journal 34: CHO SEUNG-HUI.4.20.7

Journal 34: Cho Seung-Hui



Completed: 4.20.7

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A Statement from the International Action Center

Why Virginia Tech shootings happened

Yet another rampage has occurred at a school, this time leaving 33 people dead at Virginia Tech—the worst such incident ever at a U.S. college campus.The news media seem stunned and surprised, yet their coverage sounds so similar to the stories about Columbine eight years ago. They dwell on the personality of the young man the police say did the shooting, before killing himself. They talk about him being a “loner,” depressed, perhaps angry at women.But aren’t there lonely and depressed people all over the world? Many countries have high suicide rates. Why is it that here some become mass murderers?The U.S. is the world leader in seemingly random acts of violence by individuals. Why?President George W. Bush rushed to Virginia to speak at a large convocation the day after the killings and tried to set the tone for what could be said about them. “It’s impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering,” he said.Don’t ask why, don’t try to understand. It makes no sense. “Have faith” instead, was Bush’s message.But there ARE reasons these things happen here, and they are pretty clear to the rest of the world. It’s just in the United States that no one is supposed to talk about the reasons.What distinguishes this country from the rest of the world? It is neither the most affluent nor the poorest. It is neither the most secular nor the most religious. It is not the most culturally homogeneous nor is it the most diverse.But in one area, it stands virtually alone. It has the biggest arsenal of high-tech weaponry in the world, way surpassing every other country. It has military bases spread all over; most countries have no troops outside their borders.It is conducting two hot wars at the moment, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has sent hundreds of thousands of troops abroad over the last few years. Every day, the public here is supposed to identify with soldiers who burst into homes in Baghdad, round up the people and take them away for “interrogation”—which everyone knows now can mean torture and indefinite detainment.It also sends heavily armed “special ops” on secret missions to countless other countries, like the ones who just facilitated the invasion and bombing of Somalia, or the ones who have been trying to stir up opposition in Iran. This is documented in the news media.The immense brutality of these colonial wars, as well as earlier ones, is praised from the White House on down as the best, the ONLY way to achieve what the political leaders and their influential, rich backers decide is necessary to protect their world empire. Do lots of people get killed? “Stuff happens,” said former war secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “Collateral damage,” says the Pentagon.At home, the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Over 2 million people are locked up in the prison system each year, most of them people of color. When commercial armed security guards are also taken into consideration, the U.S. has millions of employees who use guns and other coercive paraphernalia in their jobs.In the final analysis, the military and the police exist to perpetuate and protect this present unjust system of capitalist inequality, where a few can claim personal ownership over a vast economy built by the sweat and blood of hundreds of millions of workers.And the more divided, the more polarized the society becomes, the higher the level of coercion and violence. Assault weapons are now everywhere in this society, as are Tasers, handcuffs, clubs and tear gas. They most often start out in the hands of the police, the military and other agents of the state, and can then turn up anywhere.Violence is a big money maker in the mass culture. Television, films, pulp novels, Internet sites, video games—all dwell on “sociopaths” while glorifying the state’s use of violence, often supplemented by a lone vigilante. By the time children reach their teens, they have already seen thousands of murders and killings on television. And these days even more suspense is added in countless programs that involve stalking and terror against women—and increasingly children.As the Duke rape case and so many “escort service” ads show, women of color are particularly subject to exploitation and have little recourse to any justice. And as the murders along the border show, immigrants of color are fair game for racist killers.The social soil of capitalism can alienate and enrage an unstable and miserable person who should be getting help but can’t find it. If, as reports are saying, the young man accused of these killings was on anti-depressant medication, it is all the more evidence that, at a time when hospitals are closing and health care is unavailable for tens of millions, treating mental health problems requires more from society than just prescribing dubious chemicals.Many liberal commentators are taking this occasion to renew the demand for tougher gun laws. Yes, assault weapons are horrible, but so are bunker buster bombs, helicopters that fire thousands of rounds a minute, and the ultimate—nuclear weapons. Disarming the people is not the answer, especially when the government is armed to the teeth and uses brutality and coercion daily.The best antidote to these tragedies is to build a movement for profound social change, a movement directed at solving the great problems depressing so much of humanity today, whether they be wars or global climate change or the loneliness of the dog-eat-dog society.
International Action Center- 55 West 17th St, 5C, New York, NY 10011www.IACenter.org

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Warning Signs
The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre alarmed professors with violence-drenched writing.















Gunman's final message
Cho sent photographs, videos and writings to NBC during two-hour window between shootings.



Message of rage
Virginia Tech gunman's chilling final words surface in a package mailed to NBC News.


AP Photo:

Apr 18, 2007
Message of rage
Virginia Tech gunman's chilling final words surface in a package mailed to NBC News.










Cho Seung-Hui, seen in an image he mailed to NBC, April 18, 2007. (NBC)



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An image Cho Seung-Hui mailed to NBC, April 18, 2007. (NBC)















Wednesday, April 18th 2007 6:35 PM
NBC releases some contents of package Cho sentTim Tutt, CT Web Developer













































(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., was a sophomore who had just declared English as his major. Friends created a memorial page on Facebook.com that described Alameddine as "an intelligent, funny, easygoing guy." "You're such an amazing kid, Ross," wrote Zach Allen, who along with Alameddine attended Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Mass. "You always made me smile, and you always knew the right thing to do or say to cheer anyone up."









