Dawson Students Prepare To Return To Class Next Week
Posted September 16, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Faculty and students are preparing to resume classes Tuesday, but many have already stopped by the campus to lay flowers and notes of condolence outside for the DeSousa family. Counselling will be available as students prepare to head back to class.
DeSousa’s grieving boyfriend, Nick Debeyiotis, told a Montreal newspaper that Anastasia and Gill were worlds apart – that she loved life and he hated it. He described his girlfriend as an outgoing woman who knew exactly what she wanted out of life.
Gill, on the other hand, was described as particularly quiet in the days leading up to the shooting. His mother told a South Asian radio station in Montreal that struck her as unusual because he was normally talkative and obedient.
Gill bought firearms from at least two Montreal gun clubs. An employee of one of the clubs said he sold the killer a 10-shot semi-automatic Glock pistol and said Gill had passed all government safety tests and qualified for a firearms licence.
Gill’s mother, Parvinder Sandhu, who’s reportedly fighting breast cancer, said she thought her son was at the target range at a gun club on Wednesday afternoon when the deadly rampage was happening.
Sandhu reportedly apologized for her son’s actions in an interview with a French television station and blamed the Internet sites he’d been visiting for his violent actions. She also reportedly said the family knew Gill had weapons, but thought he was just getting a new hobby.
She also reportedly said she had no idea her son posted pictures of himself posing with weapons on the Internet and said if she and her husband had known the trouble their son was in, they would’ve intervened.
There are also reports that Gill wanted to join the Canadian Forces to follow in the military footsteps of his family in India. He did attend basic training in 1999 at an army base in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, but dropped out after a month.
Two of the students wounded in Wednesday’s rampage remain in critical condition. Dawson officials have reportedly removed all traces of the terrifying attack and have fixed walls and doors in classrooms, the cafeteria and the atrium.
Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay has urged residents with flags to fly them at half-staff. A book of condolence is also available for the public to sign at city hall through Sunday.
