Virginia Tech Campus Shut Down - Shooting Incident

[Mac Howard]

Originally Posted by King of New York

If there is going to be gun control in the US, it will probably develop along the lines of anti-smoking campaigns. Over the course of a generation or so, a creeping combination of financial pressure (taxes making the product increasingly/prohibitively expensive), restrictions (types of guns, number of guns, and so on), and cultural pressure (designed to make gun owners, like smokers, feel guilty) will gradually reduce the number of guns in circulation.

Yes. The problem isn't just the 200 milliion guns that will not go away but the culture of gun ownership inspired by the second amendment. Gun control needs to be a process of persuasion as much as the banning of the weapons. In the end many Americans need to realise that owning a gun for self defence is self defeating but the gun control proponents need to realise that reducing the deaths from guns will require much more than merely banning the guns.

[Ksyrup]

This new article about how the police have "no clues" about why Cho did what he did...is it me, or is it not painfully obvious that this guy simply turned his inward feelings and rage about society, class, race, etc., outward toward the people he felt were most responsible - or representative of the types of people responsible - for engendered the hate he felt? THAT is the answer, and we are knee deep in explicit clues saying just that! What the hell else do they want? Do they think they're going to find a hitlist under his mattress with every victim's name on it? We have the answer.

A couple of things from this CNN article that stand out to me:


"Frustrating their effort, Flaherty said, is the fact that Cho revealed himself to so few people. Even family members have said they rarely heard him speak."

Um...that's a problem. That's not normal. For people to ignore it, and let this kid go away to school as if he's a normal, well-adjusted 20-something...inexcusable.


"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine met with Korean-American leaders to assure them that Virginians do not hold people of Korean descent responsible for the tragedy. Cho was a South Korean immigrant who came to the U.S. at about age 8 and was raised in suburban Washington.

"I can assure you that no one in Virginia -- no one in Virginia -- views the Korean community as culpable in this incident in the least degree," Kaine said.

He said state officials will watch for any reprisals against Korean Americans but that none have been reported."

This has got to be the biggest non-story of the entire thing. From the first day, all we've heard about is fear that Koreans would be blamed for this, and I haven't seen one comment that could be remotely construed in this manner. I thought it was strange then, and it seems just as strange now.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

"Frustrating their effort, Flaherty said, is the fact that Cho revealed himself to so few people. Even family members have said they rarely heard him speak."

Um...that's a problem. That's not normal. For people to ignore it, and let this kid go away to school as if he's a normal, well-adjusted 20-something...inexcusable.

To me, that actually explains why no one thought his lack of speaking to be much of an issue. He was a kid who seemingly never talked much, didn't talk a lot at home, so when he went to college his lack of speaking wasn't out of the ordinary.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine met with Korean-American leaders to assure them that Virginians do not hold people of Korean descent responsible for the tragedy. Cho was a South Korean immigrant who came to the U.S. at about age 8 and was raised in suburban Washington.

"I can assure you that no one in Virginia -- no one in Virginia -- views the Korean community as culpable in this incident in the least degree," Kaine said.

He said state officials will watch for any reprisals against Korean Americans but that none have been reported."

This has got to be the biggest non-story of the entire thing. From the first day, all we've heard about is fear that Koreans would be blamed for this, and I haven't seen one comment that could be remotely construed in this manner. I thought it was strange then, and it seems just as strange now.

I have a coworker whose last name is "Cho", lives in Centreville (where the killer's family lives) and whose parents own a drycleaner in Maryland. A woman came into their store a few days after the massacre and said, "Are you Korean?" His mother answered yes and the woman went on a tirade about how she needed to start apologizing for what happened.

[Ksyrup]

Wasn't out of the ordinary to whom? Everyone at the school seemed to think it wasn't ordinary. If my kid rarely speaks at home as a teen/20 year old, I'm getting him/her some help.

It's one thing for someone from another country to not speak much if he had issues with the English language; to not even speak in your native tongue to family suggests something could be wrong, at a minimum.