(CBS)

(CBS/AP) (Jaime) James Christopher Bishop, 35, taught German at Virginia Tech and helped oversee an exchange program with a German university. Bishop decided which German-language students at Virgina Tech could attend the Darmstadt University of Technology to improve their German. "He would teach them German in Blacksburg, and he would decide which students were able to study" abroad, Darmstadt spokesman Lars Rosumek said. The school set up a book of condolences for students, staff and faculty to sign, along with information about the Virginia shootings. "Of course many persons knew him personally and are deeply, deeply shocked about his death," Rosumek said. Bishop earned bachelor's and master's degrees in German and was a Fulbright scholar at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany. According to his Web site, Bishop spent four years living in Germany, where he "spent most of his time learning the language, teaching English, drinking large quantities of wheat beer, and wooing a certain fraulein." The "fraulein" was Bishop's wife, Stephanie Hofer, who also teaches in Virginia Tech's German program.


(AP)

(CBS/AP) Brian Bluhm, 25, a graduate student in civil engineering, was an avid fan of the Detroit Tigers, who announced his death before their Tuesday, April 17, 2007, game against Kansas City, which Detroit went on to win 7-6. "He went to a game last weekend and saw them win, and I'm glad he did," said Bluhm's close friend, Michael Marshall of Richmond, Va. Bluhm received his undergraduate degree in civil engineering at Virginia Tech and was getting ready to defend his thesis. He already had accepted a job in Baltimore, Marshall said. Bluhm moved from Iowa to Detroit to Louisville, Ky., before coming to Virginia Tech. His parents moved to Winchester, Va., while he was in school, so Blacksburg became his real home, Marshall said. Bluhm also loved the Hokies, and a close group of friends often traveled to away football games. But Marshall said it was his faith and work with the Baptist Collegiate Ministries that his friend loved most. "Brian was a Christian, and first and foremost that's what he would want to be remembered as," Marshall said.



(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Ryan Clark was called "Stack" by his friends, many of whom he met as a resident assistant at Ambler Johnson Hall, where the first shootings took place. Clark, 22, was from Martinez, Ga., just outside Augusta. He was a fifth-year student working toward a triple-degree in psychology, biology and English and carried a 4.0 grade-point average. He was also a member of the Marching Virginians band. "He was just one of the greatest people you could possibly know," friend Gregory Walton, 25, said after learning from an ambulance driver that Clark was among the dead. "He was always smiling, always laughing. I don't think I ever saw him mad in the five years I knew him."






(AP)

(CBS/AP) Austin Cloyd, 18, was an international studies major. The Virginia Tech freshman was so inspired by an Appalachian service project that helped rehab homes that she and her mother started a similar program in their Illinois town, her former pastor said. The Cloyds were active members of the First United Methodist Church in Champaign, Ill., before moving to Blacksburg in 2005, the Rev. Terry Harter said. The family moved when Cloyd's father, C. Bryan Cloyd, took a job in the accounting department at Virginia Tech, Harter said. Harter described Cloyd as a "very delightful, intelligent, warm young lady" and an athlete who played basketball and volleyball in high school. But, he says it was the mission trips to Appalachia that showed just how caring and faithful she was. "It made an important impact on her life, that's the kind of person she was," he said.



(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a French instructor at Virginia Tech, was instrumental in the push to create the first French school in Truro, Nova Scotia, where she lived in the 1990s with her husband, Jerzy Nowak, who is the head of the horticulture department at Virginia Tech. Richard Landry, a spokesman with the francophone school board in Nova Scotia, said Couture-Nowak had two girls. According to Landry, Couture-Nowak obtained her degree at the teacher's college in Truro in 1989. She taught at a community college and also was a substitute teacher. A student who identified herself as DeAnne Leigh Pelchat wrote of her gratitude to Couture-Nowak on one Web site. Pelchat wrote in French, "You'll always have a place in my heart."






(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, of Peru, was a student of international relations, according to the Virginia Tech Web site. He was killed while in a French class at Norris Hall, according to his mother, Betty Cueva. His father, Flavio Perez, spoke of the death to RPP radio in Peru. He lives in Peru and said he was trying to obtain a humanitarian visa from the U.S. consulate here. He is separated from Cueva, who said she had lived in the United States for six years. A spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Lima said the student's father "will receive all the attention possible when he applies" for the visa.






(AP)

(CBS/AP) Kevin Granata, a professor of engineering science and mechanics, served in the military and later conducted orthopedic research in hospitals before coming to Virginia Tech, where he and his students researched muscle and reflex response and robotics. Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the school's engineering science and mechanics department, called Granata one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy. Engineering professor Demetri P. Telionis said Granata was successful and kind. "With so many research projects and graduate students, he still found time to spend with his family, and he coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities," Telionis said. Granata was a gifted scientist, known worldwide for his research into how the body's various muscles accomplish complicated movements, said Stefan Duma, a mechanical engineering professor. "He liked to ask the big questions," Duma said. "When we had students defending their Ph.D., and he kept asking, 'Did we have the total solution?' He was really interested in whether we answered the big questions. That's really a sign of a great scientist."



(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Caitlin Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to officials at her former school district. "She was just one of the most outstanding young individuals that I've had the privilege of working with in my 31 years as an educator," said John P. Latini, principal of Minisink Valley High School, where she graduated in 2005. "Caitlin was a leader among our students."












