Va:atleast 30 killed in deadliest school shooting

[Qdawg]

Gunman kills at least 30 at Va. Tech
Shooter among dead after he reportedly opened fire in dorm, classroom in deadliest campus shooting rampage in U.S. history; several others wounded
By Sue Lindsey
The Associated Press
Originally published April 16, 2007, 3:28 PM EDT

BLACKSBURG, Va. // A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, in a classroom across campus today, killing at least 30 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, government officials told The Associated Press. The gunman was killed, bringing the death toll to 31.

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

It was not immediately clear whether the gunman was shot by police or took his own life. His name was not released, and investigators offered no motive for the attack. It was not known if the gunman was a student.

The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus, with students complaining that the university did not warn them about the first burst of gunfire until more than two hours later.

Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive.

The massacre took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing at least two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building about a half-mile away, authorities said.

Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Some students bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time, two hours after the bloodshed began.

"What happened today this was ridiculous. And I don't know what happened or what was going through this guy's mind," student Jason Piatt told CNN. "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 o'clock in the morning and the first e-mail about it -- no mention of locking down campus, no mention of canceling classes -- they just mention that they're investigating a shooting two hours later at 9:22."

He added, "That's pretty ridiculous and meanwhile, while they're sending out that e-mail, 22 more people got killed."

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said there was no evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, "but all avenues will be explored."

Up until today, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

The massacre today took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, about 160 miles west of Richmond. With more than 25,000 full-time students, it has the state's largest full-time student population. The school is best known for its engineering school and its powerhouse Hokies football team.

The rampage took place on a brisk spring day, with snow flurries swirling around the campus. The campus is centered around the Drill Field, a grassy field where military cadets -- who now represent a fraction of the student body -- once practiced. The dorm and the classroom building are on opposites sides of the Drill Field.

A gasp could be heard at a campus news conference when Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum said at least 20 people had been killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed.

Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began marking and recovering the large number of shell casings and will trace the weapon used, authorities said.

A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed, and classes were canceled through Tuesday. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children. It also made counselors available and planned an assembly for Tuesday at the basketball arena.

After the shooting began, students were told to stay inside away from the windows.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the fourth 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.

Maurice Hiller, 21, a mechanical engineering student from Richmond, saw police and SWAT team members with guns drawn going toward Norris Hall. "This is something just totally beyond anybody's expectations," he said.

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks by authorities but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.

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

Last August, 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.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation ... -headlines

[George]

Rumor has it that the shooter is a YOUNG ASIAN MALE>

What I think happened was that this individual was picked on and isolated from day one ever since he entered college life.

1) The girls didn't find him attractive cuz he is Asian and they probably put him down and stuff by saying "EWWWWWWW!" Or " CHinaman!".

2) The Black students and White students probably never got to know him as a person. SO they picked on him and called him strange.

3) THis kid was probably American born. He probably didn't clique too well with the other Asian kids born in other countries.
So he would try to make friends with the White/Black/Hispanic kids more.
But they rejected him for being Asian and he ultimately became
insane and
ended up doing this horrible thing.

[areefce]

this is bad i wonder what drives someone this far past the breaking point.i have been hearing about this all day.tragic

[$outhPhillypuppet]

yo what the fucc.
didnt something like this happen like last month or something.
when will people learn to stop fuccin with the quiet guy.

[StreetKnowledge]

Man I got a feeling this Summer of 2007 is going to be crazy as hell. It just turned 07 and fools already shootin up college's and shit. All I know is yall better brace yallselves because it aint going to be pretty.

[LcBwC]

What I wanna know is how this guy remained on campus for over 2hrs and was able to shoot 30 more people. They said he shot himseld so bad that he is not able to be identified and of course he didnt have any identification.

