Not surprisingly, much of the attention surrounding the shootings at Dawson College in Montreal has focused on the blog that the killer maintained on a site called VampireFreaks.com, a kind of MySpace for "goths" and other angst-ridden teenagers interested in heavy metal music, eyeliner and (occasionally) Satanism and death. There's a cached version of his profile (which has been taken down) here and some entries from his online journal here.

According to the entry at Wikipedia -- which has already been updated to add the connection to the recent shootings -- the site started as a personal Web page, and now has more than 500,000 active users and about 3 million page views a day. As Wikipedia notes, VampireFreaks has been associated with two other criminal events: in one high-profile case, a girl's postings on the site led to a mistrial in the case of a boy named Jonathan who was killed by his older brother and several friends, and in another case a girl and her boyfriend who used the site are accused of killing her parents.

But there has also been plenty of activity on other blogs. Naturally, many Montreal residents and former Dawson College students have posted their thoughts expressing shock, anger and other emotions about the events (the Globe's ongoing coverage can be found here). But there have also been eyewitness accounts and other posts from those close to the college or at the school when it was attacked, including one from a LiveJournal blogger called "stylistix," a longer eyewitness account from another LiveJournal blogger named David Sanftenberg, one from a blogger at Windows Live Spaces, a long post from Jay at a Montreal city-blog, and a personal account here.

There are other comments on various blogs, including this one from a former student on LiveJournal and another personal account from an eyewitness named Arileen here. I should note that there is no way of confirming whether or not any of these bloggers actually witnessed what they say they witnessed, or whether they are who they say they are. For the squeamish or prudish, some of the posts I've linked to use some graphic language, which isn't surprising given the magnitude of what they are describing. A hat tip goes to J. Kelly Nestruck and Darren Barefoot for some of the links.

Several Flickr users have posted photos related to the Dawson College attacks, including Robert Lio and a user named Blork, who also has a blog post here. A user named esTes/Belz has created and uploaded a memorial banner for people to use on their webpages about the event.

If you know of any other posts, please let me know either by posting a comment or emailing me at mingram@globeandmail.com. If you have cellphone photos of the event, please send an email to snagy@globeandmail.com

Reader email:

Here's an email I got from David Brown:

Dear Sir,  I am a tourist from San Diego who stayed in  Old Montreal Sept. 9-13. On Sept. 12 had breakfast at about 9 or 10am at a diner on McGill Street, which is at the corner of McGill and Rue NotreDame or Rue St. Jaques. The suspect in the Dawson Shooting was eating breakfast at that time with three other older men in a booth by the window.

He appeared to be relaxed and having a pleasant time. Almost none else was in the resturant at the time so the waitress might remember them since he did have a distinctive mohawk. I read that one of his last entries on his blog mentioned having eggs and toast. So the slight significance, or not. The eggs are very good there and a great value.

Video clips:

There are several video clips on YouTube that were apparently taken with cellphone cameras during the shootings. They include one uploaded by panzo69 and one from inside the college. There are comments on some of the videos from students and witnesses.

Comment from VampireFreaks.com:

A reader emailed to let me know that the website has posted a comment on the Dawson College attacks. It says: "so yes there's been a lot of press lately regarding a shooting in montreal, where the person involved was a member of this site.

i offer my condolences to the victims and their families, it really is a tragic event. however we do not condone or influence this type of behavior in any way. just because someone goes around shooting people and happens to be a member of vampirefreaks, doesn't mean that this website has influenced him to do such a horrible thing. the goth scene is a very friendly, nurturing, non-violent community and we are very supportive of our users and do not condone any illegal activities. we have an excellent team of administrators who moderate the site, and a useful system which allows all users to report illegal and suspicious activity. thank you to all the users who continue to help us moderate the site.

i do think this event is a tragedy, but i feel that this site is wrongly being associated with the shooting. i'm sure this kid also had accounts on various other sites, but the media likes to associate crimes with gothic culture because it makes a better story for them.

so, i just want to ask our members to really try to set a good example to the world, to show that we really are caring, responsible, non-violent people. in fact i believe we are more mature and responsible than other scenes, in that we value intelligence, part of goth culture is thinking for yourself and being more aware of the world, rather than just following the mainstream trends. don't let a few bad seeds ruin our reputation, we are a great community."

A poem:

A reader sent in this link to a poem written about the Dawson College shootings.