(AP)

(CBS/AP) Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa., was pursuing graduate work in civil engineering at Virginia Tech, according to officials at Penn State. Herbstritt had two undergraduate degrees from Penn State, one in biochemistry and molecular biology from 2003, and another in civil engineering from 2006. He grew up on a small farm in Spring Township, just outside the central Pennsylvania borough of Bellefonte, where his father, Michael, raised steer and sheep. Herbstritt's career goal was to be a civil engineer and he talked of getting into environmental work after school.





(AP)

(CBS/AP) Rachael Elizabeth Hill, 18, a freshman from Glen Allen, Va., was studying biology according to her father, Guy Hill. A 2006 graduate of Grove Avenue Christian School in Henrico County, Hill was an only child and was extraordinarily close with her family, said Clay Fogler, school administrator for Grove Avenue Christian School. She was popular and funny, had a penchant for shoes and was competitive on the volleyball court. "Rachael was a very bright, articulate, intelligent, beautiful, confident, poised young woman. She had a tremendous future in front of her," said Fogler, who knew Hill for almost four years. "Obviously, the Lord had other plans for her."








(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Emily Jane Hilscher, 19, of Woodville, Va., a freshman majoring in animal and poultry sciences, lived on the same dorm floor as victim Ryan Clark. Hilscher was known around her hometown as an animal lover. "She worked at a veterinarian's office and cared about them her whole life," said Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend. A friend, Will Nachless, also 19, said Hilscher "was always very friendly. Before I even knew her, I thought she was very outgoing, friendly and helpful, and she was great in chemistry."








(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Jarett Lane, 22, a senior civil engineering student was valedictorian of his high school class in Narrows, Va., just 30 miles from Virginia Tech. At Narrows High School, Lane played the trombone, ran track, and played football and basketball. The school put up a memorial that included pictures, musical instruments and his athletic jerseys. "We're just kind of binding together as a family," Principal Robert Stump said. Lane's brother-in-law Daniel Farrell called Lane fun-loving and "full of spirit." "He had a caring heart and was a friend to everyone he met," Farrell said. "We are leaning on God's grace in these trying hours."






(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Matthew J. La Porte, 20, a freshman from Dumont, N.J., was a 2005 graduate of Carson Long Military Institute, in New Bloomfield, Pa. Carson Long posted a memorial photograph of La Porte in his school uniform on its Web site. La Porte credited the military institute with turning his life around. In a graduation speech printed in the school yearbook, La Porte said that the military institute was his second chance. La Porte was attending Virginia Tech on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, according to officials in Dumont. First Lieutenant Garry Hallman was a friend and instructor at Carson Long who said he kept in touch with his former student. He says La Porte was a member of Virginia Tech's Corps of Cadets and was considering majoring in political science. According to his profile on a music Web site, La Porte's favorite artists were Meshuggah, Metallica, Soundgarden, Creed and Live.



(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Henry J. Lee, 20, was a freshman from Roanoke, Va., majoring in computer engineering and French. Also known as Henh Ly, he was the ninth of 10 siblings whose family fled to the United States from Vietnam, arriving in Roanoke in 1994. Friends described the diminutive Lee as a serious student who wasn't necessarily a serious person. Nathan Spady, a Virginia Tech classmate who lived in Lee's hall, described Lee as "an extremely bubbly guy, always ready to go." William Fleming High School Principal Susan Lawyer Willis told The Roanoke Times that Lee was the school's salutatorian in 2006, and brought many in the audience to tears with his story about his family's journey to America.






(AP)

(CBS/AP) Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was known for his research, but his son said the Holocaust survivor will be remembered as a hero for protecting students as the gunman tried to enter his classroom. Librescu taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years and had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering. "His research has enabled better aircraft, superior composite materials, and more robust aerospace structures," said Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department.






(CBS)

(CBS/AP) G.V. Loganathan, 51, was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai and had been a civil and environmental engineering professor at Virginia Tech since 1982. He won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduate students. "We all feel like we have had an electric shock. We do not know what to do," his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. "He has been a driving force for all of us, the guiding force."







(AP)

(CBS/AP) Lauren McCain, 20, was originally from Oklahoma but most recently lived in the Hampton, Va., area. The freshman, who was an avowed Christian, planned to major in international studies. Home-schooled, McCain had worked at a department store for about a year to save money for college. Her uncle, Jeff Elliott, speaking to The Oklahoman newspaper, described her as an avid reader who was learning German and had almost mastered Latin.










(AP)

(CBS/AP) Partahi Lumbantoruan of Indonesia, a 34-year-old graduate student, had been studying civil engineering at Virginia Tech for three years. His goal was to become a teacher in the U.S. Lumbantoruan's family sold off property and cars to pay his tuition, said his father, Tohom Lumbantoruan, a 66-year-old retired army officer. "We tried everything to completely finance his studies in the United States," he said. "We only wanted him to succeed in his studies, but ... he met a tragic fate." His stepmother, Sugiyarti, says he had called almost daily to talk to the family; in their last conversation, he had asked for the latest news on Indonesian politics. She wept as she asked why people can bring guns to campus.







(AP)

(CBS/AP) Daniel O'Neil, 22, a graduate student in engineering, played guitar and wrote his own songs. Friend Steve Craveiro described him as smart, responsible and a hard worker, someone who never got into trouble. "He would come home from school over the summer and talk about projects, about building bridges and stuff like that," Craveiro said. "He loved his family. He was pretty much destined to be extremely successful. He just didn't deserve to have happen what happened." O'Neil graduated in 2002 from Lincoln High School in Rhode Island and graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., before heading to Virginia Tech, where he was also a teaching assistant.







