WORLD / America
Police: Va. Tech bloodbath lasted 9 min.
(AP)
Updated: 2007-04-26 09:15
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The bloodbath lasted nine minutes - enough time for
Seung-Hui Cho to unleash 170 rounds from his two pistols, or about one
shot every three seconds.
A Virginia State Police officer patrols the campus of Virginia Tech as
workers continue the process of putting a fence around Norris Hall on the
campus in Blacksburg, Va., Wednesday, April 25, 2007. [AP]
During that time, Virginia Tech and city police spent three minutes
dashing across campus to the scene. Then they began the agonizing process
of breaking into the chained-shut building, which took another five
minutes.
Once inside, as they sprinted toward the sounds of gunfire inside Norris
Hall, Cho put a bullet through his head and died in a classroom alongside
his victims.
A timeline of the rampage emerged Wednesday as police provided new
details about what they uncovered in the 10 days since Cho committed the
worst mass shooting in modern US history.
The five minutes police spent breaking into the building proved to be
crucial. During that time, Cho picked off his victims with a hail of
gunfire. He killed himself after police shot through the doors and rushed
toward the carnage.
State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller praised the officers' response
time, noting that had police simply rushed into the building without a
plan, many would have likely died right along with the staff and
students. She said officers needed to assemble the proper team, clear the
area and then break through the doors.
"If you go in with your backs turned, you're never going back," Geller
said. "There's gotta be some sort of organization."
Some police and security experts question the five-minute delay, saying
authorities should have charged straight into the melee.
"You don't have time to wait," said Aaron Cohen, president of IMS
Security of Los Angeles, who has trained SWAT teams around the country
since 2003. "You don't have time to pre-plan a response. Even if you have
a few guys, you go."
Cohen said that a trained SWAT team should have been able to get inside a
locked building in less than a minute. There was no SWAT team at the
Virginia Tech scene.
Police rapid response to school violence has become an important issue in
the last decade.
After the Columbine massacre in 1999, police around the country adopted
new policies for so-called "active shooters." Police would no longer
respond to emergencies such as school shootings by surrounding a building
and waiting for the SWAT team. Instead, the first four officers rush into
the building and attempt to immediately end the threat. This system was
used to end a 2003 school hostage standoff in Spokane, Wash.
Tom Corrigan, former member of the NYPD-
FBI terrorism task force and a retired New York City detective, said five
minutes seems like a long time when gunfire is being heard, but he said
it's tough to second-guess officers in such a chaotic situation.
"I would have liked to have seen them bust down the door, smash windows,
go around to another door, do everything to get inside fast," he said.
"But it's a tough call because these officers put their lives on the line
on a daily basis and I am sure they did the best they could."
State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty, who is overseeing
the investigative team looking at the shootings, said police have been
unable to answer the case's most vexing questions: Why the spree began at
the West Ambler Johnston dormitory, and why 18-year-old freshman Emily
Hilscher was the first victim.
"We talk about possible motives and theories and whatnot, but we don't
have any evidence to suggest anything," Flaherty said.
Witnesses place Cho outside West Ambler Johnston shortly before 7:15
a.m., when he fired the two shots that killed Hilscher and 22-year-old
senior Ryan Clark, a resident assistant at the dorm, Flaherty said.
It is not known how Cho got in.
Police searched Hilscher's e-mails and phone records looking for a link.
While Flaherty would not discuss exactly what police found, he said
neither Cho's nor Hilscher's records have revealed a connection.
"We certainly don't have any one motive that we are pursuing at this
particular time, or that we have been able to pull together and
formulate," Flaherty said. "It's frustrating because it's so personal,
because we see the families and see the communities suffering, and we see
they want answers."
In addition to the 170 rounds Cho fired inside Norris, investigators
found unused ammunition in the building, though Flaherty was unsure how
much was left. Investigators have compiled 500 pieces of evidence from
Norris Hall alone.
Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said Cho had a class this
semester in Norris Hall, although it was not scheduled to meet on the day
of the rampage.
Flaherty cautioned that it could be months before the case is closed. The
investigation will begin slowing down as authorities examine evidence, he
said.
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