Spring Break
No motive to massacre
Killing at Virginia Tech leaves nation asking why
By: Staff and Wire
Issue date: 4/17/07 Section: News
| |
| |
|
The first crackle of gunfire shattered the Monday morning calm.
It was 7:15 a.m. on the campus of Virginia Tech, and the largest killing spree in U.S. history had just begun.
Snow was swirling on the windy April day, and classes had not yet started when a murderous rampage that would shake the nation started in a coed dormitory, West Ambler Johnston - home to 895 people.
The first reports of trouble were tragic, but small in scope - no
hint of the massacre about to unfold in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia: One person was dead, another injured.
The official word to students apparently did not come right away.
In a mass e-mail, Virginia Tech officials announced a shooting had occurred at the dorm, police were on the scene and urged anyone in the university community to "be cautious" and contact police if they saw anything suspicious or had information on the case.
The e-mail was signed off at 9:26 a.m.
Police would later say they thought the two had been shot in a domestic dispute. They thought the gunman had fled the campus.
"We secured the building. We secured the crime scene," said Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum. For a long while, there were no new reports of anything suspicious.
Classes on the Blacksburg, Va., campus had gone ahead as scheduled; the first period began at 8 a.m. The doors of the buildings remained open. And the gunman, armed with two pistols, with a motive yet unknown had set his sights elsewhere, at Norris Hall, an engineering building nearly a half-mile away on the 26,000-acre campus.
Police believe the shooting at Norris began around 9:45 a.m. The building's doors had been chained shut, possibly by the gunman, authorities said.
Brittany Zachar, an 18-year-old freshman who lives at West Ambler Johnston, decided to attend an economics class even though she saw a handwritten sign on pink paper posted in the dorm bathroom saying something had happened and going to class was optional.
As she walked on campus, she heard the pop of gunshots coming from the direction of Norris Hall. She saw police running.
"I heard the gunshots and just sprinted," she says, adding that she took cover in another school building. "It was probably one of the scariest things in my life."
At 9:55 a.m., the school sent out a second e-mail.
"Please stay put," it warned. "A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows."
The university also began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to get the word out, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger also said at a news conference.
Soon after, horrifying sounds and images flooded TV screens and Internet sites across America. SWAT teams in flak jackets swarmed the campus. Students helped faculty members carry out the wounded as ambulances arrived at the site.
CNN showed a jerky video provided by a student's cell phone that showed what seemed to be police outside Norris Hall accompanied by a chilling soundtrack - the crackle of gunshots.
One student told the Washington Post that the gunman, said to be about 19 years old, burst into the room and fired about 30 shots in just a minute and a half - first blasting a professor in the head, then shooting the students.
Planet Blacksburg - a local, student-run website - quoted Ruiqi Zhang, identified as a computer engineering student who said he was on the second floor of Norris.
"A student rushed in and told everybody to get down," Zhang said. "We put a table against the door and when the gunman tried to shoulder his way in and when he saw that he couldn't, he put two shots through the door. It was the scariest moment of my life."
The website also quoted Gene Cole, a building worker, as saying the shooter wore a hat and carried an automatic weapon. "He loaded his gun at me," Cole said. "I ran down the steps to get out of there."
It was reminiscent of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago this week. And something else recalled some of the most shocking images of Sept. 11: Students jumping from windows to escape.
Virginia Tech sent out a third e-mail at 10:17 a.m. announcing classes were canceled and repeating the warning for everyone to lock their doors and stay away from windows.
By then, the magnitude of the bloody day was becoming increasingly clear.
Grim-faced TV anchors reported the rising death toll: 21, 31, then 33, including the shooter himself, not identified. He put a bullet in his head. Two of the dead were shot at the dorm, the remainder at Norris Hall. Authorities also reported 15 people were wounded, some seriously.
As the wind whipped through the campus on Monday night, a steady stream of students from West Ambler Johnston carried suitcases, backpacks and other personal items - one held a large stuffed dog nicknamed Hokie after the school mascot - to find someplace else to sleep.
They said they couldn't bear to spend the night in the dorm.
The shooting had reverberations at other college campuses, including Texas A&M, where some students were concerned after seeing the news.
"It's really scary," said Amanda Sulak, a senior accounting major. "You just don't think that kind of thing could happen here."
Jody Rodenberg, a senior sociology major, said the events were awful. "It's really tragic and heartbreaking," she said.
Laura Roth, a senior biomedical science major, said it's a reality check for college students.
"It's a big reminder that college is not the small world we make it out to be," she said.
-Jessica McCann contributed to this report.
ECHO TAPS
Late Monday, Texas A&M students honored the victims of the Virginia Tech shooting by playing Echo Taps on the Quad.
PRAYER VIGIL
A&M students will assemble at 9 p.m. Tuesday at Academic Plaza to honor victims of the tragedy.
Be sure to include your name, major, and class year. Submissions without this information are subject to deletion.
By submitting a comment, you agree to thebatt.com's Terms of Use.
You may also send a Mail Call to The Battalion at mailcall@thebatt.com