[$outhPhillypuppet]

What I wanna know is how this guy remained on campus for over 2hrs and was able to shoot 30 more people. They said he shot himseld so bad that he is not able to be identified and of course he didnt have any identification.

im guessing security was shocked
couldnt process wat was goin on cuz they thought it would never happen in there school.
plus dude was prolly a student so he knew where to go and not go.

[A Ghost]

Theres some evil people out there.....

['X']

What would the response be if the accuser of this crime was a Muslim? There would be constant rambling of this being a "terror attack", and the profiling and stereotypes that already goes on towards Islam would be even more expressed. If reports are true, does america start "profiling" asians? Naw never mind, I 'm sure of the answer to this..


Look what goes on right here in america, but there is a war going to "better" another country?

[MiChuhSuh]

^ There are actually a lot of Muslims at that school

In fact, on CNN just know, all the students they interviewed were either of Middle Eastern descent or Muslim. The President of the student body they just interviewed is Middle Eastern, the girls they showed were Muslim, the first eyewitness who got part of the incident on a camera phone moved from the Middle East.

When Larry King asked him how he felt being so close to the shooting at the time, he said, "It reminded me of where I came from [he didn't say which country], I moved here from the Middle East to a nice town in Virginia to find a peaceful place to study and live, and suddenly I felt like I was right where I came from"

After the interview Larry King said he should be acknowledged and how sadly ironic it was that this happened to a man who moved to find a peaceful place.

[padevat thmei]

the first school shooting this year was in january. the suspect was also asian...

Man I got a feeling this Summer of 2007 is going to be crazy as hell. It just turned 07 and fools already shootin up college's and shit. All I know is yall better brace yallselves because it aint going to be pretty.

[LcBwC]

What I wanna know is how this guy remained on campus for over 2hrs and was able to shoot 30 more people. They said he shot himseld so bad that he is not able to be identified and of course he didnt have any identification.

im guessing security was shocked
couldnt process wat was goin on because they thought it would never happen in there school.
plus dude was prolly a student so he knew where to go and not go.

After listening to more reports, top officials felt that it was unrelated and resolved, thats why they didnt cancel classes or feel like anyone was threatened. Said they wrote it off as another domestic issue.

Video taken from some kids cell phone
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HNrBd4kKMg[/youtube]

[se11]

horrable thing that happened. doesn't matter what race he was, it could have been anyone. a lot of students complained that the response to the first shooting was too long.

[$outhPhillypuppet]

dont nobody know how to fight anymore.

[LcBwC]

BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that killed 33 people, the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, was identified Tuesday as a senior English major from South Korea.

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Ballistics tests show one gun was used in two attacks on the campus Monday morning — at a dormitory were two people were killed and in a classroom building where 31 people, including the gunman, died locked inside, Virginia State Police said.

Police identified the classroom shooter as 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui (pronounced Choh Suhng-whee) of South Korea. There was no indication Tuesday of a possible motive for the attacks.

"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.

Cho was in the U.S. as a resident alien with a residence established in Centreville, but living on campus in Harper Residence Hall, the university said.

Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of 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 the link was not yet definitive.

"There's no evidence of any accomplice at either event, but we're exploring the possibility," he said.

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.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry also expressed its condolences, saying there was no known motive for the shootings and that South Korea hoped that the tragedy would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."

"We are in shock beyond description," said Cho Byung-se, a ministry official handling North American affairs. "We convey deep condolences to victims, families and the American people."

The first deadly attack was at the dormitory around 7:15 a.m., 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 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.

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.

Inside Norris, the attack began with a thunderous sound from Room 206 — "what sounded like an enormous hammer," said Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old junior who was in a solid mechanics lecture in a classroom next door.

Screams followed an instant later, and the banging continued. When students realized the sounds were gunshots, Calhoun said, he started flipping over desks to make hiding places. Others dashed to the windows of the second-floor classroom, kicking out the screens and jumping from the ledge of Room 204, he said.

"I must've been the eighth or ninth person who jumped, and I think I was the last," said Calhoun, of Waynesboro, Va. He landed in a bush and ran.

