St. Pius X High School shooting

St. Pius X High School shooting
Location Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Date October 27, 1975 (1975-10-27)
Attack type
 School shooting, spree killing, rape
Weapons
Deaths 3 (including the perpetrator)
Non-fatal injuries
 6
Perpetrator Robert Poulin

The St. Pius X High School shooting occurred on October 27, 1975, at St. Pius X High School in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was Canada's second recorded school shooting. The gunman, Robert Poulin, an 18-year-old St. Pius student, opened fire on his classmates with a shotgun, killing a 17-year-old classmate named Mark Hough and wounding six others before killing himself with a single shotgun wound to the head.[1][2] Earlier that day, Poulin had raped and sodomized a 17-year-old Sri Lankan girl named Kim Rabot in his own bedroom before stabbing her to death. That afternoon, he had traveled to the St. Pius X High School to embark upon his shooting spree.

Poulin hailed from a military family and held military aspirations of his own, having repeatedly remarked to his parents of his desire to become a pilot within the Royal Canadian Air Force. These were largely thwarted by his physical condition and psychological immaturity, resulting in his being rejected from the officer training program he applied to. His physical problems included poor eyesight and a chest deformity.

Poulin had been suicidal for at least three years prior to his attack and was obsessed with sex and pornography, having repeatedly written in his diaries about his desire to experience sex before he died.[3]

A book entitled Rape of a Normal Mind[4] was later written about the incident.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Star
  2. ↑ The Free Library
  3. ↑ Langman, Peter F. "Expanding the Sample: Five School Shooters" (PDF). pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
  4. ↑ Cobb, Christopher and Avery, Bob. (1977). Rape of a Normal Mind. Toronto: Paperjacks. ISBN 0-7701-0025-2

Cited works and further reading

  • Cawthorne, Nigel; Tibballs, Jeffrey (1994). Killers. Boxtree. pp. 265–270. ISBN 0-7522-0850-0.
  • Cobb, Chris (1977). Rape of a Normal Mind. Paper Jacks. ISBN 978-0-770-10025-4.
  • Mellor, Lee (2013). Rampage: Canadian Mass Murder and Spree Killing. Dundurn. ISBN 978-1-459-70722-1.
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