(AP)

(CBS/AP) Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, was teaching a class as part of his graduate program in civil engineering at Virginia Tech. The family's neighbors in the San Juan suburb remembered Ortiz as a quiet, dedicated son who decorated his parents' one-story concrete house each Christmas and played in a salsa band with his father on weekends. "He was an extraordinary son, what any father would have wanted," said Ortiz's father, also named Juan Ramon Ortiz. Marilys Alvarez, 22, heard Ortiz's mother scream from the house next door when she learned of her son's death. Alvarez said she had wanted to study in the United States, but was now reconsidering. "Here the violence is bad, but you don't see that," she said. "It's really sad. You can't go anywhere now."




(CBS/AP) Minal Panchal, 26, a first-year graduate student in building sciences, wanted to be an architect like her father, who died four years ago. She was very keen to go to the United States for postgraduate studies and thrilled when she gained admission last year, said Chetna Parekh, a friend who lives in the Mumbai neighborhood of Borivali, India, where Panchal lived before coming to Virginia Tech. "She was a brilliant student and very hardworking. She was focused on getting her degree and doing well." Panchal was worried about her mother, Hansa, living alone and wanted her to come to the U.S., neighbor Jayshree Ajmane said. Hansa left earlier this month for New Jersey, where her sister and brother-in-law live. Ajmane called Panchal a bright, polite girl who would help the neighborhood children with their schoolwork.



(CBS/AP) Erin Peterson, 18, of Chantilly, Va., was a freshman majoring in international studies. She was a member of Phi Sigma Pi - Alpha Rho Chapter, Alpha Eta initiate class. Peterson was a Westfield High School classmate of victim Reema Samaha and the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui. Fairfax County Public Schools officials say Peterson and Samaha both graduated from Westfield in 2006. The 6-foot-1 Peterson played center for the school's girls basketball team, helping lead it to a district championship in her sophomore year. High school teammate Anna Richter said Peterson could do a layup on anyone and recalled that Peterson's parents attended nearly every game and were among the most enthusiastic fans. Pat Deegan, Peterson's high school coach, said Peterson was a good leader. Peterson's godfather, Williams Lloyd, said she and her dad were inseparable -- except when it game to their pro-football allegiances. "She was a Redskin," he says. "He was a Cowboy."


(CBS/AP) Michael Pohle, 23, of Flemington, N.J., was expected to graduate in May 2007, with a degree in biological sciences, said Craig Blanton, Hunterdon Central's vice principal during the 2002 school year, when Pohle graduated. "He had a bunch of job interviews and was all set to start his post-college life," Blanton told The Star-Ledger of Newark. At the high school, Pohle played on the football and lacrosse teams. One of his old lacrosse coaches, Bob Shroeder, described him as "a good kid who did everything that good kids do." "He tried to please," Shroeder told the newspaper. "He was just a great kid."


(CBS/AP) Julia Pryde, 23, was a graduate student in biological systems engineering from Middleton, N.J. "[Julia] was an exceptional student academically and personally," said Saied Mostaghimi, chairman of the biological systems and engineering department where Pryde was seeking her master's degree. "She was the nicest person you ever met," Mostaghimi told The Star-Ledger of Newark. The previous summer, Pryde had traveled to Ecuador to research water quality issues with a professor. She planned to return this summer for follow-up work, Mostaghimi said. A 2001 graduate of Middletown North High School, Pryde was on the school's the swim team and played softball in two town leagues. Her hometown has been touched by tragedy before, losing 37 residents and former residents in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "The town pulls together in these situations. Everything that we can do for this family, we'll see what can be done," Middletown Mayor Gerard P. Scharfenberger said.


(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Mary Karen Read, 19, was born in South Korea into an Air Force family and lived in Texas and California before settling in the northern Virginia suburb of Annandale. She considered a handful of colleges, including nearby George Mason University, before choosing Virginia Tech. It was a popular destination among her Annandale High School classmates, according to her aunt Karen Kuppinger. The freshman had yet to declare a major. "I think she wanted to try to spread her wings," said Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y. Kuppinger said her niece had struggled adjusting to Tech's sprawling 2,600-acre campus. But she had recently begun making friends and looking into a sorority. Kuppinger said the family started calling Read as news reports surfaced. "After three or four hours passed and she hadn't picked up her cell phone or answered her e-mail ... we did get concerned," Kuppinger said. "We honestly thought she would pop up."



(CBS)

(CBS/AP) Reema Samaha, 18, a freshman from Centreville, Va., was a 2006 graduate of Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va. Samaha loved to dance and was a fan of ballet and belly dancing, as well as a member of the school's Contemporary Dance Emsemble. She had recently taken up belly dancing, a nod to her family's roots in Lebanon, which the Samahas visited each summer, friends said.











(CBS/AP) Leslie Sherman, a sophomore history and international studies student from Springfield, Va. An avid traveler, Sherman was headed to Russia this summer to study. Her grandmother, Gerry Adams said Sherman loved reading and socializing with her "gaggle" of more than 15 cousins spread out at colleges across the country. She text-messaged one of them the evening before she died.



