Montreal shooter hinted at his plans on a Web page

Quebec The Montreal man who launched a killing spree on a downtown college campus all but announced his bloodthirsty plan on a Web page dedicated to guns and violence.

But the Brooklyn man who runs the site, VampireFreaks.com, insisted Thursday there was nothing he could have done to stop Kimveer Gill, 25, from playing out his fantasy of reenacting the Columbine High School massacre.

Gill, 25, killed Anastasia De Sousa, 18, and wounded 19 other people at Dawson College in Montreal before turning the gun on himself Wednesday, police said.

"It's horrible what happened," said Jethro Berelson, 27, of New York. "It's a tragedy, but I don't think the site is responsible at all."

Gill posted photos of himself brandishing guns and knives and boasted planning a mass killing on his page on the site.

He played a disturbing video game simulating the Columbine massacre and went by the user name Fatality666.

One photo has a tombstone with his name on it and the epitaph: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."

Just two hours before the shootings unfolded, Gill said he had been drinking and was feeling "postal."

Berelson said the Web site, which he founded in 1999, frowns on illegal behavior and bans nudity, hatred and Nazi paraphernalia. But the self-described computer geek conceded it's impossible to enforce those rules for all 600,000 members.

"Just because someone goes around shooting people doesn't mean that this Web site has influenced him to do such a horrible thing," Berelson wrote in an open letter to users.

Gill, who lived with his parents in a suburb of Montreal, wore a black trench coat and had his hair in a mohawk when he walked into the college and started shooting.

Cops first said Gill was shot and killed by police, but Thursday they said he shot himself.

On his quiet suburban block, neighbors said Gill gave few signs that he was planning a shooting spree.

"He was the least-aggressive person I knew. He was a mellow guy," said Mike Priest, 21, who grew up across the street. "If I had known about his Web site, maybe I would've seen it coming."

Gill's parents are from the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka and they have lived in middle-class Laval for at least a decade. His mother insisted Gill was no maniac.

"He was a good son," said the mother, who refused to give her name.