Virginia Tech
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Virginia Tech massacre
(Copied from the Virginia Tech massacre Wikipedia Article)
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting comprising two separate attacks about two hours apart on April 16, 2007, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. The perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many more. Cho shot and wounded a further 17 people and caused injury to 6 others as they tried to flee, before committing suicide, making it the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. There have been several deadlier shootings in U.S. history, but not by a single gunman, and not on a school campus.
Cho, a South Korean who had moved to the United States at age eight, was a senior English studies|English Academic major|major at Virginia Tech. Cho had been diagnosed with and treated for a severe anxiety disorder beginning in middle school, and he continued receiving therapy and special education support until his junior year of high school. While in college in 2005, Cho had been accused of stalking two female students and was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice. At least one professor had asked him to seek counseling.
The incident received international media coverage and drew criticism of U.S. laws and culture from commentators around the world. It sparked intense debate about Gun violence in the United violence, gun laws, gaps in the U.S. system for treating mental health issues, the perpetrator's state of mind, the responsibility of college administrations, privacy laws, Journalism ethics and ethics, and other issues. Television news organizations that aired portions of the killer's multimedia manifesto were criticized by victims' families, Virginia law enforcement officials, and the American Psychiatric Association. The incident prompted immediate changes in Virginia law that had allowed Cho, an individual adjudicated as mentally unsound, to purchase handguns. It also led to passage of the first major federal gun control measure in more than 13 years, a law that strengthens the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, signed by President George W. Bush on January 5, 2008.
The Virginia Tech Review Panel, a state-appointed body assigned to review the incident, criticized Virginia Tech administrators for failing to take action that may have reduced the number of casualties. The panel's report also reviewed gun laws and pointed out gaps in mental health care as well as misinterpretations of privacy laws that left Cho's deteriorating condition in college untreated.
Attacks
Cho used two firearms during the attacks: a small-bore .22-caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic handgun and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun. The shootings occurred in separate incidents, with the first at West Ambler Johnston Hall and the second at Norris Hall.
West Ambler Johnston shootings
Cho was seen near the entrance to West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed residence hall that houses 894 students, at about 7 a.m. EDT. The hall was normally only accessible to its residents via magnetic key card before 10 a.m. However, Cho's student mailbox was in the lobby of the building, so he had pass card access after 7:30 a.m. It is unclear how Cho gained early entrance to the building. Cho shot his first victims around 7:15 a.m. in West Ambler Johnston Hall. A freshman, Emily J. Hilscher, aged 19, of Woodville, Rappahannock County, Virginia, and a male resident adviser, Ryan C. Clark, a senior, aged 22, of Martinez, Columbia County, Georgia, were shot and killed in the room Hilscher shared with another student. Cho left the scene and went back to his dorm room. While police and emergency medical services units were responding to the shootings in the dorm next door, Cho changed out of his bloodstained clothes, then logged on to his computer, deleting his email and campus account. Then he removed the hard drive. About an hour after the attack, Cho was believed to be seen near the campus Duck Pond. Authorities suspected Cho threw his hard drive and cell phone into the water, but it was searched and the devices were never found. Almost two hours after the first killings, Cho appeared at the nearby post office and mailed a package of writings and video recordings to NBC News; the package was postmarked 9:01 a.m. He then walked to the site of the second set of murders. In a backpack, he carried several chains, locks, a hammer, a knife, two guns, nineteen 10- and 15-round magazines, and almost 400 rounds of ammunition.
Norris Hall shootings
About two hours after the initial shootings, Cho entered Norris Hall, which houses the Engineering Science and Mechanics program among others, and chained the three main entrance doors shut. He placed a note on at least one of the chained doors, claiming that attempts to open the door would cause a bomb to explode. Shortly before the shooting began, a faculty member found the note and took it to the building's third floor, so as to notify the school's administration. Concurrently, however, Cho had gone to the second floor and began shooting students and faculty; the bomb threat was never called in.
Cho's first attack after entering Norris occurred at an elementary German class, in room 207, taught by instructor Jamie Bishop. Erin Sheehan, an eyewitness and survivor of Norris 207, told reporters that the shooter "peeked in twice" earlier in the lesson and that "it was strange that someone at this point in the semester would be lost, looking for a class".Shortly thereafter, Cho entered the class, shooting Bishop without warning, and then commenced shooting students. Sheehan said that only four students in the German class were able to leave the room on their own, two of them injured. The rest were more severely wounded or dead. Following the Norris 207 shooting, Cho moved on to other classrooms, reloading and shooting students and professors in Norris 204, 206, and 211, as well as in the hallway. By the end of this second attack, which lasted nine minutes, Cho had fired at least 174 rounds, killing 30 people and wounding 17 more. Sydney J. Vail, the director of the trauma center at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, said that Cho's choice of 9 mm hollow point ammunition had worsened the injuries.
Police took nearly five minutes to gain entry to the barricaded building. When they could not break the chains, an officer shot out a deadbolt lock leading into a laboratory; they then moved to a nearby stairwell. As police reached the second floor, they heard Cho fire his final shot. Police found Cho dead in Jocelyne Couture-Nowak's classroom, Room 211, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the temple. During the investigation, State Police Superintendent William Flaherty told a state panel that police found 203 live rounds in Norris Hall. "He was well-prepared to continue on," Flaherty testified.
Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti used his mobile phone to capture video footage of a part of the attack from the exterior of Norris Hall; this was later broadcast on many news outlets.
Student Nikolas Macko described to BBC News his experience at the center of the shootings. He had been attending an issues in scientific computing computer science class (near the German class) taught by graduate student Haiyan Cheng, who substituted for the professor that day. They heard gunshots in the hallway. At least three people in the classroom, including Zach Petkewicz, barricaded the door using a table. At one point, Macko said, the shooter attempted to open the classroom door and then shot twice into the room; one shot hit a podium and the other went out the window. The shooter reloaded and fired into the door, but the bullet did not penetrate into the room. Macko stated there were "many, many shots" fired.
In the aftermath, high winds related to the April 2007 nor'easter prevented emergency medical services from using helicopters for evacuation of the injured. Victims injured in the shooting were treated at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Carilion New River Valley Medical Center in Radford, Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, and Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem.