Calhoun said that the two students behind him were shot, but that he believed they survived. Just before he climbed out the window, Calhoun said, he turned to look at his professor, who had stayed behind, apparently to prevent the gunman from opening the door.

The instructor was killed, Calhoun said.

Erin Sheehan, who was in the German class near Calhoun's room, told the student newspaper, the Collegiate Times, that she was one of only four of about two dozen people in the class to walk out of the room. The rest were dead or wounded, she said.

She said the gunman "was just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something."

The gunman first shot the professor in the head and then fired on the class, another student, Trey Perkins, told The Washington Post. The gunman was about 19 years old and had a "very serious but very calm look on his face," he said.

"Everyone hit the floor at that moment," said Perkins, 20, of Yorktown, Va., a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. "And the shots seemed like it lasted forever."

At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a male who was a "person of interest" in the dorm shooting and who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.

"I'm not saying there's a gunman on the loose," Flinchum said. Ballistics tests will help explain what happened, he said.

Some students bitterly complained that the first e-mail warning arrived more than two hours after the first shots.

"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.

University President Charles Steger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack and decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to spread the word, but said that with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out.

He said that before the e-mail was sent, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms and sent people to knock on doors. Students were warned to stay inside and away from the windows.

"We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it," Steger said.

The 9:26 e-mail had few details: "A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating."

Until Monday, the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

Nine students remained hospitalized Tuesday at Montgomery Regional Hospital, all of them stable, CEO Scott Hill said. Two others had been transferred to other hospitals with a Level I trauma center.

Their families "are by the bedside, which is a good thing," Hill said.

Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem had three remaining patients, all in stable condition, with one expected to be discharged later Tuesday, Hill said.

The massacre Monday took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is nestled in southwestern Virginia, about 160 miles west of Richmond. With more than 25,000 full-time students, it has the state's largest full-time student population. The school is best known for its engineering school and its powerhouse Hokies football team.

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined whether they were linked to the shootings.

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

Last August, the opening day of classes was canceled when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff's deputy was killed just off campus. The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.

Among the dead were professors Liviu Librescu and Kevin Granata, said Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department. Librescu, an Israeli, was born in Romania and was known internationally for his research in aeronautical engineering, Puri wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Granata and his students researched muscle and reflex response and robotics. Puri called him one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview, citing e-mail he said students had sent to his family. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Also killed, according to their friends, local officials or relatives, were: Emily Jane Hilscher, 19, of Woodville; Mary Karen Read, 19, of Annandale; Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass.; and Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, a native of Peru,.

Ryan Clark, a student from Martinez, Ga., who had several majors and carried a 4.0 grade-point average, was also among the victims, said Vernon Collins, coroner in Columbia County, Ga. Clark was a resident assistant at Ambler Johnson Hall, the dorm where the first shootings took place.

Gregory Walton, a 25-year-old friend of Clark's who graduated last year, said he feared the nightmare had just begun.

"I knew when the number was so large that I would know at least one person on that list," Walton said. "I don't want to look at that list. I don't want to.

"It's just, it's going to be horrible, and it's going to get worse before it gets better

[George]

I think this Asian guy felt isolated, unloved, disrespected by society at large here in North America.

1) The girls probably said "ewwwwwwwwww" to him when passing him in the halls. Girls probably rejected people like him like crazy, calling him ugly and small c0cked and such. Even though
clearly by looking at the picture he was not an ugly guy. Far from it.
Its just western media's perception
of beauty being revolved around BLonde-tall-White or Big-Thug-like Black Hunk.
He probably
felt like crap not getting love and attention from women the way "Jerome, Tyrone, Earl" or "Billy, Joe, or Todd" were getting love.


2) The big White/Black/Brown jocks probably picked on him and called him "Weirdo, Chinaman, dog eater, etc" and harassed him.


