Multiple shooting at Virginia Tech university

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6560685.stm

― Alba, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:22 (eighteen years ago)

20 killed, according to CNN

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:23 (eighteen years ago)

Live press conference says only one.

― Alba, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

Jesus Christ. They went after a dorm and an engineering building.

― kingfish, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (AP) — Virginia Tech campus police chief says at least 22 are dead after a shooting the university. 161624 apr

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, hang on, that was in one location. More deaths elsewhere.

― Alba, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

The gunman was killed

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:26 (eighteen years ago)

They seem to be reporting two gunmen: the shooter from earlier who killed one and the more recent one. One in custody and one dead?

― Alba, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago)

From what I can see, they have one dead gunman but procedure in this case is to look for a second as well

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:33 (eighteen years ago)

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (AP) — A gunman opened fire in a dormitory and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger.
The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre (1,052-hectare) campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. 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.

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

How did he manage to cut about for two hours?

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:34 (eighteen years ago)

BLOODBATH AT VIRGINIA TECH

is the headline on Drudge, in bold bright red. Great.

― kingfish, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

perhaps you should consider just not reading drudge and contributing to his hits counter.

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Monday, 16 April 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

cnn.com went from reporting 1 dead to 20 dead in a matter of minutes. this is the worst murder spree at a school in US history, and it doesn't have far to go to be the worst murder spree in US history period. jesus.

― Edward III, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:49 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.buffalobeast.com/96/images/tinfoil.hat.jpg

Gonzalez testifies tomorrow

― Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:51 (eighteen years ago)

oh right VT-Blacksburg was where a cop and a security guard both got killed on campus last august

― TOMBOT, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)

i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morva

What the HELL is up with the Blacksburg police department???

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

Are you in the area? Did you witness the shootings? Send us your comments and experiences using the form below. If you have any pictures or video you can send them to yourp✧✧✧@b✧✧.c✧.u✧.

― RichyGtwo, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:55 (eighteen years ago)

I don't understand - this cannot possibly have anything to do with those handgun laws in the US, can it?

― StanM, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

uh-oh

― Mr. Que, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

stan let's give this a good 90 minutes to percolate before the angloid policy discussions ok?

― gff, Monday, 16 April 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

oh, okay! (I was going to say it wouldn't have happened if every student had had their own gun to defend themselves, but yeah, I'll wait.)

― StanM, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:01 (eighteen years ago)

well then you'd have to have mandatory gun training in schools so they'd know how to use them. Come on, we can't even get sex ed right.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:02 (eighteen years ago)

um so yeah this is my hometown. i know the buildings being discussed well. it's just unfathomable. blacksburg is very much a small town, very quaint and quiet, even with vt there. my mom works at tech, and was nearby when it happened -- i just now got her on the phone -- and said they could all hear gunshots in the office. she's really, really shaken up, and says no one has any idea what to make of it. just insane. i still can't believe it.

― YGS, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:05 (eighteen years ago)

The two hours thing is still mind-boggling. What did he do? What were the cops up to? (On that note, in the pictures coming out are some of the hugest cops I've ever seen. They're like fridges with guns.)

xpost shit, sorry YGS.

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago)

Sky: gunman was a "young Asian man" who entered the university "looking for his girlfriend". He lined his victims up against the wall.

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:09 (eighteen years ago)

xxpost - that's good that your mom is okay, ygs. Was it only students shot?

Most schools - University and lower - have emergency plans to deal with things like shootings. It sounds like employees were communicated with by email and phone (yay interwebs!) but what about students who maybe were not seated in front of a computer?

The uni where I work recently deployed a siren system, kind of like tornado warnings, that sounds very loud at several places across campus for things like shootings. The instruction is when you hear the sirens get inside the nearest building and stay away from windows and doors.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

re: what were the police up to: the campus area is like three square miles, according to CNN - not very simple to secure an area like that, especially if you don't know where to start exactly and whether there is only one person or more.

― StanM, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/newt1.vatech.mon.13.ap.jpg

― chicago kevin, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

I hope that person's not deceased. not cool.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

alternate, non-cropped shot:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2007-04/29094248.jpg

― chicago kevin, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:14 (eighteen years ago)

ugh, there's one more in that photo series from the chicago tribune but it's very explicit.

― chicago kevin, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago)

holy shit

― river wolf, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:18 (eighteen years ago)

That paper should not be publishing these photos right now. I'm sure most family is clueless about whether their kids are okay.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:18 (eighteen years ago)

not surprisingly virginia tech website is down

― Edward III, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:21 (eighteen years ago)

Those pictures were of injured kids, not dead, which is something. But they were marked ONLINE OUT which means they should never have been online in the first place

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:22 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, you can't neccesarily tell what their condition is. If I was a mom, I'd be freaking out.