(AP)

(CBS/AP) Maxine Turner, a senior chemical engineering student, from Vienna, Va., had finished her required credits and was preparing for her May graduation. Her father, Paul Turner, said she took German as an elective, It was in that class where the 22-year-old lost her life. "She was very excited - she was very excited about school in general," her father said. Turner was accepted by a handful of high profile schools, including Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore. But she was determined to be a Hokie, her father said. "We tried to convince her to go elsewhere. When you get accepted to Johns Hopkins, it's a very prestigious school," he said. "But no, she wanted to go to Virginia Tech." Turner recently helped found a chapter of Alpha Omega Epsilon, a sorority for women in engineering. Her interests included Tae Kwon Do, Shakespeare and Red Hot Chili Peppers. She had accepted a chemical engineering job with W.L. Gore and Associates, in Elkton, Md.



(CBS/AP) Nicole White, 20, of Hampton Roads, Va., was majoring in international studies at Virginia Tech. She graduated from Smithfield High School in 2004, according to The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. White worked at a YMCA as a lifeguard and was an honor student in high school, the newspaper reported.


(CBS/AP) Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, 24, was on the brink of finishing his graduate degree and was planning to return to his hometown for a new job and to be near his parents. He was a master's student in civil and environmental engineering and was attending Virginia Tech on a fellowship, his father, Greg Gwaltney, said Wednesday from his home in Chester, near Richmond. "Matt came home Thursday night. He had an interview in Richmond Friday morning, and we got to have dinner with him," said Linda Gwaltney, his stepmother. "He went back to school Friday after his interview." It was the last time they saw their only child. Gwaltney had been the school newspaper's sports editor and named "Best guy to take home to your parents," his high school principal, Robert Stansberry, said. At Virginia Tech, where also earned his undergraduate degree, his favorite place was Cassell Coliseum, his parents said. "He went to every women's and men's basketball game, and went to every football game," Linda Gwaltney said. "If there was a football game, we knew he wasn't coming home that weekend."


(CBS/AP) Waleed Mohammed Shaalan, 32, of Zagazig, Egypt, was a doctoral student in civil engineering at Virginia Tech. His roommate, Fahad Pasha, says Shaalan was married and the father of a 1-year-old son. Pasha said Shaalan was like a big brother to him. Pasha's family moved to the U.S. from the United Arab Emirates in 2000, so he and Shaalan had many discussions about being in a new country. Shaalan came to Virginia Tech to work with G.V. Loganathan, an engineering professor who also was also killed in the campus massacre, Pasha and other friends said. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Egyptian embassy in Washington was taking necessary measures to fly his body home.


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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Va. Tech gunman writings raised concerns

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
BLACKSBURG, Va. - The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted, violence-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note raging against women and rich kids.
A chilling picture emerged Tuesday of Cho Seung-Hui — a 23-year-old senior majoring in English — a day after the bloodbath that left 33 people dead, including Cho, who killed himself as police closed in.
News reports said that he may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic.
Despite the many warning signs that came to light in the bloody aftermath, police and university officials offered no clues as to exactly what set Cho off on the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.
A student who attended Virginia Tech last fall provided obscenity- and violence-laced screenplays that he said Cho wrote as part of a playwriting class they both took. One was about a fight between a stepson and his stepfather, and involved throwing of hammers and attacks with a chainsaw. Another was about students fantasizing about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them.
"When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of," former classmate Ian McFarlane, now an AOL employee, wrote in a blog posted on an AOL Web site. He said he and other students "were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."
"We always joked we were just waiting for him to do something, waiting to hear about something he did," said another classmate, Stephanie Derry. "But when I got the call it was Cho who had done this, I started crying, bawling."
Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said Cho's writing was so disturbing that he had been referred to the university's counseling service.
"Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be," Rude said. "But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."
She said she did not know when he was referred for counseling, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws. The counseling service refused to comment.
Cho — who arrived in the United States as boy from
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South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., where his parents worked at a dry cleaners — left a note in his dorm room that was found after the bloodbath.
A law enforcement official who read Cho's note described it Tuesday as a typed, eight-page rant against rich kids and religion. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
"You caused me to do this," the official quoted the note as saying.
Cho indicated in his letter that the end was near and that there was a deed to be done, the official said. He also expressed disappointment in his own religion, and made several references to Christianity, the official said.
The official said the letter was either found in Cho's dorm room or in his backpack. The backpack was found in the hallway of the classroom building where the shootings happened, and contained several rounds of ammunition, the official said.
Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said authorities were going through a considerable number of writings.
Citing unidentified sources, the Tribune also said Cho had recently set a fire in a dorm room and had stalked some women.
Monday's rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart — first at a dormitory, where two people were killed, then inside a classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died. Two handguns — a 9 mm and a .22-caliber — were found in the classroom building.
The Washington Post quoted law enforcement sources as saying Cho died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on one of his arms, but they were not sure what that meant.
According to court papers, police found a "bomb threat" note — directed at engineering school buildings — near the victims in the classroom building. In the past three weeks, Virginia Tech was hit with two other bomb threats. Investigators have not connected those earlier threats to Cho.
Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003. His family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse in Centreville, Va.
At least one of those killed in the rampage, Reema Samaha, graduated from Westfield High in 2006. But there was no immediate word from authorities on whether Cho knew the young woman and singled her out.
"He was very quiet, always by himself," neighbor Abdul Shash said. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him.
Classmates painted a similar picture. Some said that on the first day of a British literature class last year, the 30 or so students went around and introduced themselves. When it was Cho's turn, he didn't speak.
On the sign-in sheet where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. "Is your name, `Question mark?'" classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little response.
Cho spent much of that class sitting in the back of the room, wearing a hat and seldom participating. In a small department, Cho distinguished himself for being anonymous. "He didn't reach out to anyone. He never talked," Poole said.
"We just really knew him as the question mark kid," Poole said.
One law enforcement official said Cho's backpack contained a receipt for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Cho held a green card, meaning he was a legal, permanent resident. That meant he was eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony.
Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said his shop sold the Glock and a box of practice ammo to Cho 36 days ago for $571.
"He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious," Markell said.
Investigators stopped short of saying Cho carried out both attacks. But State Police ballistics tests showed one gun was used in both.
And two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho's fingerprints were on both guns, whose serial numbers had been filed off.
Gov. Tim Kaine said he will appoint a panel at the university's request to review authorities' handling of the disaster. Parents and students bitterly complained that the university should have locked down the campus immediately after the first burst of gunfire and did not do enough to warn people.
Kaine warned against making snap judgments and said he had "nothing but loathing" for those who take the tragedy and "make it their political hobby horse to ride."
On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of people gathered in the basketball arena for a memorial service for the victims, with an overflow crowd of thousands watching on a jumbo TV screen in the football stadium.
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President Bush and the first lady attended.
"As you draw closer to your families in the coming days, I ask you to reach out to those who ache for sons and daughters who are never coming home," Bush said.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger received a 30-second standing ovation, despite the criticism of the school administration.
With classes canceled for the rest of the week, many students left town in a hurry, lugging pillows, sleeping bags and backpacks down the sidewalks.
Jessie Ferguson, 19, a freshman from Arlington, headed for her car with tears streaming down her cheeks.
"I'm still kind of shaky," she said. "I had to pump myself up just to kind of come out of the building. I was going to come out, but it took a little bit of 'OK, it's going to be all right. There's lots of cops around.'"
She added: "I just don't want to be on campus."
Stories of heroism and ingenuity emerged Tuesday.
Liviu Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was killed after he was said to have protected his students' lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the gunman. And one student, an Eagle Scout, probably saved his own life by using an electrical cord as a tourniquet around his bleeding thigh, a doctor reported.
___
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning in Centreville, Va.; Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va.; Lara Jakes Jordan and Beverley Lumpkin in Washington; and Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg contributed to this report.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Va. Tech gunman sent material to NBC

