Gunman Identified

Virginia Tech Police identified the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before turning the gun on himself as student Cho Seung-Hui, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said Tuesday.
The 23-year-old South Korean and resident alien lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said. He was an English major, the chief said.
Flinchum said ballistics tests showed that one of the two guns recovered at Norris Hall, where 30 people and the gunman died, was used in the Norris shooting and an earlier shooting at a dormitory that left two dead.
The university and police are still in the process of releasing the names of the 32 people killed in Monday's shootings.
A doctor at a Blacksburg hospital described the injuries he saw Monday as "amazing" and the shooter as "brutal."
"There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in them," said Dr. Joseph Cacioppo of Montgomery Regional Hospital.
Even among the less serious injuries, Cacioppo said, "we saw one patient that had a bullet wound to the wrist, one to the elbow and one to the thigh. We had another one with a bullet wound to the abdomen, one to the chest and one to the head."
A law enforcement source close to the investigation said a .22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene

Virginia Tech a Battlefield

April 26th 2007 Virgina Tech

Questions remain after worst U.S. shooting rampage

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Police and university officials faced pressure on Tuesday to explain how a gunman evaded detection between killing two people and going on to kill 30 others two hours later in America's worst shooting rampage.
The man killed himself in a classroom at Virginia Tech university after opening fire on students and staff in an apparently premeditated massacre on Monday morning.
The gunman was an Asian male who was a student at the university and a dormitory resident, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger told CNN. His name was not released.

Television images of terrified students and police dragging out bloody victims revived memories of the infamous Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and were likely to renew heated debate about America's gun laws.
Police said the gunman appeared to have used chains to lock doors and prevent victims from escaping. Fifteen people were wounded, including those shot and students hurt jumping from windows in a desperate attempt to flee the gunfire.
"This man was brutal," Dr. Joseph Cacioppo, an emergency room physician who treated the wounded, told CNN. "There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in them."
Many students expressed anger that they were not warned of any danger until more than two hours after the first attack at a dormitory -- and then only in an e-mail from the university

Virginia Tech president says gunman was a student; 33 killed, 15 wounded

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Police and university authorities faced pressure Tuesday to explain how a gunman apparently evaded detection after killing two people and then went on to kill 30 others two hours later in America’s worst shooting rampage.
The bloodbath ended Monday with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever.
Virginia Tech’s president said the gunman was a student at the university in at least the second of the two attacks.
“We do know that he was an Asian male — this is the second incident — an Asian man who was a resident in one of our dormitories,” university president Charles Steger said in an interview with CNN, confirming for the first time that the killer was a student.
Though he did not explicitly say the student was also the gunman in the first shooting, he said he did not believe there was another shooter.
Local authorities have scheduled a media briefing for 9 a.m. Tuesday

Gunman a Student

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Virginia Tech's president said Tuesday that a student was the gunman in at least the second of the two campus attacks that claimed 33 lives to become the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

Though he did not explicitly say the student was also the gunman in the first shooting, he said he did not believe there was another shooter at large.
Two hours after two people were killed at a dormitory Monday, 30 more people were killed at a campus building by a gunman who finally killed himself with a shot to his head.
"We do know that he was an Asian male — this is the second incident — an Asian man who was a resident in one of our dormitories," university president Charles Steger said in an interview with CNN, confirming for the first time that the killer was a student.
Steger also defended the university's delay in warning students after the first shooting. Some students said their first notice came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., after the second shooting had begun.

Eye Witness Account of Virginia Tech Shooting

Students in Blacksburg, Virginia, described a chaotic scene as word of the shootings spread by e-mail, word-of-mouth and the school's emergency loudspeakers:

Tiffany Otey, Virginia Tech student: "At first we really weren't sure what was going on. It sounded like construction. There's a lot of construction going on always during our classes at that time. Then it was like a continuous gunfire going off like every second or so there would be another shot. There was approximately probably 50 shots total. ... At one point we did hear screaming because people were running out of the building and at this point, we were all kind of frightened as to wonder, what happens to us? We're like sitting there, too, like, who knows if the shooter was going to come up the next floor.
Maybe 10 minutes later we were in the room. The police came up. They all had bulletproof vests on, machine guns. They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot. I guess they were afraid, like us, like the shooter was going to be among one of us. So we were told to keep our hands above our head and run out of the building. At one point, somebody didn't have their hands above their head and one of the cops stated, you know, put your hands above your head, like we're going to have to shoot."

Jason Piatt, student: What happened today, this was ridiculous. I don't know what was going through this guy's mind, but I'm pretty outraged -- and I'll say on the record I'm pretty outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 in the morning and the first e-mail about it, no mention of locking down campus, no mention of canceled classes, they just mention they're investigating a shooting a few hours later at 9:26. That's pretty ridiculous. Meanwhile, while they sent out that e-mail, 21 people got killed.

Jamal Albarghouti, student: "The first thing I saw is when the policeman started taking their guns out. Then I knew this was serious. I didn't hear anything about the shooting that happened in A.J. but when I saw the guns, I thought there was just another bomb threat. Then I started hearing some gunshots far away. It seemed to me -- where the cops are near right now. And then all the cops were trying to get into Norris Hall and they used like a bomb or something to open one of the doors. Probably they dropped a bomb in the building. There was a person on the second floor of Norris trying to tell the cops that he's in there. And probably trying to guide him in."

Kristyn Heiser, student: "We were having class as usual and my teacher was lecturing and then there was a big window in our classroom and we saw all of a sudden about -- this was probably around 9:30 -- about six officers run by the building with their guns drawn. We were like, what's going on? Because this definitely is a quaint town where stuff doesn't really happen. It's pretty boring here. We were all alarmed, but someone got on their laptop and checked the Web site. All the Web site said was that there had been a shooting incident and that it had occurred at that dorm, which is across campus."

Matt Waldron, student: "I was on campus today, and I was walking toward class with my iPod on and these police cars started streaming down the sidewalk and kids were peeling off. I guess there were gunshots. It was right behind the building that I was in. And so they peeled us alongside the building. We had to stay inside there for like 15 minutes buildings. These two kids panicked and jumped out of the top story window. One kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground. It was just mayhem. They told us to get out there. We ran across the drill field as quick as we could. There were cops yelling, and it was just a mess. It was kind of scary."

Laura Spaventa, student: "I was in Shanks Hall, which is located in the upper portion of campus, and we were having class, and all of a sudden we had e-mail saying that, like, there was a shooting on campus and then we were updated with it saying that, like, classes were being canceled and to stay where we were. ... Right after we got that e-mail we heard five shots on campus, and we could hear the emergency speaker system. So we all got down under the desks and moved away from the windows.
There must have been at least over 20 or 30 cop cars and ambulances. Like, every street was lined with them. I did not see like openings at all, like, it was really scary. All the cops had, like, vests on, and some had guns in their hands and everything. I felt like I was in a war zone, or in the middle of like the city, or something. It was just very, very unsettling."