3) People in general probably treated him like trash. I am sure when he went to buy food in the cafe the cashiers eyed him with dirty looks as he put money into their fucking greedy/ungrateful pockets.
He just probably got fed up with everyone who didn't even know him as an individual judging him.



Obviously he was a "loner" as people put it and
didn't feel like there was anyone to communicate his pain/rage/hate to.
I seriously think Asian men here in society sometimes have rage/resentment towards society, built up after many years of repressing their feelings. Cuz thats the way the Asian culture expects its children to behave= IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE THE ISSUE. BURY IT DEEP WITHIN YOUR BELLY AND GET A GOOD JOB AND CAREER. Once you have the Money everything will be better.
Just ignore your problems and it will go away. Pretend it doesn't even exist.

WELL, lets just say it didn't work this time in Virginia.

Asians (especially Asian men who feel unwelcomed in North American culture/society) need to really take a deep look inside themselves and ponder if the problems they were taught to ignore by their parents truly dissapeared........ Or are these very same problems just hidden deep within their spirits.... waiting to unleash one day in a sudden rage.

Throw away that whole perception that Asian males have it easier than anyone else. Cuz if that was the case, this would not have happened. Asian men are just like everyone else= Individuals with similar issues like everybody else but also possessing personal problems only unique to the Asian experience.

Peace.

[Qdawg]

according to new info about this korean dude is,he was a "Loner" always stayed by hisself,no emotions,was poor-his family owned a cleaners...a professor said she seen some notes of him talking about the rich kids there...had a mental health problem & stalked females...kills me how the media & everybody tries to say he didnt look like no killer...killers have no profiles or 1 specific look

[George]

according to new info about this korean dude is,he was a "Loner" always stayed by hisself,no emotions,was poor-his family owned a cleaners...a professor said she seen some notes of him talking about the rich kids there...had a mental health problem & stalked females...kills me how the media & everybody tries to say he didnt look like no killer...killers have no profiles or 1 specific look

Many of my male Asian friends tell me time after time again how the feel they are mistreated by the good looking females in society. Like at work, school, social outings, etc.

The girls would say "EWWWWWWW!" to random male Asians in malls and movie theatres. I mean
from what I am
told, the Asian principle to deal with oppression and conflict is to "IGNORREEEE, go home study, get good job AND the bad stuff will go away".

One can only hold their pain and hurt inside so long though, until one day they can't take it anymore and stuff.


Don't get me wrong, I don't find too many Asian guys in the active dating scene. YOu know, you see all these Asian girls dating White guys/Black guys, etc. But when it comes to Asian guys, it seems like the White girls and Black girls have a racist problem against Asian males. And the Asian females themselves
want nothing to do with their fellow Asian men...

I really doubt this killer was totally angry at Rich kids and what not. I think thats just a cover over his real problems. I think he felt really unloved and under appreciated from the women of this society.

[se11]

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Midway through his murderous rampage, the Virginia Tech gunman went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs."

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

NBC said the package contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto on CD, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera.

The package arrived at NBC headquarters in New York two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. It bore a Postal Service time stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Blacksburg post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire.


(AP) This video frame grab image taken from a video aired by NBC News on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 shows...
Full Image


That would help explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."

Earlier in the day, authorities disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho was accused of sending unwanted messages to two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.

The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.

Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.


(AP) The casket of Liviu Librescu is carried through the street in Brooklyn, New York, Wednesday, April...
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He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" - a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High massacre.

The package was sent by overnight delivery but did not arrive at NBC until Wednesday morning, apparently because it had the wrong ZIP code, NBC said.

An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC's attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm after the bloodbath, "Ismail Ax," NBC said.

NBC News President Steve Capus said that the network received the package around noon and notified the FBI, but held off reporting on it at the FBI's request, so that the bureau could look at it first. NBC finally broke the story just before police announced the development at 4:30 p.m.

Capus said it was clear Cho videotaped himself, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera.