By MATT APUZZO, AP National Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC News containing pictures of him brandishing weapons and video of him delivering a diatribe about getting even with rich people.

"This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation. We're in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth," said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police. He gave no details on the material, which NBC said it received in Wednesday morning's mail.
NBC said that a time stamp on the package indicated the material was mailed in the two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire in a high-rise dormitory and the second fusillade, at a classroom building. Thirty-three people died in the rampage, including the gunman, 23-year-old student Cho Seung-Hui, who committed suicide.
The package included a manifesto that "rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even," according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case.
MSNBC said the package included a CD-ROM on which Cho read his manifesto.
Late Wednesday, MSNBC showed a photo from the package of Cho glaring at the camera, his arms outstretched with a gun in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves and a backwards, black baseball cap. "NBC Nightly News" planned to show some of the material Wednesday night.
NBC News President Steve Capus said the network promptly turned the material over to the
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FBI in New York.
The material is "hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very disturbing very angry, profanity-laced," he said on the MSNBC Web site. Among the materials are digital video files showing Cho talking directly to the camera about his hatred of the wealthy, Capus said.
It does not include any images of the shootings, but contains "vague references," including "things like, `This didn't have to happen,'" Capus said.
The package bore a Postal Service stamp showing that it had been received at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire, according to MSNBC.
If the package was indeed mailed between the first attack and the second, that would help explain where Cho was and what he did during that two-hour window.
Earlier in the day Wednesday, authorities disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho was accused of stalking two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders because of fears he might be suicidal. He was later released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.
The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.
In November and December 2005, two women complained to campus police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho, but they considered the messages "annoying," not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.
Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.
Around the same time, one of Cho's professors informally shared some concerns about the young man's writings, but no official report was filed, Flinchum said.
After the second stalking complaint, the university obtained a temporary detention order and took Cho away because an acquaintance reported he might be suicidal, authorities said. Police did not identify the acquaintance.
On Dec. 13, 2005, a magistrate ordered Cho to undergo an evaluation at Carilion St. Albans, a private psychiatric hospital. The magistrate signed the order after an initial evaluation found probable cause that Cho was a danger to himself or others as a result of mental illness.
The next day, according to court records, doctors at Carilion conducted further examination and a special justice, Paul M. Barnett, approved outpatient treatment.
A medical examination conducted Dec. 14 found that that Cho's "affect is flat. ... He denies suicidal ideations. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal."
The court papers indicate that Barnett checked a box that said Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness." Barnett did not check the box that would indicate a danger to others.
It is unclear how long Cho stayed at Carilion, though court papers indicate he was free to leave as of Dec. 14. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Cho had been continually enrolled at Tech and never took a leave of absence.
A spokesman for Carilion St. Albans would not comment.
Though the stalking incidents did not result in criminal charges, police referred Cho to the university's disciplinary system, Flinchum said. But Ed Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs, would not comment on any disciplinary proceedings, saying federal law protects students' medical privacy even after death.
Some parents complained that the university failed to lock down the campus and spread a warning after the first round of shootings. Still, two days after the shooting spree, many students resisted pointing fingers.
"Who would've woken up in the morning and said, `Maybe this student who's just troubled is really going to do something this horrific?'" said Elizabeth Hart, a communications major and a spokeswoman for the student government.
Lucinda Roy, professor of English at Virginia Tech, said that she, too, relayed her concerns to campus police and various other college units after Cho displayed antisocial behavior in her class and handed in disturbing writing assignments.
But she said authorities "hit a wall" in terms of what they could do "with a student on campus unless he'd made a very overt threat to himself or others." Cho resisted her repeated suggestion that he undergo counseling, Roy said.
One of the first Virginia Tech officials to recognize Cho's problems was award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni, who kicked him out of her introduction to creative writing class in late 2005.
Students in Giovanni's class had told their professor that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. Female students refused to come to class. She said she considered him "mean" and "a bully."
Questions lingered over whether campus police should have issued an immediate campus-wide warning of a killer on the loose and locked down the campus after the first burst of gunfire.
Police said that after the first shooting, in which two students were killed, they believed that it was a domestic dispute, and that the gunman had fled the campus. Police went looking for a young man, Karl David Thornhill, who had once shot guns at a firing range with the roommate of one of the victims. But police said Thornhill is no longer under suspicion.
___
Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg, Va., Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va., and Colleen Long and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Va. Tech gunman sent material to NBC

