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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
US mourns bloodbath: 33 dead
BLACKSBURG, Virginia — A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern United States history on Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.
The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33. Probers gave no motive for the attack.
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The gunman was later identified as Cho Seung-hui, 23. He had been in the United States from a young age, Cho Byung-se, a South Korean ministry official handling North American affairs, told reporters late Tuesday. No further specifics were given.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences Tuesday to victims after it emerged that the suspect in the shooting spree at Virginia Tech university in the United States was South Korean.
"We are in shock beyond description," said Cho Byung-se. "We convey deep condolences to victims, families and the American people."
He said there was no known motive for the shootings, and added that South Korea hoped that the tragedy would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation."
South Korean diplomats were traveling to the site of the shooting, Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong said.
“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” Virginia Tech president Charles Steger said.
But he was also faced with difficult questions about the university’s handling of the emergency and whether it did enough to warn students and protect them after the first burst of gunfire.
Some students bitterly complained they got no warning from the university until an e-mail that arrived more than two hours after the first shots rang out.
Wielding two handguns and carrying multiple clips of ammunition, the killer opened fire about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, a high-rise coed dormitory, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building a half-mile away on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus.
Some of the doors at Norris Hall were found chained from the inside, apparently by the gunman.
Two people died in a dorm room and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head.
At least 15 people were hurt, some seriously. Students jumped from windows in panic.
Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old junior, said he was in a 9:05 a.m. mechanics class when he and classmates heard a thunderous sound from the classroom next door — “what sounded like an enormous hammer.”
When students realized the sounds were gunshots, Calhoun said, he started flipping over desks for hiding places.
Calhoun said that the two students behind him were shot, but that he believed they survived.
Just before he climbed out the window, Calhoun said, he turned to look at the professor, who had stayed behind, perhaps to block the door.
The instructor was killed, he said.
At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved.
A student used his cell phone camera to record the sound of bullets echoing through a stone building.
Trey Perkins, who was sitting in a German class in Norris Hall, told The Washington Post that the gunman barged into the room at about 9:50 a.m. and opened fire for about a minute and a half, squeezing off about 30 shots.
The gunman first shot the professor in the head and then fired on the students, Perkins said.
The gunman was about 19 years old and had a “very serious but very calm look on his face,” he said.
Erin Sheehan, who was also in the German class, said she was one of only four of about two dozen people in the class to walk out of the room. The rest were dead, she said.
Expressing the nation's sorrow, President Bush on Tuesday ordered that flags be flown at half staff in honor of those killed in the deadliest shooting spree in US history.
Bush planned to speak Tuesday at Virginia Tech, where 33 people were gunned down Monday in two separate attacks on campus. He and his wife, Laura, will attend a campus convocation "as representatives of the entire nation," spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
"They will be there as the national representatives on a day that is full of sorrow for every American," she said. "He will remark about the amazing strength of the community, and I'm not just talking about the city limits of Blacksburg, but as you seen that's there's been an outpouring of support."
Bush directed flags to be flown at half staff through sunset on Sunday, Perino said.
The president and his wife hope to help the university begin healing following the tragedy. He will speak for roughly five minutes.
"They are going to be there to express the sympathies, the support and the prayers of the country," Perino said Tuesday morning.
Bush plans to give three television interviews on campus before returning to the White House, Perino said.(AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (April 18, 2007 issue)
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