Montreal school shooting Options

[Hellfighter]

I have a bit of the jitters right now since I was on my way to do chores in the very area of the shooting this morning but got lazy and ended up staying at home[ For those of you who don't know, I live in Montreal]. I just turned on the tv to watch msnbc news and there I see video of what horror was emerging a few hours ago in downtown area of Montreal. It's incredibly fortunate the superb police force here reacted fast against the shooter[s]. So far it appears no students have been killed, but 6 confirmed critical, 2 seriously, 4 stable- two gunmen dead. Right now the police are sweeping the area to see if any other shooters are possibly lurking about. Let's hope for the best for these young kids caught up in this tragedy.

This post has been edited by Hellfighter: 09/13/06 2:51pm

[Hellfighter]

Well I spoke with a senior police officer friend of mine. While I expressed gratefulness in his comrades fast reaction he said quote "We were lucky, we were very lucky!".
From what I'm hearing probably due to the two other infamous Montreal campus shooting sprees in the last 18 years, the response was predetermined for the cops. Making a safety perimeter is secondary... moving in fast to 'neutralise' rampaging maniacs quickly is priority... and this was how the brave cops cornered the maniac within 30 or so minutes.
My friend also told me it was a very near thing; he knew the cop who shot the gunman [ EDIT; getting the word gunman did kill himself, but not sure if that's after he got shot at/hit] and said quote "That guy's a good cop!". Obviously meaning this was the right officer in the right place at the right time. Before going down with his assault rifle[?] the gunman took a shot that narrowly went over the officer's head. The officer was armed with a only a walther 9mm pistol!
I can say now that I visited the area again this morning, the campus alone is now closed off. Montrealer's are generally not in shock-this I can only attribute to the fact that this is now the 3rd deadly shooting spree on a campus in recent memory. Save for the one lovely young lady who was killed it was a miracle that with all the other casualties, the only other fatality was the maniac.
Personally I'm ok, save for wishing sincerely I could put my fist through the maniac's face. Unfortunately Canada the peaceful is not always so. For me, I've been in 3 situations in public/tourist downtown Montreal and Toronto where wild gunfire has sent crowds fleeing for safety[noone hurt]. One such occasion a bullet richoted 6' behind me while I was drawing a customer - at the time we laughed since being unaware of what was going on fully momentarily, we were the only ones still in the street while crowds around us were taking cover. But the next few days my nerves were very shaken. So I can in a very minute way relate to what these students went through as the maniac passed within inches of them blazing away. I've used 'maniac' here to be polite in the post, but I'll leave it to you as to how I really want to refer to him/it.
Thanks for caring and hearing me let out a bit friends. Again let's all wish these young survivors recover as best as possible.



This post has been edited by Hellfighter: 09/14/06 5:41pm