By MATT APUZZO, AP National Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Midway through his murderous rampage, the Virginia Tech gunman went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs."
"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."
NBC said the package contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera.
He repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.
"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."
The package arrived at NBC's headquarters in New York two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. It bore a Postal Service time stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire.
That would help explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.
"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in surburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."
Some of the pictures show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backwards, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.
He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" — a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High massacre.
The package was sent by overnight delivery but did not arrive at NBC until Wednesday morning. It had apparently been delayed because it had the wrong ZIP code, NBC said.
An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC's attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm after the bloodbath, "Ismail Ax," NBC said.
NBC News President Steve Capus said that the network received the package around noon and notified the
FBI' name=c1>SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3>
FBI. He said the FBI asked NBC to hold off reporting on it so that the bureau could look at it first, and NBC complied, finally breaking the story just before a police announcement of the package at 4:30 p.m.
Capus said it was clear Cho videotaped himself, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera.
State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made.
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http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21581504-661,00.html

Cho Seung-hui's dark heart

Mark Dunn and Stefanie Balogh

A CHILLING picture has emerged of Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-hui, a sullen loner whose gory writings troubled his classmates and teachers.


Cho left a long, rambling note before setting off on his killing rampage, railing against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.
"You caused me to do this," the South Korean-born student wrote.
When investigators searched the body of Cho, who shot himself in the face as police closed in, they found the cryptic phrase "Ismail Ax" written in red ink on one arm.
There was speculation it could be a reference to a Muslim girl in Indonesia he was said to have befriended online or to a cultist focus on Islam and assassins.
Students at Virginia Tech said Cho had been an enigma.
He earned the nickname "The Question Mark Kid" by once placing a question mark on a class sign-in sheet where he was supposed to have written his name.
Members of his English literature class also remembered their first day last year, when students took turns to introduce themselves.
When it came to Cho's turn, he refused to speak.
But Cho was also responsible for violent, graphic writings, especially two plays penned in 2005.
They were laced with obscenities that shocked teachers with their focus on murder, including the killing of a teacher who sexually abused students.
One described a fight between a boy and his stepfather involving hammers, groping and threats with a chainsaw.
Another described students, overcome by satanic feelings, plotting to kill a teacher who'd raped them.
"When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare . . . the plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of," former classmate Ian McFarlane wrote in a website blog.
Though presented as part of his work for fiction writing, the plays worried Cho's teachers enough that they urged him to seek counselling.
Cho had shown further signs of a breakdown.
He was linked to a fire in a dormitory room, he was alleged to have been stalking some women, and was taking medication for depression, US reports claimed.
Cho woke early on Monday morning, at 5.30.
According to Karan Grewal, who shared a dormitory with Cho, he seemed his usual, introverted self, wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt as he went about preparing for the day ahead.
"He was, like, normal," Mr Grewal said.
"He did not seem like a guy that's capable of anything like this."
But just after 7am, Cho embarked on the biggest shooting rampage in modern US history.
Joseph Aust, who also shared the dorm with Cho, said the killer was so silent they almost never exchanged words.
"I would come into the room and he'd just kind of be staring at his desk, just staring at nothing," Mr Aust said.
Emily Hilscher, 19, was among the first to die, and her murder may also hold the key to understanding Cho's motives.
VT civil engineering faculty head Dr Bill Knocke said Ms Hilscher was not believed to have been Cho's girlfriend, but the killer may have been infatuated with her.
Between the shootings at the first and second campus sites, Cho is believed to have returned to his dormitory and typed his rambling letter with references to sex, deceit, religion and vengeance.
Virginia Tech's former English department chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, who saw Cho's poems and plays almost two years ago, said the anger they contained caused her to tell university officials.
Campus police were consulted, but because Cho's course contained a creative writing element and there were no threats against specific individuals, no action was taken.
Ms Roy said he had also been caught taking illicit mobile phone photos of women from under desks.
Cho was born in South Korea on January 18, 1984, and moved with his parents to the US in 1992.
His parents established a dry-cleaning business near Washington DC and worked hard to ensure Cho and his sister received the best education.
He lived in a white two-storey townhouse in Centreville, Virginia, as well as the on-campus dormitory.
Centreville neighbour Abdul Shash said he often saw Cho playing basketball, but Cho ignored even simple greetings.
His father, Cho Seong-tae, 61, and other relatives are now in hiding.
A reclusive enigma: mass killer Cho Seung-Hui.