I just got to VT's site.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:24 (eighteen years ago)

Fucking hell. A friend of mine teaches there and I visited for a bit a couple years back. Blacksburg is a tiny town and like YGS said, you would barely know that the campus is there.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago)

vt.edu email is bouncing at the moment too.

― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago)

That paper should not be publishing these photos right now. I'm sure most family is clueless about whether their kids are okay.

I'm sure the precedent was made at Columbine, with the kid waving his bloody arm out the window.

Not defending the immediate coverage, though we do now live in an age where passengers on a possibly-doomed airplane can watch their fates unfold on satellite televisions installed into their seatbacks.

― Pleasant Plains, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:28 (eighteen years ago)

The website has a podcast about it up already, jesus

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:29 (eighteen years ago)

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said that one person was killed in the first shooting, which occurred just after 7 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a large dormitory. Flinchum said that at least 20 more people were killed in a later shooting at Norris Hall, an academic building.

University president Charles Steger said that police have not officially tied together the two shootings.

So there was a shooting at 7 a.m. and there were still classes? Strange. But maybe I'll just spend the day offline and see tomorrow how it fits together.

― Eazy, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:30 (eighteen years ago)

xpost media needs to chill with the scoops on tragedy!

Maybe the first shooting was related to an ex-girlfriend and they were still processing that crime scene, not knowing the suspect and not imagining a killing spree would follow.

― Ms Misery, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:32 (eighteen years ago)

oh, if you think that photo's graphic, check foxnews

― moonship journey to baja, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)

classy.

Jesus fucking Christ ppl, this is serious.

― kenan, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:37 (eighteen years ago)

unidentified person getting arrested:
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/04_01/virginiaAP1604_468x235.jpg

― Steve Shasta, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:39 (eighteen years ago)

AP:
Aimee Kanode, a first-year student, said the shooting happened on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. The resident assistant in Kanode's dormitory knocked on her door about 8am (1300 BST) 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.

― stet, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:39 (eighteen years ago)

There is a lot of student and teacher exchange between Mi. Tech, my alma mater, and Va. Tech, and I've already learned that some students and colleagues of a professor I had as an undergrad (who works there now) have been injured.

― dan m, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago)

those cops really are fucking hueg, btw

― river wolf, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago)

my only friend there is ok thank god

― 69, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 1447 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

it's highly irresponsible for the washington post to publish a piece hypothesizing about what movies cho may or may not have seen. what is the value in that? it's fine if they want to cite studies or research linking films and violence, but this kind of grasping armchair-psychology-cum-film-criticism is useless. I agree with o. nate, it's bound to be cited as "proof" in the future campaign of some censor who hasn't yet grasped this concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

in general I question the value of emphasizing the efffect of movies on a violent person's behavior, especially when trying to find root causes. psychopathic personalities certainly seek out these types of films but the films themselves don't *cause* their psychopathic behavior. anymore than the beatles caused the manson family to kill, taxi driver caused hinckley to shoot reagan, or marilyn manson caused klebold and harris to shoot up columbine. know what made them kill? THEIR MESSED UP BRAINS.

objects in their environment that became part of their fantasy / reinforced their worldview are certainly of interest. but if the process is killing spree -> what caused it -> let's keep it from happening in the future, and your answer is violent music/movies/video games, that's a lazy and quite likely fruitless approach, especially in a free society that values the arts.

― Edward III, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:35 (eighteen years ago)

Nabisco, I believe that's right, yes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapons_ban

(and specifically the final point - reintroduction didn't happen in February of this year)

― StanM, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:36 (eighteen years ago)

(and also the "expiration of the ban" bit - GWB had promised to extend it in 2004, but it somehow failed to happen)

― StanM, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:37 (eighteen years ago)

i don't think it would make much of a difference to the person using the gun because semiautomatic pistols reload themselves automatically after each shot. i don't know which magazines he used.

― lfam, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:39 (eighteen years ago)

10 round magazines and higher are defined as "assault" style magazines, so yes, i suppose they would have been illegal.

― lfam, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:42 (eighteen years ago)

I have to admit, I'm very surprised that there's been lots of general talk about gun control, but he was the first person I've seen specify that a specific recent decision would have made a difference in the guy's access to his tools. (I'll decline to follow him into his hypothetical reasoning about how people could have stopped the guy if he'd had different tools, but I guess it's not crazy to suggest that smaller magazines might have saved a person or two along the way.)

― nabisco, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:45 (eighteen years ago)

What was the mechanism -- or was there even one? Too many movies? Too many video games? Too many rude shoves in the locker room? A genetic predisposition for mass murder? Too many date-night turndowns? Why?

