33 Confirmed Killed in Shooting at VA Tech

[Kunoichi_Haruko]

Story is still developing:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/A...gewanted=print

Originally Posted by New York Times

April 16, 2007
At Least 21 Killed in Shooting at Virginia Tech
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:36 p.m. ET

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.

One student was killed in a dorm and the others were killed in the classroom, Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed and classes canceled through Tuesday.

"There's just a lot of commotion. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on," said Jason Anthony Smith, 19, who lives in the dorm where shooting took place.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode's resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.

"They had us under lockdown," Kanode said. "They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again."

"We're all locked in our dorms surfing the Internet trying to figure out what's going on," Kanode said.

Madison Van Duyne, a student who was interviewed by telephone on CNN, said, "We are all in lockdown. Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible."

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

In August 2006, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff's deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.

The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.

I'm too stunned to really say anything at the moment...I had friends who went to Virginia Tech....

A prayer service will be held tomorrow at Noon.



EDIT: Here's an incomplete list of the confirmed dead:

http://www.collegemedia.com/stories/417-300am-none.html

UPDATE: Shooter Identified
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/17/vtech.shooting/

[Cascadia]

One of my cousins graduated from Virginia Tech. Such a disaster for the students and the campus. This is one thing that I have never seen as a college student in the past 10 years.

[Raph's Girl]

They're calling this the worst school shooting in history!! The other bad school shooting was the massacre in Texas in 1966 (I saw the movie of that one a couple years ago).

There werer actually 2 seperate shootings but with the same gunman. 1 at 7:15 at one building and another 2 hours later at another building. Man the footage on CNN by the student is scary!

[Masked Ninja]

Oh, man, I have a friend who goes to VT... hope he's all right...

[Cascadia]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

They're calling this the worst school shooting in history!! The other bad school shooting was the massacre in Texas in 1966 (I saw the movie of that one a couple years ago).

There werer actually 2 seperate shootings but with the same gunman. 1 at 7:15 at one building and another 2 hours later at another building. Man the footage on CNN by the student is scary!

I remember this shooting even though I was not alive yet.

[Cure]

Wait, wait. In the beginning it said he killed 21 people and injured 21 more before HE WAS KILLED. Then at the end, it says he faces capital murder charges. So is he dead? Or are they talking about the shooting in '06?

[Cascadia]

the article even mentioned the one that frightens me....Columbine Massacre in 1999. I lived 30 miles away from Littleton, Colorado. I was a sophomore at the time. The images are still fresh in my mind.

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by Cure4AIDS

Wait, wait. In the beginning it said he killed 21 people and injured 21 more before HE WAS KILLED. Then at the end, it says he faces capital murder charges. So is he dead? Or are they talking about the shooting in '06?

They were talking about the shooting in August.

Oh man!! Now they're saying 30 dead, 28 injured!

[Cascadia]

Oh man...the media will be over this if they haven't already.

[Jo Dawn]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

There werer actually 2 seperate shootings but with the same gunman. 1 at 7:15 at one building and another 2 hours later at another building. Man the footage on CNN by the student is scary!

Yes. They lifted the lockdown, and the shooter killed again. I wonder where he could have been hiding so well as to bypass the police like that.

So is he dead?

Yes. Though they are 'unsure' if the police killed him, or if he took his own life.

Oh man...the media will be over this if they haven't already.

And I hope not, though I'm sure a movie is already in the works. It's sad, yes... But to keep showing it has been proven to plant the seed in other unstable people's minds. We're a terribly over dramatic country... I mean, I feel bad and all... But I've already seen more than I care to.

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by Jo Dawn

Yes. Though they are 'unsure' if the police killed him, or if he took his own life.

Well they're now saying that the shooter was an Asian American male and that he shot himself.

U just know they're gonna make a movie out of this...and Jamal Albarghouti, who filmed the shooting, is already famous cuz of this. Yeesh.

[Kunoichi_Haruko]

Update: 32 people confirmed dead, according to Fox News.

EDIT: 2:40 pm. Associated Press has reduced the number to 31 (including the shooter).

[Raph's Girl]

Apperantly the gunman was a pissed off BF....he shot his GF and another person...then went on a rampage.

[iris]

My whole department at the University of Maryland has been following this story. We have many close ties to Va Tech.

And one of my neighboring research assistants has four friends in the engineering department over there. No news on them yet.

The waiting sucks. But based on the odds, I think knowing is going to suck more.

[Swany]

You wonder how people can do things like this. Stuff like that doesn't hapen often in the UK. But its not uncommon, I just can't beleive it though.

[愛]

I have some pretty close ties with some of the most diabolical and heartless of people on the internet, and there's already a big thing in the CS Community.

http://csvatech.ytmnd.com/

Terrible? Yes. Funny? It's never too early for satire, in my opinion.

[Mr. Snackpants]

Wow this is just crazy. I can't imagine how i would be feeling right now if it happened here where I go to school. I wouldn't want to go to class for a long time, I wouldn't feel safe. It's so sad, I feel for all of their families. How could someone just take the lives of so many people? It's just really depressing

[METALHEAD]

Watch The Language.

-voltron

[MadPirateBunny]

It doesn't make any difference the background of the person.

What matters is that he shot people. He killed people with no regard for human life.

That's beyond sad.

That's plain stupid.

[Mr. Snackpants]

Originally Posted by METALHEAD

Edited out. -VOLTRON

So after you went to church, you decide to start using the term "damn jap"? Are you serious? You basically wasted your whole morning then, huh?