[Klinglerware]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

"Gov. Timothy M. Kaine met with Korean-American leaders to assure them that Virginians do not hold people of Korean descent responsible for the tragedy. Cho was a South Korean immigrant who came to the U.S. at about age 8 and was raised in suburban Washington.

"I can assure you that no one in Virginia -- no one in Virginia -- views the Korean community as culpable in this incident in the least degree," Kaine said.

He said state officials will watch for any reprisals against Korean Americans but that none have been reported."

This has got to be the biggest non-story of the entire thing. From the first day, all we've heard about is fear that Koreans would be blamed for this, and I haven't seen one comment that could be remotely construed in this manner. I thought it was strange then, and it seems just as strange now.

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/...&postcount=548

[Ksyrup]

People are dumb - you said it.

The fact remains, there hasn't been anything near a widespread sentiment that Koreans are responsible for this. A few isolated incidents, sure, but nothing that apparently has risen to the level of needing to involve the authorities. In other words, a non-story.

[VPI97]

[VPI97]

Coleman Collins remembers Virginia Tech's tragedy - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN

Former Virginia Tech and D-League player Coleman Collins plays professional basketball in Germany, has a blog, and contributes semi-regularly to TrueHoop. Today he writes about the tragedy that shaped his college days, three years ago.

(I must apologize for the way this meanders and detours and jumps around. That's the way it came out on paper. I must also apologize for the way it is centered around me, and my experiences. I don't wish to diminish anyone else's, least of all the victims, but it is the only story I know well enough to tell. Solah-rex, solah-rah. Polytech Vir-gin-ia.)

When I first visited Virginia Tech in the fall of 2002 I was a 16-year-old boy with no swagger and stains on my teeth from where my braces had been. I'd just gotten them off and was brushing extra hard to get the colors to blend, the slight yellow rings and the blinding white that had been protected by the brackets. I got to campus and walked around, and that first night with some help from a few older players I was admitted into the only club in town on the condition I would drink nothing but water. (Remember Woody's? Blacksburg people might.) After the club closed people spilled into the street. It was the night before the big LSU game, and some LSU fans got into a shouting match with Tech students, and suddenly everyone was in the street, yelling and cheering and cursing LSU. All of downtown Blacksburg was on Main Street, screaming their lungs out. A little bit before 3 a.m. the Hokie Bird came by in a truck, and everyone mobbed it. Pandemonium. One side of the street -- "LET'S GO!" On the other -- "HOKIES!" I had to have been the only sober person there, wide-eyed, soaking it all in. When the police came out in riot gear to disperse the unruly crowd, I ran away, laughing, thinking how much fun it would be to play in front of fans that were so intense.

When I first enrolled in the summer of 2003 I was still a few months shy of 17. I had gotten my driver's license and the spots on my teeth had faded a bit more. I was on my way. I got on campus, took a few classes, and began the transformation from being a person to an athlete. In college, there is a difference. Though the basketball team at VT was less than mediocre, it provided you with a different sort of status on campus. You walked a bit taller. Your posture was better. People would ask to take pictures with you, or maybe sneak and snap pictures of you themselves when you weren't looking. It was the sort of reverence that we Americans reserve for reality TV stars. I have seen you on TV. Some gatekeeper has decided that you are important enough to be broadcasted into my home; therefore I will pay attention to you. This becomes a sort of a drug over the years; when a dunk of mine was featured on SportsCenter's Top 10, I found myself lingering near the televisions in the dining hall near the end of each program, trying to looking nonchalant. Daring people to match the faces. Oh, what's that, you say I look familiar? That guy looks like me? Well let me tell you something, that is me. Yes, the very same. I know, I know -- you're quite welcome.

I don't want to go on and on about this, but the general idea is that playing a big-time college sport at a school with 25,000 students skews your perspective and makes you feel apart from the rest of the community. When you play, you hear the voices screaming your name. They are cheering for you. They love you. All of them. You bask in it, bathe in it. You play, and they cheer. The players do not cheer and the fans do not play. It is a sort of symbiosis - without the player, there is no fan. The problem lies the other way around. Without the cheers, does the player exist? When the cheers stop, is it not inevitable that you, the player, lose your identity?

But that is a topic for another day.

Today is April 16th. It has been three years. I have a weird relationship with the number three. It's my lucky number, I suppose, but it's more than that. When I was little, I would step on cracks and break mothers' backs with impunity, but I'd take tiny steps inside each sidewalk square. Three steps each. If the square was too small for steps I'd hop on it three times. I've never had a uniform number that wasn't a multiple of three. I might eat three M&Ms, or even 51, but never 49 or 50.

On April 16th, 2007, a murderer killed 32 people on Virginia Tech's campus. I don't feel like saying the guy's name. By the time I woke up everyone was dead -- the 32 victims and the one murderer. 33. In any other circumstance that number would comfort me, but it doesn't. On April 16th I woke up to missed calls, texts, frantic messages asking if I was alright. Hadn't paid my cable bill, so I watched the coverage at my girlfriend's house. No one knew who had been killed because they wanted to notify all the families first, so we turned to Facebook and phones to do a rough head count. Was so-and-so accounted for? A resident advisor was killed. Wasn't what's-her-name an RA in West AJ? As it turned out I didn't know anyone personally. People always give off a sigh of relief when I tell them this.

"So were you there when it happened?"

Yes.

"You were actually in the building when he was shooting?"

No, I was at home sleeping.

"Oh. Well you didn't actually know anyone, did you?"

No, not personally.

"Oh, well that's good, I guess."

How could I explain that because I didn't know anyone who was killed that day, that everyone I know was killed that day? There will be people that read this who personally knew victims. Trust me, I can't compete with your pain, but God...I didn't know I could feel that way. I think they call it empathy. So yeah, that was the day I realized what empathy was. At the time of the shootings it had been a little over a year since my father died and I knew what pain felt like, what grief felt like, what it meant to lose someone you loved and wished would live forever. This was different. He'd been a smoker and had gotten cancer. Lifetime smokers die from lung cancer. It's what they do. It had been painful, but this... Gradually the faces came. There was that guy I'd always laughed at. He walked with a feminine gait, not mincing but close-legged, books clutched tightly across his chest. He was different and I'd laughed at him for it and there was nothing I could do to atone. There were 31 people I'd never spoken to, never taken the time to know. Gone. I imagined them as dandelion seeds, tossed to the wind by the wanton breaths of a mischievous child.

No one said much. We sat and stared at the coverage and carnage on the screen. The usual questions: Why? How? But mostly...why? How could this happen to us, to them - people who were minding their own business, that had never hurt a soul. Stories began to roll in, anecdotes and amateur video from shaky cell phone cameras. Professor Liviu Lebrescu - a Holocaust survivor, mind you - had sacrificed his life, barricading the door with his body to allow his students to leap to safety. The guy I'd laughed at, Ryan Clark. He was the second person killed. He died trying to help the first. As an RA, it was his responsibility to care for the students in his dorm. A hero. I'd hit game-winning shots before; people talk about "late-game heroics." But would I ever have the strength to do that? To die a hero? To hear a gunshot and run towards it rather than away?

That night I went home and laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. I didn't sleep long. I woke up the next day and discovered that President Bush was coming to speak at the basketball coliseum, so I went to the locker room at 9 a.m. in order to stake out a good spot for his speech. The door was already open when I got there. Secret Service agents were milling around. All eyes turned towards my face, assessing my threat level. I put my hands up, stammering.

"I -- I'm just a basketball player, man."

"You can't be in here. This room is temporarily Secret Service Central Command." This from what seemed to be one of the more senior agents. Though we were indoors, he was the only one wearing sunglasses.

"I just need to get something out of my locker," I lied.

"Sorry. No-can-do."

"John -- let the kid stay." This from another agent, with visible and kinder eyes. "It's his locker room, and I think he's been through enough already."

Sunglasses raised, eyes squinted. "I guess he's alright."

I sat down at the computer while they discussed their positioning for the speech. Kind Eyes ended up being a UNC fan. "You guys got my Tar Heels this year. Twice. But we'll be back on top soon."

It didn't seem as important as it had a few weeks earlier, in March. Madness fades. I sat with the agents for a couple hours, talking about nothing, basketball, small talk. Everything was small talk that day. It had been a little over 24 hours since the shootings. We were the axis and as the rest of the world turned, Blacksburg was still. Time stopped. Or didn't matter, anyway.

President Bush gave a great speech, but something was missing. There was still a pall in the air. The deaths weighed on us. How could they not? How can you move on from something like that? You can't. You can try and cope, but you can never move on.

And then Nikki Giovanni got on stage. She was fiery. She was electric. (Nikki, if you ever read this, let me just say I'm sorry I missed so many days that year I took your creative writing class. It was an eight o'clock class -- I keep strange hours...) I can't do it justice here; you have to watch the video. But she ended like this.

No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds.

We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid.

We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.

We are alive to the imagination and the possibility.

We will continue to invent the future

Through our blood and tears

Through all this sadness

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

Everyone stood and clapped. Then, since everyone was standing and clapping in a basketball gym, naturally they started cheering. LET'S GO HOKIES! (Clap-clap-clapclapclap) LET'S GO HOKIES! (Clap-clap-clapclapclap). Like the first time I'd heard it on those streets all over again, only faster, more urgent. Not a battle cry; a sober plea. And for the first time in my life, I cheered with them. I had always been convinced of my own importance - supremely confident in how much my abilities meant to every single person within a 50-mile radius. At that moment I realized how much all those people, their support, cheers...tears...how much it all meant to me. We cheered together, for what I don't know. We cheered because we were alive. We cheered because we were together. It was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard, the most beautiful sound I've ever made. That was the day I realized what a catharsis was. The pain would come back, of course -- but for those moments we were weightless. Us dandelions, floating together on a sea of cheers.

[Rizon]

Another shooting at VT today. So far one officer shot and reports of another person shot.

Reports of shots fired at Virginia Tech

[Rizon]

CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Blacksburg Transit bus service is suspended effectively immediately.
4 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Suspect remains at large.
4 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Police officer is dead in Coliseum Lot near McComas Hall. Potential 2nd victim shot in the I-Lot on Plantation Rd. Suspect at large.
5 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
According to a recent VT Alert, a police officer has been shot. A potential second victim is reported at the cage lot.
12 minutes ago
Virginia Tech News
vtnews Virginia Tech News
A police officer has been shot. A potential second victim is reported at the Cage lot. Stay indoors. Secure in place.
14 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
One person dead outside McComas Hall. A potential suspect was sighted and fired at in a parking lot near the Duck Pond.
18 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
BREAKING: It appears one person is dead in the Coliseum parking lot. Washington Street and area are closed. #virginiatech
20 minutes ago
Virginia Tech SGA
vtsga Virginia Tech SGA
Be safe #Hokies
26 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Another VT Alert was just sent stating that the suspect is on foot toward McComas.
32 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
According to @vtnews, white male, gray sweatpants, gray hat, neon green brim, maroon hoodie and backpack on foot toward McComas
35 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Has anyone heard or seen anything regarding the gunshots? Tweet us @CollegiateTimes.
38 minutes ago
Virginia Tech News
vtnews Virginia Tech News
Gun shots reported- Coliseum Parking lot. Stay Inside. Secure doors. Emergency personnel responding. Call 911 for help.

[Shkspr]

Well, fuck.

[Rizon]

Looks like a traffic stop on campus. So far one officer dead.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Rizon

Looks like a traffic stop on campus. So far one officer dead.

Can I bring this up the next time someone complains about how the cops handled someone who wouldn't stop or listen to instructions during a traffic stop?

[Ben E Lou]

Live stream: Live Streaming Video Player - wdbj7.com

[RomaGoth]

Unfucking believable.

[Rizon]

The shooting happened literally minutes after this article was released (unrelated). But good to see VT all over getting the news out immediately that there was a shooting.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Can I bring this up the next time someone complains about how the cops handled someone who wouldn't stop or listen to instructions during a traffic stop?