Perhaps THIS is a problem we can address with legislation?

― elmo argonaut, Monday, 23 April 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

Certainly the type of gun and clip makes a big difference. Semi-automatic weapons allow the most rapid repeat firing. The larger clips allow more shots to be fired between reloads - although, with practice, reloading with a new clip is pretty fast. The higher caliber weapon is naturally more deadly. This number of deaths would be pretty much impossible to achieve with a revolver, because someone could have easily tackled him while he was reloading.

― o. nate, Monday, 23 April 2007 17:01 (eighteen years ago)

You can buy a device called a speed-loader for a revolver that is close to the speed of reloading that a clip gives you. Also, two weapons pretty much destroys all of this "someone could have charged him!" nonsense.

I really think that the fact that the Gun Control thread has had periods of argument really shouldn't lead to us cluttering this thread up, though.

― John Justen, Monday, 23 April 2007 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah sorry, John -- that was my way of being clear that I just wanted to verify/debunk a statement about the Virginia killer, and not so much argue about gun control!

― nabisco, Monday, 23 April 2007 17:16 (eighteen years ago)

News at 11: right wing nut says something annoying.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2007/04/limbaugh_cho_wa.html

― StanM, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 08:29 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah I've been wondering about the "someone could have charged him!" logic because that's what I instinctively thought. Thanks for the answer--John Justen, I'm pretty sure there was only one weapon used 'per building' so to speak.

― riche, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:05 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/apr2007/20070420_mike-gallagher-virginia-tech.pdf

― Heave Ho, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 18:34 (eighteen years ago)

(some other) people on the internet are (also) sick, part 98765987987954698:

http://choseunghui.livejournal.com/

― StanM, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 22:12 (eighteen years ago)

Iraq students show Virginia Tech support

― Alba, Wednesday, 25 April 2007 07:14 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

but of course: V-Tech Rampage, the game.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/378086

― StanM, Friday, 18 May 2007 13:28 (eighteen years ago)

not to bump this thread-- didn't read all of it, bt is anyone aware how difficult it is to shoot pistols accurately, and how unlikely it is to kill someone even if you hit them?? how the fuck didn't the gun jam?? this story seems drastically undertold and fucking insane. you'd have to have a hell of a lot of practice to be able to shoot like that. were the kids sitting still? i can't find any real detailed accounts of what went on on google.

― Chromski A.K. Gattlington, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:23 (eighteen years ago)

wrong forum though, sry :/

― Chromski A.K. Gattlington, Monday, 21 May 2007 08:24 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/22/virginia.tech.death/index.html

ok not sending my kids to VATech

― Barack You Like A Husseincane (HI DERE), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:11 (sixteen years ago)

what in the hell

― MIRV Griffin (goole), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:12 (sixteen years ago)

Yang, 22, from Beijing, China, was killed at the Au Bon Pain restaurant

jesus h

― jordy (J0rdan S.), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:14 (sixteen years ago)

it seems like a really bad place to be an asian person???

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:14 (sixteen years ago)

He just liked her a lot and didn't want anyone else to have her, bless!

― not_goodwin, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:17 (sixteen years ago)

"An act of violence like this one brings back memories of the April 16 tragedy MANITOBA BUS DECAPITATION and I have no doubt that many of us feel especially distraught."

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:31 (sixteen years ago)

dude's on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/s.php?ref=search&init=q&q=Haiyang%20Zhu

― (*ﾟーﾟ)θ L(。･＿･)　　　°~ヾ(･ε･ *) (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:33 (sixteen years ago)

Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said Thursday that Xin Yang's killing was the first on the campus since April 16, 2007, when a shooter killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself.

― georgeous gorge (bernard snowy), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:33 (sixteen years ago)

he only knew her two weeks and already hes decapitating her in an au bon pain WHOA SLOW DOWN THERE ROMEO

― ice cr?m, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:34 (sixteen years ago)

Time was, you chopped someone's head off all quiet-like in the privacy of your own home.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:35 (sixteen years ago)

i know this is a man-in-the-moon thing where u see a pattern that isn't really there. but damn, what is up with this place.

― MIRV Griffin (goole), Thursday, 22 January 2009 19:36 (sixteen years ago)

their bachelor's program in Total Batshit Psychoism ranks first in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report

― J0hn D., Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:09 (sixteen years ago)

I was trying to find the school with the most deaths and came across this semi-disturbing story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/21/smiley.face.killer/index.html

It's like a movie pitch

― Barack You Like A Husseincane (HI DERE), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:23 (sixteen years ago)

Argh WTF, journalist:

The detectives believe that the smiley faces were left by the killer or killers. They varied in size, with each face more haunting than the next.

