ahamednishadh
04-17-2007, 04:37 PM
Police have a preliminary identification of the man who methodically shot and killed at least 30 people on the campus of Virginia Tech, but they are not yet ready to release it.
As the campus, and the nation, reel in the wake of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, questions are many but answers are few.
Did the same gunman kill two people in a dormitory and then two hours later chain the doors of an academic building and begin to kill as many as he could?
Should campus officials have canceled classes after the first shooting, at the dorm? Authorities say they believed the dorm shooting was an "isolated incident" and were still investigating it when the slaughter occurred at the other campus building, Norris Hall. (Officials thought shooter had fled)
The gunman killed 30 people in Norris Hall classrooms before taking his own life. Fifteen other people were wounded.
University President Charles Steger told reporters Monday night that officers found the front doors of Norris Hall chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a .22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene. (Watch how quickly these guns can be fired, reloaded Video)
University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that authorities had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.
Surviving by playing dead
The gunman was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," said a student who survived by pretending to lie dead on a Norris Hall classroom floor.
"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan.
She described the gunman as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
"He seemed very thorough about it -- getting almost everyone down -- I pretended to be dead," she said.
"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.
The gunman left but returned in about 30 seconds. "I guess he heard us still talking," said Sheehan.
"We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, because the door would not lock."
The man tried three more times to force his way in and then began firing through the door, she said.
Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher's office.
Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area.
"They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot," Otey said. "I guess they were afraid, like us -- like the shooter was going to be among one of us."
Some students leaped from windows to escape, said Matt Waldron.
"These two kids, I guess, had panicked and jumped out of the top-story window, and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground."
Dormitory shooting two hours earlier
The day's first shooting, at the dormitory, left two people dead. That shooting occurred about 7:15 a.m.
The dormitory, West Ambler Johnston Hall, houses 895 students and is located near the drill field and stadium. (Campus map)
Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the dorm and Norris Hall shooting incidents were related.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter for the dormitory incident. (Watch the police chief explain where bodies were found Video)
At the time of the later shootings at Norris Hall, police were investigating a "person of interest" in the dormitory shootings, Flinchum said. But the man -- a non-student who knew one of the victims -- had not been arrested, and it is unclear if he has any link to the other gunman, he said.
Victims' identities being released
Courtney Dalton, an 18-year-old student who worked at West End Dining Hall, said a friend named Ryan Clark was one of the two dormitory victims.
She said Clark, a resident assistant at West Ambler Johnston Hall, had once worked at the cafeteria serving pizza.
"He was a happy person; this is really sad," she said, sobbing.
"All I can do is pray for his family now," she told CNN.com.
As of early Tuesday, the identities of three other victims had been released:
# G.V. Loganathan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering
# Liviu Librescu, a professor of engineering science and mechanics
# Ross Alameddine, a student from Saugus, Massachusetts.
Convocation on campus Tuesday
The university, which has more than 26,000 students, has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Classes also have been canceled Tuesday. In Washington, the House and Senate observed moments of silence for the victims and President Bush said the nation was "shocked and saddened" by news of the tragedy.
Last August, the first day of class was cut short at Virginia Tech by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.
================================================== ===
THIS NEWS I HEARD FIRST WEN I WAS WATCHING DA MATCH YESTERDAY AT AROUND 11 PM LOCAL TIME. THE DEATH TOLL THEN WAS 21 BUT NW ACCORDING TO DA CNN NEWS ITS 33 INCLUDING DA KILLER!! A DOCTOR IN CNN INTERVIEW TODAY SAID THAT DA KILLER MIGHT HAVE BEEN A STUDENT WHO WAS REJECTED SUM AWARD OR BY HIS GURL FRND. HE SAID DAT COZ DAT WAS DA CASE IN OTHER SHOOTING INCIDENTS SIMILAR TO THIS.:( :shocked: :sorry:
HOPE THIS DOESNT HAPPEN IN SRI LANKA UNIVERSITIES OR SCHOOLS!!
As the campus, and the nation, reel in the wake of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, questions are many but answers are few.
Did the same gunman kill two people in a dormitory and then two hours later chain the doors of an academic building and begin to kill as many as he could?
Should campus officials have canceled classes after the first shooting, at the dorm? Authorities say they believed the dorm shooting was an "isolated incident" and were still investigating it when the slaughter occurred at the other campus building, Norris Hall. (Officials thought shooter had fled)
The gunman killed 30 people in Norris Hall classrooms before taking his own life. Fifteen other people were wounded.
University President Charles Steger told reporters Monday night that officers found the front doors of Norris Hall chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a .22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene. (Watch how quickly these guns can be fired, reloaded Video)
University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that authorities had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.
Surviving by playing dead
The gunman was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," said a student who survived by pretending to lie dead on a Norris Hall classroom floor.
"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan.
She described the gunman as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
"He seemed very thorough about it -- getting almost everyone down -- I pretended to be dead," she said.
"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.
The gunman left but returned in about 30 seconds. "I guess he heard us still talking," said Sheehan.
"We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, because the door would not lock."
The man tried three more times to force his way in and then began firing through the door, she said.
Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher's office.
Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area.
"They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot," Otey said. "I guess they were afraid, like us -- like the shooter was going to be among one of us."
Some students leaped from windows to escape, said Matt Waldron.
"These two kids, I guess, had panicked and jumped out of the top-story window, and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground."
Dormitory shooting two hours earlier
The day's first shooting, at the dormitory, left two people dead. That shooting occurred about 7:15 a.m.
The dormitory, West Ambler Johnston Hall, houses 895 students and is located near the drill field and stadium. (Campus map)
Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the dorm and Norris Hall shooting incidents were related.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter for the dormitory incident. (Watch the police chief explain where bodies were found Video)
At the time of the later shootings at Norris Hall, police were investigating a "person of interest" in the dormitory shootings, Flinchum said. But the man -- a non-student who knew one of the victims -- had not been arrested, and it is unclear if he has any link to the other gunman, he said.
Victims' identities being released
Courtney Dalton, an 18-year-old student who worked at West End Dining Hall, said a friend named Ryan Clark was one of the two dormitory victims.
She said Clark, a resident assistant at West Ambler Johnston Hall, had once worked at the cafeteria serving pizza.
"He was a happy person; this is really sad," she said, sobbing.
"All I can do is pray for his family now," she told CNN.com.
As of early Tuesday, the identities of three other victims had been released:
# G.V. Loganathan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering
# Liviu Librescu, a professor of engineering science and mechanics
# Ross Alameddine, a student from Saugus, Massachusetts.
Convocation on campus Tuesday
The university, which has more than 26,000 students, has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Classes also have been canceled Tuesday. In Washington, the House and Senate observed moments of silence for the victims and President Bush said the nation was "shocked and saddened" by news of the tragedy.
Last August, the first day of class was cut short at Virginia Tech by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.
================================================== ===
THIS NEWS I HEARD FIRST WEN I WAS WATCHING DA MATCH YESTERDAY AT AROUND 11 PM LOCAL TIME. THE DEATH TOLL THEN WAS 21 BUT NW ACCORDING TO DA CNN NEWS ITS 33 INCLUDING DA KILLER!! A DOCTOR IN CNN INTERVIEW TODAY SAID THAT DA KILLER MIGHT HAVE BEEN A STUDENT WHO WAS REJECTED SUM AWARD OR BY HIS GURL FRND. HE SAID DAT COZ DAT WAS DA CASE IN OTHER SHOOTING INCIDENTS SIMILAR TO THIS.:( :shocked: :sorry:
HOPE THIS DOESNT HAPPEN IN SRI LANKA UNIVERSITIES OR SCHOOLS!!