33 Dead After Virginia Tech University Shooting

[whitesoxfan101]

Well, now that I was finally able to talk to my buddy at VT more (keep him in your prayers, he was actually at the spot where that now imfamous video was taken 5 minutes earlier and heard gunfire, so he's a bit shaken up), it seems like this couldn't have been prevented. But this is also just confusing as hell, I have no idea how they will sort all this out. What a horrible trajedy though, i'm terrified of seeing the list of 33, as one of my better friends might have a friend or two on it it sounds like .

[SoxAce]

I'm still in awe about this and kinda confused myself. This is just as scary as the Columbine fiasco.

[southsider2k5]

I could hardly watch any of the coverage last night. I know the urge to blame someone is human nature, but it has seemingly taken over and completely overshadowed the important thing here. 33 people are dead. People's kids are never coming home. There will be a time to sort out the who, what, where and when, but for now, I think we need to worry about these families who will never be the same again.

 

May God be with everyone of them.

[RME JICO]

Now they are saying that the guy was not even a US citizen and was here on a Visa either from Korea or China.

[Controlled Chaos]

It's really sad that everyone is trying to assign blame here. There is one person to blame and that is the shooter. Everyone else was doing everything they possible could. Who can look at a domestic dispute...be it murder suicide or even a boyfriend coming and killing his girlfriend and RA, and predict that shooter to be a mass murderer. They're not clairvoyants. Nothing about that first incident indicated what was to come.

 

 

It's a sad sad situation, but direct the blame to the right person. The school administration and the police department are all dealing with this.

 

 

My prayers are with all the wounded and murdered. God Bless.

[southsider2k5]

The shooter now is being named, and confirmed as the only shooter.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-0...ch_N.htm?csp=34

 

By USA TODAY staff

BLACKSBURG, Va. — The person believed responsible for the nation's deadliest shooting rampage was a South Korean student at Virginia Tech, campus police said Tuesday as the investigation continued into a massacre that claimed 33 lives.

The Virginia Tech Police Department identified the campus gunman as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a student and native of South Korea. He was a senior in the English department, police said.

 

Campus police also said one weapon was used in both shootings Monday — one at a campus building and one in a dormitory. A second weapon also was used at the campus building — Norris Hall — where at least 30 people were killed before Cho committed suicide, police said.

 

Two others were killed earlier Monday at the Ambler Johnston dormitories.

 

 

It is "certainly reasonable" to assume Cho was responsible for both Virginia Tech shootings, said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. However, investigators have not yet ruled out the possibility another person could have been involved.

 

"The evidence has not led us to say with all certainty that the same shooter was involved in both instances," he told reporters.

 

The chaos at Norris hass has complicated the investigation there, he said. Victims were found in at least four classrooms and along a stairwell. Personal effects were strewn about, Flaherty said.

 

"What went on during that incident caused tremendous chaos and panic," he said.

 

The new information came as Virginia Tech began to try to recover from the rampage. A convocation is scheduled for this afternoon on campus. President Bush is among the tens of thousands expected to attend.

 

"The president and Mrs. Bush are going to Virginia Tech as representatives of the entire nation," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

 

Bush also directed that flags be flown at half-staff through Sunday evening in honor of the Virginia Tech victims.

 

The campus canceled all classes for the week. Norris Hall will be closed for the rest of the semester, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said.

 

This morning, Steger again defended the response of the campus police in the shootings. The police were called to the Ambler Johnston dormitory shootings Monday and, after suspecting the shootings were part of a domestic dispute, decided not to lock down the Virginia Tech campus. The killings at Norris Hall came two hours later.

 

Steger noted that only 9,000 of the university's approximately 25,000 students live on campus, meaning that many of the rest — along with about 8,000 teachers and employees — were en route to the university Monday when the first shootings occurred. "We warned the students we thought were immediately impacted," he said on CNN, noting campus police closed off the area around the dormitory immediately after the shooting.

 

When pressed on CNN about whether Virginia Tech police "blew it," Steger responded, "I don't think it's fair at all" to characterize the situation that way.

 

The slayings left people of this once-peaceful mountain town and the university at its heart praying for the victims and struggling to find order in the face of horror that defies reason.

 

A mourner at a church service Monday night prayed "for parents near and far who wonder at a time like this, 'Is my child safe?"'

 

That question promises to haunt Blacksburg long after Monday's attacks. Investigators offered no motive.

 

 

VIDEO: Psychology behind a mass shooter

USA TODAY ON POLITICS: Will tragedy put gun control on campaign agenda?

 

In addition to the deaths, at least 15 people were hurt in the second attack, some seriously. At least 12 remained hospitalized Tuesday, with three in critical condition. Many victims Monday found themselves trapped after someone, apparently the shooter, chained and locked Norris Hall doors from the inside.

 

Students jumped from windows, and students and faculty carried away some of the wounded without waiting for ambulances to arrive.

 

At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a male who was a "person of interest" in the dorm shooting and who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.

 

"I'm not saying there's a gunman on the loose," Flinchum said. Ballistics tests will help explain what happened, he said.

 

Some students bitterly complained they got no warning from the university until an e-mail that arrived more than two hours after the first shots.

 

"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.

 

Steger said authorities believed the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.

 

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.

 

The massacre Monday took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

 

Previously, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history was in 1991 when in a man in a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, shot 23 people to death and himself.

 

The deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history had been a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

 

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined whether they were linked to the shootings.

 

It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of gunfire.

 

Contributing: The Associated Press; Donna Leinwand in Blacksburg, Va.; David Jackson in Washington; Randy Lilleston in McLean, Va.

