Police have not officially identified the dead man, clad in black from head to toe, who methodically shot at least a dozen people, killing one and critically wounding six others during the lunchtime rampage.

Several published reports, however, identified the gunman as Kimveer Gill, 25, who lived with his mother in Laval, north of Montreal.

The dead student was identified by family members as Anastasia DeSousa of Montreal. “She was full of life, she was the perfect little niece,” her uncle Réal Hevy told Montreal Gazette.

Shooting victims were ferried to three hospitals, the most seriously injured to the trauma unit of the nearby Montreal General Hospital, and others to the Jewish General and Jean-Talon Hospital.

Two of the victims remained in extremely critical condition in Montreal General Hospital on Thursday. One apparently suffering from a critical head injury is still in intensive care, according to a doctor that was on the scene yesterday.

Four others are in critical condition, Dr. Tarek Razek told a news conference.

Mr. Gill's Web page, which was taken down by early Thursday morning, included a photo of a tombstone with his name printed on it below it the phrase: “Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse.”

The last entry on his blog was posted a 10:41 a.m. Wednesday, just hours before the rampage at Dawson College.

“Whiskey in the morning, mmmmmm, mmmmmmmmm, good !! :),” he wrote.

The site also contained 55 pictures of Mr. Gill, several of them with him holding knives and guns, wearing a black trench coat and combat boots.

“I think I have an obbsetion [sic] with guns ... muahahaha,” is the inscription below another picture of Mr. Gill aiming the barrel of the gun at the camera.

Mr. Gill also gives some insight into what sort of person he may have been.

“He has met a handfull [sic] of people in his life who are decent. But he finds the vast majority to be worthless.”

He said he dislikes: “The world and everything in it.”

He also says: “Life is like a video game, you gotta die sometime.”

Other reports Thursday morning said his favourite video game was called “Super Columbine Massacre.” Columbine is the high school in Colorado where on April 20, 1999, two teenagers clad in black trench coats, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 fellow high-school students and a teacher and wounded 24 others before committing suicide.

He also complained that another shooting game, Postal 2, was “too childish.” The purpose of the game is to get through as much of the game as possible without going berserk and gunning people down, or, failing that, to avoid getting caught and being thrown in jail.

“i want them to make a game so realistic, that it looks and feels like it's actually happening,” he wrote in his blog.

The blog was posted on the now infamous VampireFreaks.com, which has figured prominently in at least two high-profile killings in Canada in the past few years.

A 12-year old and her 23-year old boyfriend met on the site before being charged with murder in the deaths of an Alberta family in April.

In February, 2005, a judge declared a mistrial in the Johnathan murder trial, in which a three young men were charged in the slaying of the 12-year-old boy, after it was discovered that a key 15-year old witness may have perjured herself after her blog on VampireFreaks.com contradicted some of her testimony.

Dr. Razek said early Thursday that two of the 11 victims taken to Montreal General had head wounds, while the rest had wounds in their bodies or their extremities.

Police said the guns found at the scene were legally registered.

As horrific as it was, the attack could have been much worse. Police arrived on site within three minutes of the gunman's opening fire and, in their words, “neutralized” the shooter a short time later.

Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the motive for the attack was unclear, but he dismissed suggestions that women or members of specific ethnic or religious groups were being targeted.

“There is no racist connotation whatsoever, this is not related ... to terrorism. We have no information linking these events to anything other than what occurred on site,” he said.

Nonetheless, the crime had immediate and broad repercussions, from pandemonium in a huge chunk of downtown Montreal to reigniting the heated gun-control debate.

The shootings also sparked intense emotion from traumatized students, anxious parents and the highest offices of the nation.

La Presse reporters who went to Mr. Gill's house said they were met by his father, who refused comment. He returned inside, where the newspaper said he was being interviewed by police.

The killer parked his Pontiac Sunfire on a downtown street, pulled the weapons from the trunk and walked toward the entrance of Dawson College.

The first of more than 400 calls to 9-1-1 came at 12:41 p.m., shortly after the shooting started outside the college. The gunman proceeded into the school cafeteria and other common areas. He apparently said little, simply shooting victims at random, using a single semi-automatic rifle. Witnesses said dozens of shots were fired in the short time before police arrived.

Shortly after the rampage began, the gunman was killed by police during an intense gun battle inside the school. (Because the man died at the hands of Montreal police, the death is now being investigated by the provincial Sûreté du Québec).

The incident was, for all intents and purposes, over by 1:10 p.m.

Montreal police officers are now trained – as a result of other fatal school shootings – to immediately pursue gunmen in such circumstances, rather than just sealing off the area and waiting for a SWAT team.

Police said the new procedures saved lives Wednesday.

Police spent several hours scouring the college and nearby buildings, looking for possible accomplices, and moving students to safety. Images from news helicopters showed a body, covered in a yellow tarp, sprawled on the sidewalk in a pool of blood.

Outside Dawson College, however, the scene was chaotic, as hundreds of students fled and rumours ran rampant.

At one point, there were reports of three gunmen who had singled out women and minorities for death. There were also reports that the killer used a machine gun, and that there were also gunshots in a nearby mall. All of this proved to be untrue.

But the fear and the bloodshed were very real.

Andrea Leziy, 17, was sitting on the floor outside her classroom when the shooting started one floor below. “At first I thought I was going crazy, I heard gunshots,” she said.

Police officers told students to exit the building, she said, and outside she found a chaotic scene, as officers and ambulance technicians tended to the victims.

“One guy was convulsing in his own blood on the stretcher,” Ms. Leziy said. Nearby, police officers were carrying a wounded girl, using a classroom desk as a makeshift stretcher.

Dawson College, which has 10,000 students, is an English-language CEGEP. Students who attend junior colleges in Quebec are usually aged 16 to 19, though Dawson also has a large number of mature students.

Montreal has been the scene of two previous rampages.

On Dec. 6, 1989, Marc Lépine murdered 14 women at École Polytechnique, a crime driven by his hatred of women.

And on Aug. 24, 1992, disgruntled Concordia University professor Valery Fabrikant murdered four colleagues.

The motive for the shooting at Dawson College remains unclear.

Concordia University, which is located nearby, sent shuttle buses to help remove Dawson students and offered counselling services. École Polytechnique sent out a “message of solidarity.”