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Reincarnated killers?

They weren't just inspired by the Columbine shooters — two teenage gunmen with a mission to kill students and teachers at a suburban high school in Littleton, Colo. Lindsay Souvannarath and James Gamble thought they were them.

Hundreds of messages between the co-conspirators plotting to terrorize a Halifax mall show "they believe they are reincarnations of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold," the lead investigator of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting says in a newly-released report.

Kate Battan was contacted by a senior Crown attorney with Nova Scotia's public prosecution service last year. She was asked to examine the online conversations between Souvannarath and Gamble to determine if there were similarities between their plan to go on a shooting rampage at the Halifax Shopping Centre with the Columbine massacre.

Her report, released this week at Souvannarath's sentencing hearing, draws dozens of unsettling parallels between the school shooting and the planned Valentine's Day slaughter at the Halifax mall.

The Columbine shooters left behind numerous writings, journals and the "basement videos" — three hours of Harris and Klebold talking about their plan, Battan explains.

"These videos represent a 'call to arms' in many respects and encourage others to follow in their footsteps," she says, adding that the materials provide instructions to successfully carry out a similar violent act.

The Facebook messages between Souvannarath and Gamble illustrate the extent of the apparent delusion.

Souvannarath says, "maybe Eric and Dylan have somehow become us, become part of our minds."

"We both feel like we 'died' a long time ago, maybe it's because we've taken on the minds of these actual dead people, and that marks the time we both died."

She adds:"You want to die so badly because you know this isn't the body you actually belong in — there's a dissonance between mind and body where you're Dylan but you're not Dylan."

Souvannarath says it explains why they both can't function in the adult world because, "Eric and Dylan died so young after all."

"When Eric and Dylan both died, their mission on Earth wasn't really finished yet, so they had to take us over," she says.

The planned attack was thwarted by police after an anonymous tip was received by Crime Stoppers, but not before Souvannarath boarded a plane in Chicago, Ill., for Nova Scotia.

Gamble killed himself as police surrounded his Halifax-area home, while Souvannarath was arrested at the airport. A third accomplice — a local man described in court as the "cheerleader" of the murderous plot — was sentenced to a decade in jail.

Souvannarath, now 26, has been held at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional facility in a Halifax-area industrial park since her arrest three years ago.

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge has reserved his sentencing decision until Friday.

The Crown is recommending a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, while the defence says the sentence should be 12 to 14 years, with credit for time served.



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