33 Confirmed Killed in Shooting at VA Tech

[bullet]

to be honest, i don't feel much safer anywhere. i think if it's gonna happen...it's gonna happen. i mean, they pretty much died for no reason.

[Cascadia]

I am not saying that I feel 100% safe but I do not think that it is necessary to look over my shoulder all of the time. I just need to be aware of my surroundings.

[Sliced]

You know, I don't know why, but I really think that we're gonna see more of this... I wouldn't be surprised really. We had montreal this summer, and now this, and another one last year if I remember correctly. 2(3) Shootings in such a short period. This is crazy. I can't believe this. I first thought that this whole thing was a memorial of an event that took place some years ago... But man was I wrong.

I just can't believe this. 33 people just died because someone simply lost it... Its just that damn easy to kill uh ? Man... And now what.. There might be 2 killers ? They're not even sure if there's another killer still running...

Well, I just hope that it will stop at 33 victims. What else to say really ?

[Cascadia]

I think that you are right, Sliced. In August of 2006, there was a shooting at Virginia Tech. During that time, the shooter broke out of prison and killed several students before he shot himself, I believe.

[Sliced]

No if I remember right, only a cop got shot. But I'll have to verify, but you're right, including that shooting, its bringing the total to 3(4) just in the last year...

[Cascadia]

It is truly a shame that people have to do this to each other. Why do they have to be so cruel to one another?

[Sliced]

Hahaha, remember that you're talking about the worst thing that ever happened to this poor planet earth... Us.

Humans are a plague... Our brains are extremely developped, yet so damn fragile... A trauma is all it takes really. Emotional or physical... Don't really matter, both are just so damn destructive.. That guy might be a poor soul who had a life who was worth ****.... We'll know soon. But really, wouldn't be too surprised to see that the guy just screamed for help on a myspace page or a blog...

Just like in the shooting of Montreal, the guy wrote on his myspace that he was in search of help, that he couldn't take it anymore... and he just lost it and went ballistic.

We're just so damn fragile. Its sad really...

[Kunoichi_Haruko]

Here's an incomplete list of the confirmed dead:

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

I'll also put this in my first post to update it.

[That Matt Guy]

I must be living under a rock, because I had not heard about this until just now.

[Kunoichi_Haruko]

Really? There's been constant news coverage for the last 24 hours...



They just released the name of the shooter:

Cho Seung-Hui, 23. English major at Virginia Tech.

That's all I managed to catch from the VT police press conference.

[iris]

I wish I hadn't looked at that list. I feel sick now.

Originally Posted by Doctor Strange

I must be living under a rock, because I had not heard about this until just now.

Mind if I borrow your rock next time?

[OA]

Originally Posted by Kunoichi_Haruko

Really? There's been constant news coverage for the last 24 hours...



They just released the name of the shooter:

Cho Seung-Hui, 23. English major at Virginia Tech.

That's all I managed to catch from the VT police press conference.

Yea, and they just released a pic thats supposed to be him as well...but last I saw its not confirmed its actually him...

[Raph's Girl]

Originally Posted by Kunoichi_Haruko

Cho Seung-Hui, 23. English major at Virginia Tech.

Yep! A South Korean. The Korean embassy sent their sympathies as soon as they found out.

Apperantly he was a loner so they don't know much about him.

I saw a pic of him on CNN... scary lookin kid.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070417/...shooting_dc_26

The gunman who killed 32 people and then himself at Virginia Tech university on Monday was identified by police on Tuesday as Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean studying at the university.

Police said Cho was 23 and was studying English literature. They gave no motive for the shooting rampage, the worst in U.S. history.

Police said one of two guns recovered was used in both of the two separate shooting incidents at the campus that killed a total of 33 people, including Cho.

"The evidence has not led us to say with all certainty that the same shooter was involved in both shootings," Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, told a news conference.

"It's certainly reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places."

Victims were found in at least four classrooms as well as a stairwell, he said.

"The gunman was discovered among several of the victims in one of the classrooms," Flaherty said. "He had taken his own life."

The rampage sent the sprawling rural campus, where there are more than 25,000 full-time students, into shock and grief.

Laura Bush were to attend a memorial service at Virginia Tech later on Tuesday.

Television images of terrified students and police dragging out bloody victims revived memories of the 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.

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.

"We knew that there was a shooting but we thought it was confined to a particular setting," Charles Steger, the university president, said on Monday.

Steger defended campus police from criticism they failed to take adequate safety measures after the first shooting.

"They have worked very professionally and handled this as skillfully as anybody might be able to do it," he said.

The first shooting was reported to campus police at about 7:15 a.m. (1115 GMT) in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory housing some 900 students. Two hours later, dozens of shots were fired a half-mile away at Norris Hall, site of the science and engineering school.

Authorities have not released the names of the victims but Israeli media reported one of the dead was Liviu Librescu, an Israeli citizen and engineering professor at the university.

[Mecha Cow]

Hahaha, remember that you're talking about the worst thing that ever happened to this poor planet earth... Us.

Please let's not go there again. This is neither the time nor the place for such nonsense.

[iris]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

I saw a pic of him on CNN... scary lookin kid.

Why, because he's not smiling? He looks rather ordinary to me. He'd blend right into the NoVA population. Not that I have scads of experience in identifying mass murderers.

[Revan]

Originally Posted by Raph's Girl

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.

"We knew that there was a shooting but we thought it was confined to a particular setting," Charles Steger, the university president, said on Monday.

Steger defended campus police from criticism they failed to take adequate safety measures after the first shooting.

"They have worked very professionally and handled this as skillfully as anybody might be able to do it," he said.

That is quite unfortunate. I don't know if I would go to class if the university contacted me and said there had been a shooting. I think the students have a right to be angered.

[Voltron]

I agree. They had two hours and a solid lead on the suspect, but little was done about it. Two hours later he kills thirty-three victims and injures dozens more. Two hours.

Not to mention he was walking around campus for two hours. Isn't there security present on campus? Wouldn't an APB be put out for this character?


In all reality, if I had found out that I sent my kid to a university that deals with two shootings by sending out a vague email cautioning students not to worry about police activity? I'd hit the roof.

These students have every right to be angered, and the families of the victims have every right to sue this college into oblivion.

[Masked Ninja]

I think it was slow notification to be sure... but who would have thought that the gunman would hang around for more? They probably thought he'd just taken off, as most normal people (even normal murderers) would do.

You can play the "coulda shoulda woulda" game, but while there's stuff they could have improved, I don't think they were exactly negligent. Shootings this terrible are rare for a reason. But they really would have benefited from sending that email out faster, I think. Or would the students really have thought there would be a continued threat, enough to not go to class in a very public place?

And phew, my friend isn't on the list... yet. *prays...*

[iris]

I think they did their best in the circumstances. They apparently had reason to think that the gunman had left campus. They were actively looking for him. It's not like shootings occur in Blacksburg very often, so it's doubtful they were nonchalant about this to begin with.

[Revan]

My opinion remains, they should have cancelled classes and notified the students faster. But I wonder what the best course of action would have been. Is there a procedure for something like this?