― you can either be v v important or smash teenagers (nabisco), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:27 (sixteen years ago)

I'm not even picking on the fact that that should probably be "last" and not "next," it's just ... you are writing a news story, not a true-crime novel

― you can either be v v important or smash teenagers (nabisco), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:29 (sixteen years ago)

So the killers varied in size and have increasingly haunting faces; how come no one has brought them to Justice?

― Barack You Like A Husseincane (HI DERE), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:29 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.anniemayhem.com/blog%20pics/WatchmenSmiley.gif

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:30 (sixteen years ago)

Basically that sentence says that they drew the first smiley face really creepy and haunting, but as they killed again and again they started drawing more and more conventional, less emotionally resonant smiley faces

― you can either be v v important or smash teenagers (nabisco), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:30 (sixteen years ago)

lol I meant "decreasingly" obv

― Barack You Like A Husseincane (HI DERE), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:32 (sixteen years ago)

Not if the detectives saw the last one first and then investigated back into the past.

― StanM, Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:34 (sixteen years ago)

maybe the smiley faces stayed the same but they just became less haunting through repetition

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:35 (sixteen years ago)

like eventually you'd just be like "oh another smiley face, huh"

― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:35 (sixteen years ago)

I prefer the n/a theory -- it wouldn't be nearly as sensationalistic if you found one really haunting one but then worked backwards to find much more quotidian non-creepy murders

― you can either be v v important or smash teenagers (nabisco), Thursday, 22 January 2009 20:36 (sixteen years ago)

ok loling at nab and n/a, but wtf VaTech?

― Socktor Duperman (k3vin k.), Thursday, 22 January 2009 21:50 (sixteen years ago)

savages

― eman, Friday, 23 January 2009 07:17 (sixteen years ago)

Obv taking a cue from Evil Otto, who killed at least 2 dudes in the 80s:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/55/imageuploadimagegf7.png

― Dr More BS (libcrypt), Friday, 23 January 2009 08:41 (sixteen years ago)

five months pass...

Yeah, great:

Mental health records for Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho that were missing for more than two years have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a state memo sent to victims' family members.
Cho killed 32 people on April 16, 2007, then committed suicide as police closed in. His mental health treatment has been a major issue in the vast investigation of the shootings, yet the records' location had eluded authorities until they were uncovered by attorneys for some families of Cho's victims.
A memo from Gov. Tim Kaine's chief legal counsel to victims' family members says Cho's records and those of several other Virginia Tech students were found last week in the home of Dr. Robert C. Miller. The memo was obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The memo said Cho's records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings, when Miller transferred from his position at the clinic. Records for several other students were also at his home, the memo said.
''I appreciate your call, but I'm not making comment at this time,'' Miller said when reached at a number for his private practice.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 16:40 (fifteen years ago)

sha-

― I love rainbow cookies (surm), Wednesday, 22 July 2009 16:42 (fifteen years ago)

deeznuts - did I offend you?

― Manalishi

― velko, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 17:25 (fifteen years ago)

lol

― "he said...all things passantino the night" (omar little), Wednesday, 22 July 2009 17:42 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hnIVzil5Q0aiAyCpb8OkH_U8qfxAD9ABGCBO3

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Two Virginia Tech University students were found slain Thursday at a Jefferson National Forest campground that is a popular hangout for students, authorities said.

The latest killings are hitting a campus still reeling from the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history and the beheading of a student earlier this year.

The bodies of David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest were found by a passerby, Montgomery County Sheriff Lt. Brian Wright said. Both appear to have been shot, he said. Wright said Metzler's body was found inside a car in the parking area of the Caldwell Fields campground and Childs was found outside the car. The campground is about 15 miles from Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg.

A suspect has not been identified and autopsies were being conducted in Roanoke.

Metzler was a sophomore industrial and systems engineering major and Childs, a sophomore biochemistry major.

In an e-mail to students and staff, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger again was counseling his campus community. Two years ago, a student gunman killed 32 others and himself. In January, a doctoral student beheaded a fellow student in a campus cafe.

"Trauma like this is deeply painful to us all," Steger wrote. "Once again, this community is visited by senseless violence and tragedy upon aspiring young minds from our campus.

"I know that many of you likely have complex feelings about now. How can this happen in this area, at this time, to this community?"

Steger said the university would post information about memorial services on its Web site.

Fuck.

― Shakim O'Collier (kingkongvsgodzilla), Friday, 28 August 2009 15:06 (fifteen years ago)

whoah

― crabRCISE (gbx), Friday, 28 August 2009 15:17 (fifteen years ago)

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