Thursday, February 15, 2007

Trolley Square Mirrored Montreal?

Someone asked me overnight, if I would consider the Salt Lake City shootings a copycat of the case in Montreal at Dawson College?

I had to honestly answer that as far as the copycat effect, well, yes, perhaps, maybe, not exactly. The act may fit more comfortably within the context of the greater Columbine cult that still colors most mass shootings by "young people."

The Trolley Square shooting may only compare to Montreal in terms of them both being violent cultural "outsiders" who put the mantle of Columbine on themselves to channel their vulnerability and rage.

Kimveer Gill (July 9, 1981-September 13, 2006), the shooter at Dawson College, was an an Indo-Canadian born in Montreal, whose parents were part of the Sikh community in the Quebec
area. Through Vampirefreaks and other sites, clearly he was obsessed with Columbine. Gill wore a trenchcoat and one of his nicknames was "Trench."

Gill's weapons of choice: a Norinco HP9-1 short barrelled shotgun, a Beretta Cx4 Storm carbine, and a Glock 9mm handgun. He fired 60 times. (There has always been a rumor that Gill first targeted the locally called "Jew Café" at Dawson College. People have been reluctant, beyond right after the shooting, to talk openly about this aspect of the incident.)

Sulejman Talovic, who was responsible for the Trolley Square Mall killings, was an 18-year-old Bosnian Muslim refugee. It is too early to tell what kind of clues he left behind. But his wearing of a trenchcoat
might have been symbolic, as well as his choice of weapons: shotgun, a .38-caliber pistol, and a backpack full of ammunition. Talovic reportedly fired over 50 times. (Why a Muslim attack in a highly Mormon area?)

At almost exactly the same time (6:45 PM Mountain Time) that the Trolley Square Mall shooting were moving into high gear, the Philadelphia Navy Yard shootings (reportedly 8:30 PM Eastern Time) were occurring. That location is associated with the Philadelphia Experiment incidents, as a researcher friend brought to my attention.

Two trenchcoated shooters, with a "foreign" outlook, who both end their rampages by killing themselves: They were cultural mirrors of the Columbine killers (who were pseudo-German, wore trenchcoats, and died by suicides in the end). One hundred percentage of school shooters and rampage killers, I feel, are suicidal. They have nothing to lose by the time they start shooting. Both Gill and Talovic followed the Columbine model rather closely, except for their change of settings. I wonder if Talovic didn't really like Valentine's Day (most of his victims were in a greeting card shop).

No comments: