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   Shooting at VaTech

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Topic: Shooting at VaTech (Read 4043 times)

Bumper
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Shooting at VaTech
« on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 1:24pm »

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I am in shock. I am trying to contact my friends who have children attending VaTech . . . .

This is any parent's worst nightmare.

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people in the deadliest campus shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman was killed, bringing to death toll to 22, but it was unclear if he was shot by police or took his own life.

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

The name of the gunman was not immediately released, and investigators offered no motive for the attack. It was not immediately known if the gunman was a student.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said there was no immediate evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, "but all avenues will be explored."

The bloodbath took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building, authorities said.

Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm -- and the campus was under lockdown, with students to stay indoors and away from the windows -- when authorities got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Some of the dead were students. One student was killed in the dorm, and the others were killed in the classroom, Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.

Up until Monday, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death 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.

The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, about 160 miles west of Richmond. With more than 25,000 full-time students, it has the state's largest full-time student population. The school is best known for its engineering school and its powerhouse football team.

The rampage took place on a brisk spring day, with snow flurries swirling around the campus, which is is centered around the Drill Field, a grassy field where military cadets -- who now represent a fraction of the student body -- once practiced. The dorm and the classroom building are on opposites sides of the Drill Field.

A gasp could be heard at a campus news conference when the police chief said at least 20 people had been killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed.

Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began marking and recovering the large number of shell casings and will trace the weapon used, according to an ATF official who spoke on condition of anonymity because local authorities are leading the investigation.

A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed, and classes were canceled through Tuesday. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children at the Inn at Virginia Tech. It also made counselors available and planned a convocation for Tuesday at the basketball arena.

After the shootings, students were told to stay inside away from the windows.

"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 where shooting took place.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, 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: "We are all in lockdown. Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible."

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks by authorities but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.

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

Last August, 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. The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.

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Pocket
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #1 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 1:44pm »

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Terrible news! Cry

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Insane 4 Survivor
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #2 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 4:08pm »

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Current as of 4:58 EDT - CNN

"A lone gunman is dead after killing 32 people at two sites at Virginia Tech, the university's president confirmed Monday. He called the massacre an "incomprehensible, heinous act." Virginia Rep. Randy Forbes said he understands the shooter was a student and that he turned the gun on himself."

University officials say 33 dead, including gunman
Four hospitals report 29 wounded
Attacks mark deadliest school shooting in U.S. history
Student describes situation as "mayhem"; says 2 students jumped from window

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Jeff
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #3 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 4:17pm »

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My apartment complex is mainly full of college students and being near the Virginia boarder, we have many people here who have friends at Virginia Tech. It's a shame this had to happen and I hope that bastard gunman gets what's coming to him in the afterlife.

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Isle_be_back
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #4 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 6:16pm »

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Why can't these morons shoot themselves first?

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Jeff
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #5 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 6:37pm »

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Because that would make too much sense and we can't go having all this sense-making all around the place, now can we?

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MediaScribe
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #6 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 6:49pm »

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on Apr 16^th, 2007, 6:16pm, ExIsle_be_back wrote:

Why can't these morons shoot themselves first?

Because that's not what Grand Theft Auto and gangsta rap tells them to do.

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Tyler
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #7 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 6:50pm »

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Of couse this is very horible and none of this needed to happen. But after watcing the 30 minute special on this....it appears the school didn't do too much to prevent it.

The first shootings were in the dormitory building. Then, after 2 hours he went to the academic buildings and started shooting up people there.

Come on now, seriosuly, shouldn't they have evacuated the acedemic bulding or at least went in lockdown to keep it secure? This situation went way worse then what it should have because of failure to follow basic common sense.

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lakelady
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #8 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 7:22pm »

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For the love of GOD! Why does the media feel the need to PIN this on someone?

It seemed to them that at the time it was an isolated incident. At that TIME they didn't see that it was necessary to shut down the entire campus. In hindsite, yes, it was. But they had reason to believe that the killer was on his way out of state.

Moreso than the atrocity of all this, I am stunned as to how the media is handling it.

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lakelady
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #9 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 7:23pm »

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No, I'm not. This is pretty typical of the media. sigh

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Jeff
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #10 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 7:32pm »

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All I know is that when someone shot and killed someone else near me and the killer wasn't caught, yet, news and police were encouraging everyone within at least a 10-block radius to remain indoors and lock their doors until the shooter was apprehended.

You have someone on the loose that has proven that they will take human life and it just happened. It is not unpresidented to say "We have a known killer on the loose, so please take measures to protect yourself."

They should have taken the measures to protect the student in the event that the killer was not done. They didn't and they were wrong for it. Everyone makes mistakes and I'm not saying we should lynch the school administrators for making an extremely unfortunate mistake, but the fact remains that a killer was on the loose and they did nothing to make the potential victims aware of what was going on or to protect them.

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lakelady
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #11 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 7:38pm »

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This was unprecidented. Just like Hurricane Katrina. The officials did the best they could with the knowledge that had. In hindsight, yes, things could have been done differently.
But lynching the system is exactly what I expect from the media. And I am sick of it. I plan to write the university now in their support.

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Jeff
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #12 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 7:44pm »

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The 32 shootings that took place on a college campus is unprecidented, but not mass murder and definitely not a single or double murder.

There was one person shot and killed just down the block from where I lived and he took off. Police and reporters were alerting everyone anywhere close to this to stay indorrs until the killer was apprehended.

This student not only killed one person in the first building, but two. One was just the floor resident or whatever the official position is called. This tells me that not only did the shooter kill the intended first victim, but someone else, as well.

When you have one person shot and killed, take some kind of a measure to protect the students. When two people are shot and killed, you better take measures to protect the people around you.

Were these school officials expected to know this was going to happen? No, of course not. However, in shootings in areas that aren't schools, the people nearby are always told to take special precaution. Why should the school campus be any different?

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lakelady
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #13 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 8:05pm »

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I'm sure the school officials will be crucified. That's the American way.

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Jeff
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Re: Shooting at VaTech
« Reply #14 on: Apr 16^th, 2007, 8:12pm »

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I hope they aren't because even though I feel they made a terrible mistake, it is one of those tough calls. When a shooting happens, I am always in favor of alerting those near the shooting and taking extra steps to ensure their safety. In my middle school alone, there were three seperate shootings and five seperate stabbings. Not once did the school ever take a single damn measure to ensure our safety. A good chunk of the reason my parents got me and my siblings out of South Florida.

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