(AP) The casket of Liviu Librescu is carried through the street in Brooklyn, New York, Wednesday, April...
Full Image


State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made.

Cho repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.

"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."

Earlier Wednesday, authorities disclosed that in November and December 2005, two women complained to campus police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho. But the women considered the messages "annoying," not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.


(AP) The casket of Liviu Librescu is carried through the street in Brooklyn, New York, Wednesday, April...
Full Image


After the second stalking complaint, the university obtained a temporary detention order and took Cho away because an acquaintance reported he might be suicidal, authorities said. Police did not identify the acquaintance.

On Dec. 13, 2005, a magistrate ordered Cho to undergo an evaluation at Carilion St. Albans, a private psychiatric hospital. The magistrate signed the order after an initial evaluation found probable cause that Cho was a danger to himself or others as a result of mental illness.

The next day, according to court records, doctors at Carilion conducted further examination and a special justice, Paul M. Barnett, approved outpatient treatment.

A medical examination conducted Dec. 14 reported that that Cho's "affect is flat. ... He denies suicidal ideations. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal."

The court papers indicate that Barnett checked a box that said Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness." Barnett did not check the box that would indicate a danger to others.

It is unclear how long Cho stayed at Carilion, though court papers indicate he was free to leave as of Dec. 14. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Cho had been continually enrolled at Tech and never took a leave of absence.

A spokesman for Carilion St. Albans would not comment.

Though the stalking incidents did not result in criminal charges, police referred Cho to the university's disciplinary system, Flinchum said. But Ed Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs, would not comment on any disciplinary proceedings, saying federal law protects students' medical privacy even after death.

Some students refused to second-guess the university.

"Who would've woken up in the morning and said, 'Maybe this student who's just troubled is really going to do something this horrific?'" said Elizabeth Hart, a communications major and a spokeswoman for the student government.

One of the first Virginia Tech officials to recognize Cho's problems was award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni, who kicked him out of her introduction to creative writing class in late 2005.

Students in Giovanni's class had told their professor that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. Female students refused to come to class. She said she considered him "mean" and "a bully."

Lucinda Roy, professor of English at Virginia Tech, said that she, too, relayed her concerns to campus police and various other college units after Cho displayed antisocial behavior in her class and handed in disturbing writing assignments.

But she said authorities "hit a wall" in terms of what they could do "with a student on campus unless he'd made a very overt threat to himself or others." Cho resisted her repeated suggestion that he undergo counseling, Roy said.

Questions lingered over whether campus police should have issued an immediate campus-wide warning of a killer on the loose and locked down the campus after the first burst of gunfire.

Police said that after the first shooting, in which two students were killed, they believed that it was a domestic dispute, and that the gunman had fled the campus. Police went looking for a young man, Karl David Thornhill, who had once shot guns at a firing range with the roommate of one of the victims. But police said Thornhill is no longer under suspicion.

---

Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg, Va., Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va., and Colleen Long and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.

(This version CORRECTS that Cho was accused of sending unwanted messages, not stalking.)

[A Ghost]

Thats why you make money and pimp bitches that way^^^^

[se11]

fucking insane. 32 innocent kids die because this sicko goes crazy. yeah some of these rich kids were probably ungrateful jerks, but god damn, you can't do this. one of the worst days in america since 9/11.

[George]

lol sorry guys.

But any message an Asian guy sends to women is "unwanted" .

I think
if you look at the whole relationship/dating scene; Asian guys are the ones who are left out. Sistas don't want them, White chicks don't want them, Brown chicks, etc etc.

However when it comes to pretty Asian chicks, they tend to date anyone (White dudes/Black dudes/Brown dudes, etc) except for their own Asian guys.

I mean I have witnessed
many many Black guys sending lude/perverted
messages to women; and the women don't find any offence to it!

However, I also witness Asian guys being gentlemen, being polite and just starting conversations with women of many different races/cultures and get rejected flat simply cuz they are Asian males.
Racist society dammit.

