WORLD / America
Va. Tech gunman was from S.Korea
(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-17 19:11
BLACKSBURG, Va. - A Virginia Tech senior from South Korea killed at least
30 people locked inside a classroom building in the deadliest shooting
rampage in modern US history, the university and police said Tuesday.
Haiyan Cheng prays during a vigil, for the Virginia Tech shooting
victims, at the Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church in Blacksburg, Va.,
Monday, April 16, 2007. [AP]
Ballistics tests also found that one of the guns used in that attack was
also used in a shooting two hours earlier at a Virginia Tech dorm that
left two people dead, Virginia State Police said.
Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior
from South Korea who was in the English department and lived in another
dorm on campus. They said Cho committed suicide after the attacks, and
there was no indication Tuesday of a possible motive.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about
him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.
Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because
the information had not been announced, said Cho's fingerprints were
found on the guns used in both shootings. The serial numbers on the two
weapons had been filed off, the officials said.
One law enforcement official said Cho's backpack contained a receipt for
a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol.
Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said it
was reasonable to assume that Cho was the shooter in both attacks but
that link was yet definitive.
"There's no evidence of any accomplice at either event, but we're
exploring the possibility," he said.
Cho was a permanent legal resident of the United States, according to a
Homeland Security Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity
because the information had not been announced.
A memorial service was planned for the victims Tuesday afternoon at the
university, and President Bush planned to attend, the White House said.
Gov. Tim Kaine was flying back to Virginia from Tokyo for the 2 p.m.
convocation.
The first deadly attack, at a dormitory around 7:15
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Our nation is shocked and saddened by the news of the shootings at
Virginia Tech today. Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and
learning.
Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of
monumental proportions. There were two shootings which occurred on campus.
a.m., left two people dead. But some students said they didn't get their
first warning about a danger on campus until two hours later, in an
e-mail at 9:26 a.m. By then the second attack had begun.
Two students told NBC's "Today" show they were unaware of the dorm
shooting when they walked into Norris Hall for a German class where the
gunman later opened fire.
The victims in Norris Hall were found in four different classrooms and a
stairwell, Flaherty said. Cho was found dead in one of those classrooms,
he said.
Derek O'Dell, his arm in a cast after being shot, described a shooter who
fired away in "eerily silence" with "no specific target - just taking out
anybody he could."
After the gunman left the room, students could hear him shooting other
people down the hall. O'Dell said he and other students barricaded the
door so the shooter couldn't get back in - though he later tried.
"After he couldn't get the door open he tried shooting it open ... but
the gunshots were blunted by the door," O'Dell said.
A federal law enforcement official said Tuesday he had been told by other
federal law enforcement officials that the two guns recovered in the
shooting had had their serial numbers scraped off. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced.
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 a tragedy of such unspeakable horror it defies reason.
"For Ryan and Emily and for those whose names we do not know," one woman
pleaded in a church service Monday night.
Comments:
Submit yours hies 2007-04-17 09:35
It seems that American schools are violence-haunted schools. No matter
where the killer is from, it's in America that the blood shedding
incident is happening. It is worth the attention of managing authorities
of both schools and government,after all, body safety is the most
essential right.
Another mourner added: "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, and the gunman's name was not
immediately released.
The shooting began about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of West Ambler
Johnston, a high-rise coed dormitory where two people died.
Police were still investigating around 9:15 a.m., when a gunman wielding
two handguns and carrying multiple clips of ammunition stormed Norris
Hall, a classroom building a half-mile away on the other side of the
2,600-acre campus.
At least 20 people were taken to hospitals after the second attack, some
seriously injured. Many 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.
SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed
over the campus. A student used his cell-phone camera to record the sound
of bullets echoing through a stone building.
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