[Flash Tizzle]

How exactly does an international student purchase weapons? He must have known the right people with the right connections.

 

I'm not sure how long this will be up, but a blog displaying the myspace pages of several victims has been created.

 

Myspace Pages

[StrangeSox]

Serial numbers were filed off of the guns, maybe they weren't obtained legally.

[southsider2k5]

Serial numbers were filed off of the guns, maybe they weren't obtained legally.

I'm thinking the chances were a little better than "maybe". I can't imagine what it takes to make someone want to inflict this much harm on people he doesn't even know.

[Soxy]

I'm thinking the chances were a little better than "maybe". I can't imagine what it takes to make someone want to inflict this much harm on people he doesn't even know.

Didn't they find a receipt for the guns in his backpack though? How many illegal arms dealers give out receipts?

[southsider2k5]

Didn't they find a receipt for the guns in his backpack though?

 

I don't know. I haven't seen that yet.

[StrangeSox]

I think there's still too much misinformation out there. We don't have the story straight yet.

[Soxy]

I don't know. I haven't seen that yet.

It's in the Trib stories and the major AP stories.

[southsider2k5]

It's in the Trib stories and the major AP stories.

 

I'll be reading the Trib on the train ride home.

 

It is strange that he would file the numbers off of a legally obtained gun

[Soxy]

I'll be reading the Trib on the train ride home.

 

It is strange that he would file the numbers off of a legally obtained gun

I've also heard he had some mental illness issues in the past (well, obviously, anyone that does something like this isn't right in the head), so I wouldn't scratch my head to hard looking for a rhyme or reason in this.

[retro1983hat]

MSNBC is saying they found a "disturbing note" and a receipt for the guns in his backpack.

[Texsox]

I'll be reading the Trib on the train ride home.

 

It is strange that he would file the numbers off of a legally obtained gun

 

Perhaps he thought at one point he would get away and didn't want the guns traced to him?

[Balta1701]

Here's the ABC version:

We now know the identity of the killer at Virginia Tech.

 

He is Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old resident alien of the United States, as first reported by ABC News.

 

Cho is a South Korean national, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in English and the man who killed 33 people — including himself — on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.

 

Sources tell ABC News that Cho killed two people in a dorm room, returned to his own dorm room where he re-armed and left a "disturbing note," then went to a classroom building on the other side of campus to continue his rampage.

 

Law enforcement sources have now described the note, which runs several pages, as beginning in the present tense and then shifting to the past tense. It contains rhetoric explaining Cho's actions and says, "You caused me to do this," the sources told ABC News.

 

The sources say Cho bought his first gun, a Glock 9 millimeter handgun, on March 13; they say he bought his second weapon, a .22 caliber pistol, within the last week. The serial numbers on both guns had been filed off, they said.

 

Authorities found the receipt for the 9 millimeter handgun in his backpack. They say it also contained two knives and additional ammunition for the two guns.

 

Legal permanent resident aliens may purchase firearms in the state of Virginia. A resident alien must, however, provide additional identification to prove he or she is a resident of the state.

It sounds like if he had a green card, and the law was fully followed, he would have only needed something like a bank statement to show he was a resident of the state, in addition to his green card, to purchase the guns legally. Or he could just have gone to a gun show. Edited April 17, 2007 by Balta1701

[Balta1701]

Since some of the discussion has focused on whether the administrators should have shut down the campus after the initial shooting, I think it's worth pointing out this article from last August. An escaped convict was believed to be in the area of Va. Tech, and the campus was shut down and students told to stay in their rooms on the first day of class.

A hunt for an escaped inmate accused of killing a sheriff's deputy and a security guard ended with his capture Monday at Virginia Tech, where students were told to stay in their rooms, and classes were canceled on the first day of school.

 

William C. Morva, 24, described by state and local law enforcement officials as an "anti-government survivalist," was found hiding shirtless and shoeless in a briar patch near campus athletic fields and less than 150 yards from where he is alleged to have shot and killed a popular and highly decorated sheriff's deputy Monday morning.

 

His capture came hours after edgy police officers interrupted what started as a placid first day of school for the 32,000 students and staff at Virginia Tech. The campus was shut down, and students were sent into locked-down dorms.

[WilliamTell]

Now they are saying that the guy was not even a US citizen and was here on a Visa either from Korea or China.

 

That makes me even more mad.

[Soxy]

That makes me even more mad.

But it's not true.

[Balta1701]

But it's not true.

I think it actually is true that he wasn't a U.S. Citizen. He was, according to press reports, born in South Korea. He had been in the U.S. since he was 9, a period of 14 years, and had appropriate permanent resident status, but he was not a U.S. citizen.

[Soxy]

I think it actually is true that he wasn't a U.S. Citizen. He was, according to press reports, born in South Korea. He had been in the U.S. since he was 9, a period of 14 years, and had appropriate permanent resident status, but he was not a U.S. citizen.

But he wasn't on a visa, he was a legal permanent resident. Which is quite different from being on a visa.

[southsider2k5]

Since some of the discussion has focused on whether the administrators should have shut down the campus after the initial shooting, I think it's worth pointing out this article from last August. An escaped convict was believed to be in the area of Va. Tech, and the campus was shut down and students told to stay in their rooms on the first day of class.

 

The question is, what was the reaction of the campus, and was that reaction the reason they didn't shut it down again?

[bmags]

Read in the times today that one of the professors who was killed was a holocaust survivor, and was barricading the door to let his students get out when the gunman killed him. Courageous, courageous man. RIP.