[LcBwC]

Most attacks lately have been about the person not liking how they were treated. He seems to have a real hatred for rich people...its a sad case. I still feel like VaTech should of had a better response than they did.

[Mcminister]

i dono how they wudnt respond in 2 hours dats some wierd type shit

[MiChuhSuh]

What would the response be if the accuser of this crime was a Muslim? There would be constant rambling of this being a "terror attack", and the profiling and stereotypes that already goes on towards Islam would be even more expressed. If reports are true, does america start "profiling" asians? Naw never mind, I 'm sure of the answer to this..

wow, this past week I got all kinds of stupid ass jokes. I know people are just kidding because not many people here feel any connection to Virginia, but damn people died here, show some respect

we were setting up a computer lab and one muthaf^cka actually had to nerve to put up a picture of the VA shooter on the projecter and asked me to stand next to it to get a "profile comparison" all while giggling like a little girl. I putting is neck dowen (I'm pretty short) and told him if he pisses me off again, I don't need pussy ass guns, I will take him hand to hand, man to man. But I'm getting that everywhere at school now (I guess I look like him??)

I've been saying this since 9/12, every time one person does one crazy thing, everyone else is guilty by "assocation" (perceived association)

[George]

What would the response be if the accuser of this crime was a Muslim? There would be constant rambling of this being a "terror attack", and the profiling and stereotypes that already goes on towards Islam would be even more expressed. If reports are true, does america start "profiling" asians? Naw never mind, I 'm sure of the answer to this..

wow, this past week I got all kinds of stupid ass jokes. I know people are just kidding because not many people here feel any connection to Virginia, but damn people died here, show some respect

we were setting up a computer lab and one muthaf^cka actually had to nerve to put up a picture of the VA shooter on the projecter and asked me to stand next to it to get a "profile comparison" all while giggling like a little girl. I putting is neck dowen (I'm pretty short) and told him if he pisses me off again, I don't need pussy ass guns, I will take him hand to hand, man to man. But I'm getting that everywhere at school now (I guess I look like him??)

I've been saying this since 9/12, every time one person does one crazy thing, everyone else is guilty by "assocation" (perceived association)

Didn't even know you were Asian dude.

[TeeKay]

He "supposedly" had an immaginary girlfriend

[MiChuhSuh]

What would the response be if the accuser of this crime was a Muslim? There would be constant rambling of this being a "terror attack", and the profiling and stereotypes that already goes on towards Islam would be even more expressed. If reports are true, does america start "profiling" asians? Naw never mind, I 'm sure of the answer to this..

wow, this past week I got all kinds of stupid ass jokes. I know people are just kidding because not many people here feel any connection to Virginia, but damn people died here, show some respect

we were setting up a computer lab and one muthaf^cka actually had to nerve to put up a picture of the VA shooter on the projecter and asked me to stand next to it to get a "profile comparison" all while giggling like a little girl. I putting is neck dowen (I'm pretty short) and told him if he pisses me off again, I don't need pussy ass guns, I will take him hand to hand, man to man. But I'm getting that everywhere at school now (I guess I look like him??)

I've been saying this since 9/12, every time one person does one crazy thing, everyone else is guilty by "assocation" (perceived association)

Didn't even know you were Asian dude.

lol
100% Korean
go ask a korean dude what michuhsuh means
so what did you think I was?

[MiChuhSuh]

He "supposedly" had an immaginary girlfriend

No, he just got harrassment filed against him by some female which is when they first found out he had issues

[TeeKay]

oh true, what does michuhsuh mean?

[MiChuhSuh]

Well here some people call a dog with rabies a "mad dog."

We call rabid dogs "michin geh" which means rabid/mad/crazy dog. Michuhsuh is another form of the adjective for rabid/mad/crazy

[Mcminister]

i don get losers that go homicidal .......why dont u jst go shoot the ones that bullied u ....u don have to go drop everybody and then u got to drop urself