside a vending machine with his gun pointed out, she said.
"At first he was just shooting into the air," said a shaken Diorio later yesterday afternoon.
People on the ground held onto each other and crawling away from the shooter, she said. "There must have been about 60, 70 people in the atrium at the time."
"A guy next to me was telling me ‘it’s going to be OK," she said.
"Everybody was screaming and crying. I’ve never seen that many people cry...guys were crying. Everybody was shaking" she said.
There were already a few police officer inside telling them to get away, she said.
Diorio crawled to a tiny storage space in the kitchen where she huddled with about a dozen poeple – students and two cafeteria employees. "Everybody was crying," she said.
© Montreal Gazette 2006
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