33 dead in Va. Tech shooting

[Ryan]

Truly horrible news. Worst school shooting in American history, even worse than Whitman at U of Texas.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/

BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 11 minutes ago

BLACKSBURG, Va. - At least 22 people were killed Monday in a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus, police said. They said the gunman was among the dead.

In addition to those killed, officials said at least 28 people were wounded.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said the gunman was dead, but that he didn't know how he died.

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

Up until Monday, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire. He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police. In the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo., in 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Virginia Tech reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. local time at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.

At least one student was killed in the dorm and others were killed in the classroom, Flinchum said.

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed.

"There's just a lot of commotion. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on," said Jason Anthony Smith, 19, who lives in the dorm.

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

Madison Van Duyne, a student who was interviewed by telephone on CNN, said, "Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible."

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

In August 2006, 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.

[Drex]

Oh man, that's horrible. I'm watching CNN right now, they're showing a video of a student/reporter.

[Jing]

Holy shit... that is fuckin messed up... I really don't know what else to say...

[ixcuincle]

Very sad. I actually go there , so we were locked up in the music hall for 2 hours.

[Buckley]

I heard 32 are dead now.....what a tragedy

[Riot]

Fucking sick. Awful to hear about these school shootings. Everyone there is in my prayers.

Take care, ixcuincle.

[Gundy]

What a terrible disaster. It's just sickening that something like this can happen.

[bigh0rt]

At least 32 confirmed dead...

[BigKaboom2]

It seems like there's no way to stop something like this from happening. If you have lax gun control, it's easy for it to happen, and if you have more strict gun control, then all the criminals will find ways to get them while normal people will not.

[K0beStar]

33 are confirmed dead now, including the gunman. This is crazy and unbelieveable. I was watching it unfold today at school so was most of the rest of the school. They say its worse than Columbine and the 1966 Texas school shooting combined. I dont know why someone would do this, i mean how? also they say it was only one gunman which seems odd cuz how could he do all that by himself.

[Riot]

What I am confused about is the initial shooting happened and he killed one person. That's all that happened. The police came and were doing their investigation. Two hours after that initial shooting he started another shooting on the other side of the campus. So this all took place within a few hours, which seems odd to me. It was two seperate attacks but they seem convinced it was by one person.

I don't know...piecing together the information when something like this happens is always extremely tough. I think, at the moment, the main thing to do is to just mourn for those who were lost and hope the healing period for the families and friends can begin soon.

You sit here and you hear all about these politics where we are told the terrorists are the bad guys and all the bad guys are overseas. We quickly forget that we are also our own worst enemy. It's tough to deal with, the fact that someone would actually do this. Not sure what would drive someone to do this but it sure makes me sick.

[K0beStar]

He first killed 2 people in one building then walked across the campus into another building and fnished off everybody there. Mean while police and S.W.A.T were surrounding the place, armed. Why didnt they come in and bust him?

[benji]

Worst shooting in US history now apparently...

The story apparently:
Around 7am, someone shoots two people in a dorm. "50" police are on campus responding, the school does not go on lockdown because they don't want kids to miss classtime. Slightly before 10am, an e-mail about the shooting goes around. At 10am, someone else, a "young, asian" apparently goes into one of the class halls and begins shooting. Within fifteen minutes police got into a shootout with him and he killed himself.

They didn't just stand around for hours (like above poster claims) according to people inside the building:
"Within five minutes of the first shots, police were gathering outside. In another ten minutes, the threat had been neutralized and the building was secure."

If you have lax gun control, it's easy for it to happen

I don't see how that necessarily follows. If everyone has a gun, sure it might be "easier" to acquire one and thereafter start shooting, but you have to factor in that everyone else also might have a gun. And if you plan on murdering someone, violating gun laws is the least of your concerns.

No way to "stop this"? If the professors or students were armed, this would have ended a lot sooner. Stop it no, not short of stopping the guy before he does it could you do it. End it sooner, yes.

The biggest question I have is, are the two shootings related? And secondly, who is the shooter? And thirdly, are the bomb threats related? Trying to find this out before the end of the week won't happen because the media is worthless.

[Matthew]

A sad sad day. What I have no time for is people blaming the University for not shutting it down after the first shooting. How big is Virginia Tech? It has to be at least 10,000 people. And they expected the entire Univeristy to be shut down after a relatively (well in comparison to the second shooting) small shooting?

To me, its just sensationalism garbage to blame someone else, becuase they cant sell a story blaming the shooter, becuase he's already dead.

R.I.P to all those that died today. Let that motherfucker burn in hell who ended their lives so needlessly short.

[Ty-Land]

Sad. So sad. RIP all the victims.

It will be interesting to see the investigation unfold, as many have stated, it doesn't seem like there was one shooter. The way the media is portraying the story (in the Australian press) it is making the campus security and the police look disorganised and rather hopeless. But I doubt that would be the case. While they may not have done everything perfectly, I don't think they should be depicted as incompetent and key contributors to this tragedy.

[Matthew]

Ty Land as I said, the media is trying to put the blame on somebody. Thats how the media operates, blame and guilt. Thats why I hate it. They can't blame the prick that killed all these kids, becuase he's dead. So they blame the univeristy.

The Australian media is one of the worst in the world.

[CMJ3]

Thats terrible, all over a girl. That guy has to be one of the lowest humans in the world. I feel sorry for all those peoples families, i mean their son or daughter was killed over a damn broken relationship. Sad sad day.

[Andrew]

A despicable act by a very inhumane human being who unfortunately will not be brought to justice. I guess it's natural that people (and certainly the media) are looking for someone to blame at a time like this but as Matthew said, that blame should rest on the person who committed this atrocity, not the University, campus security and police officers.

[deihatein]

So sad, very very sad day

[Dro]

Lives are lives, but damn...Virginia Tech is one of the top engineering schools in the country. Undoubtedly, some bright young minds were destroyed today, which makes the situation even more sad.

[Indy]

This scared me when I first found out. I have 3 friends that go to VA tech, and they are on the 4th floor of their dorm building. Luckily their dorms aren't actually close to the one that the shooting happened at.

[---]

Just heard about this about an hour ago, I slept in. Rest in Peace to everyone that were killed today, their lives should not have been taken and my deepest condolences go out to the family. I'm still in shock over al of this and some of those images they showed on CNN of kids being carried out bleeding all over the place really hit home. I agree this is not the time to put the blame on the police force, the university or anyone else but the killer. He did it and while the defence system may or may not have worked to perfection, it is not their fault that all these kids died. The killer was the one who pulled the trigger.

To the killer - rot in hell you worthless piece of shit.

[Jing]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtRXcLq4O4w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQgVAD7x5Zo

[BOSS]

An Asian man sits handcuffed under the Drill Field review stand while officials check Burruss Hall for safety following a shooting incident on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007. Shootings in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech resulted in 33 deaths.

[---]

The first pic on the first vieo of that guy on ground, I thought someone just used a random photo of an asian man that was being arrested to stir shit because the shooter is known to be asian according to witnesses, but then I see in the second video there is the same guy, but its obviously on the campus and is real. Maybe someone described the shooter and they stopped him just in case? Then again he isn't wearing clothes anything like how the witnesses described. Another idea, alot of people are saying 2 shoooters, maybe the police thought the same and he was a suspect.

Its confusing, but we should find out soon enough.

Alleged journal of the shooter turns out to be a hoax, probably old news but here the link: http://wanusmaximus.livejournal.com/ what an idiot.