Dawson victim's family rejects meeting with shooter's mom

The family of Anastasia De Sousa, the student who was fatally shot at Montreal's Dawson College, will not consider meeting with the killer's mother, the slain girl's aunt said Monday.

Natalie Hevey made the comment to CJAD Radio in Montreal on Monday, just hours after Parvinder Sandhu, the mother of shooter Kimveer Gill,told the same station she would like to offer her condolences in person to the De Sousa family at some point.

Gill, 25, went on the shooting rampage on Sept. 13 at the school's downtown campus, killing the 18-year-old girl and wounding 19 others before turning a gun on himself.

"Forgive my son," Sandhu said. "I apologize to everybody at Dawson College, whoever suffered and got injured, especially De Sousa's parents and the family."

Hevey later told the radio station that she was with De Sousa's mother when they heard the Sandhu interview, and felt compelled to respond.

"We heard the mother's voice over the radio saying she would like to meet with us and give us our condolences," Hevey said. "That won't happen.

"I feel for her," Hevey added. "Listen, her son is a murderer — point blank, murderer. That's all he is, he's a killer."

Loss painful

Hevey acknowledged their position might sound unsympathetic, but said the family was having a difficult time dealing with the loss of the teenager.

Earlier, Sandhu said her son was a normal person, adding shedid not notice any change in his character preceding the shooting.

"That's what's killing me," she said.

In the aftermath of the shooting, several neighbours told reporters of seeing a young man, often dressed all in black, who rarely smiled and had recently sported a Mohawk haircut.

Gill maintained a space on vampirefreaks.com, where his blogs often featured a mix of violent fantasy and alienation.

Sandhu saidher family wasunaware of his presence on the site, which has sought to raise money for Montreal hospitals in the wake of the unflattering publicity.

Sandhu said the family was aware that Gill owned a gun and practised shooting, but could not answer how he obtained a restricted firearm.

Funerals for both De Sousa and Gill were conducted on the same day.

Prayer for victim

When asked whether they had considered holdingthe service on another day, Sandhu saidthe family hadfocused on the arrangements for her son and had avoided media reports that may have revealed the date of De Sousa's funeral. Sandhu said her son's funeral began with a prayer for the slain teenager.

Hospital officials said Monday three more people wounded in Gill's rampage had been released over the weekend from two Montreal hospitals. All but two of the 13 casualties who had been admitted to hospital have now been discharged.

A 22-year-old man remains in critical but stable condition with a bullet in his brain, said Montreal General Hospital official Seeta Ramdass. An 18-year-old woman who suffered wounds to the chest and abdomen remains at the hospital.