Yes

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Can I bring this up the next time someone complains about how the cops handled someone who wouldn't stop or listen to instructions during a traffic stop?

Of course you can. Doesn't mean you won't be full of shit, though.

[Rizon]

Two confirmed dead.

Reports of more shooting minutes ago.


CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Reports of police activity all over campus, now including outside Squires Student Center
2 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
To be clear, latest reports of suspect were near Performing Arts building moving to Torgersen, but no arrest has been made.
4 minutes ago
Collegiate Times
CollegiateTimes Collegiate Times
Students are reporting shots near Torgersen Hall

[Ksyrup]

From VA Tech police scanner second ago: " ... possible shots fired outside Johnson Hall ... "

[Rizon]

Yeah, I've read reports of on and off shooting around campus for the last 15 minutes

Around Squires too, which is where students were moved to

* turns out these are false reports

[King of New York]

Stay safe, Hokies

[wade moore]

I have a cousin down there.

His brother is trying to get word from him, but the older brother was there in '07 and said that communication was next to impossible.

[Ksyrup]

@jimsciuttoABC: Senior VA Tech cops and university officials were all in DC today appealing fine for handling of 07 shooting.

[Breeze]

This brings back some very bad memories of '07...I feel ill...

[BYU 14]

Horrible for that campus to go through this again with 2007 still so fresh. Hoping this ends with nobody else getting hurt.

[Ksyrup]

Starting to make some sense now, possibly:


"Armed and dangerous" white, college-age male was reportedly at large after stealing car yesterday near VT campus area

Radford Police Department looking for "armed and dangerous" man - WDBJ7

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I have a cousin down there.

His brother is trying to get word from him, but the older brother was there in '07 and said that communication was next to impossible.

This post made me realize that it's quite possible, even likely, there are a number of students on campus today that were on campus for the first one.

Obvious to a lot of people maybe, but I didn't really think about that until you posted about the brothers & when the first one was there.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Starting to make some sense now, popssibly:


"Armed and dangerous" white, college-age male was reportedly at large after stealing car yesterday near VT campus area

Radford Police Department looking for "armed and dangerous" man - WDBJ7

Have they said what type of vehicle the officer stopped today? I can't remember seeing it anywhere, only that a purple Mitsubishi was a vehicle of interest. I'm thinking these are related because the media hasn't mentioned it.

[Ksyrup]

AP The Associated Press
BREAKING: Law enforcement official tells AP that Virginia Tech gunman is believed to be dead.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

AP The Associated Press
BREAKING: Law enforcement official tells AP that Virginia Tech gunman is believed to be dead.

Apparently the 2nd shooting victim was the gunman? wth

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Rizon

Apparently the 2nd shooting victim was the gunman? wth

Nick Cafferky @NickCaffCT 8 mins
Police had to follow leads all over campus because of how common the description was

Originally Posted by Rizon

Have they said what type of vehicle the officer stopped today? I can't remember seeing it anywhere, only that a purple Mitsubishi was a vehicle of interest. I'm thinking these are related because the media hasn't mentioned it.

Collegiate Times @CollegiateTimes 8 mins
Police don't believe shooter was in car that the officer stopped.

Nick Cafferky @NickCaffCT 2 mins
no vehicle is associated w/ suspect at this time. Seems report of mitsubishi was not true

[Ben E Lou]

According to the presser, the shooter wasn't the guy they stopped. Some other dude walked up and shot the cop.

[bronconick]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Can I bring this up the next time someone complains about how the cops handled someone who wouldn't stop or listen to instructions during a traffic stop?

Well, since the police chief just said that the cop pulled a guy over and then a completely different guy walked up to the police car and shot him, it's probably not going to be your strongest argument.

[[email protected]]

this is not good when you can just pick this thread up 4 years later and it's the same thing all over. I park in this lot every day to go to work.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

According to the presser, the shooter wasn't the guy they stopped. Some other dude walked up and shot the cop.

I'm wondering if the cop(s) were specifically targeted by someone unhappy with what was going down today (regarding appealing the fine in DC/belief the cops/school didn't do enough).