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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/18/virginiatechshooting/main2697827.shtml

Gunman: "Now You Have Blood On Your Hands"
Cho Left Suicide Note And "Manifesto" In Dorm; Also Sent Photos, Videos And Writings To NBC


BLACKSBURG, Va., April 18, 2007


(CBS/AP) The search of the Virginia Tech gunman's dorm room and backpack produced eight pages of notes that law enforcement sources characterize as a "suicide note," reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Cho Seung-Hui also sent photographs, videos and writings to NBC in New York before he died in the massacre that left 33 people dead, authorities said. Midway through his murderous rampage, Cho went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs." "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off." Orr reports the writings found in Cho's dorm "appear to be a manifesto" and are "a rambling diatribe against people of privilege," says one law enforcement official. As the official put it, "He (Cho) just seemed to hate everybody." The notes, he continued, "are page after page of single-spaced rantings." This contradicts Tuesday's statement by the Virginia State Police that no suicide note was found. The notes are hard to read and to follow, say officials. "Every other word is 'f---'," one official said. Cho raises no race issues, but focuses mostly on class and privilege, railing against "rich people who have Mercedes, gold, and trust funds." The notes end with the phrase, "We'll soon be together." Police sources don't know who the "we" is referring to or if it's a specific reference. NBC said the package mailed to the network contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera. He repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt. "You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people." The package arrived at NBC's headquarters in New York two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. It bore a Postal Service time stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire. That would help explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in surburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything." Some of the pictures show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backwards, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple. He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" — a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High massacre. The package was sent by overnight delivery but did not arrive at NBC until Wednesday morning. It had apparently been delayed because it had the wrong ZIP code, NBC said. An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC's attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm after the bloodbath, "Ismail Ax," NBC said. NBC News President Steve Capus said that the network received the package around noon and notified the FBI. He said the FBI asked NBC to hold off reporting on it so that the bureau could look at it first, and NBC complied, finally breaking the story just before a police announcement of the package at 4:30 p.m. Capus said it was clear Cho videotaped himself, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera. State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made. Earlier Wednesday, it was reported that two women students had complained in 2005 to campus police about Cho. Sources would not say if Cho's dorm room notes contained any names. Previously, it had been reported that Cho mentioned one or two women students in his notes. According to Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, in November of 2005, he made contact with a female student through telephone calls and in person. The student called it "annoying" but declined to press charges. In December 2005, Cho, an English major, sent instant messages to a second woman. He made no threats, Flinchum said, but the student complained. Officers spoke to him at that time. Neither of the two women who complained about Cho in 2005 was among Monday's victims. An acquaintance of Cho later contacted authorities concerned he might be suicidal, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi. It was at that point he was taken voluntarily to a mental health facility, Carilion Saint Albans Behavioral Health Center in Christiansburg, Va. But a day later, a medical evaluation found Cho’s "insight and judgment" normal and he was approved for outpatient treatment. Because Cho went to the facility voluntarily, the incident did not show up on Cho's background check, allowing Cho to buy the two guns he needed to carry out the killings. In other developments:
· Virginia Tech got another scare Wednesday morning as police in SWAT gear with weapons drawn swarmed Burruss Hall, which houses the president's office. The threat targeted the university president but was unfounded and the building was reopened, said police chief Flinchum.
· Virginia Tech police chased a fruitless lead in the early-morning murders of two students at a dorm, halting officials from sending out a warning about a possible gunman on the loose, according to police statements reported by The New York Times.
· Emotional, grateful parents are hailing emergency-room doctors, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace. They say their kids, wounded by the Virginia Tech gunman, are doing well, thanks to the care they got from physicians at the hospital near the campus.
· Violent, graphic writings and strange behavior by the Virginia Tech gunman concerned his classmates and professors, so much so that he was pulled out of one class and instead tutored one-on-one, as Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith learned.


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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070419/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

Va. Tech shooter was laughed at

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Long before he snapped, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at over his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in the Washington suburbs, former classmates say.

Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003, recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation.
Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and when it was Cho's turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled. Finally, after the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth," Davids said.
"As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,'" Davids said.
The high school classmates' accounts add to the psychological portrait that is beginning to take shape, and could shed light on Cho's state of mind in the video rant he mailed to NBC in the middle of his rampage Monday at Virginia Tech.
He shot 32 people to death and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
In the often-incoherent video, the 23-year-old Cho portrays himself as persecuted and rants about rich kids.
"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, who came to the U.S. in 1992 and whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."
Among the victims of the massacre were two other Westfield High graduates: Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson. Both young women graduated from the high school last year. Police said it is not clear whether Cho singled them out.
Stephanie Roberts, 22, a fellow member of Cho's graduating class at Westfield High, said she never witnessed anyone picking on Cho in high school.
"I just remember he was a shy kid who didn't really want to talk to anybody," she said. "I guess a lot of people felt like maybe there was a language barrier."
But she said friends of hers who went to middle school with Cho told her they recalled him getting picked on there.
"There were just some people who were really mean to him and they would push him down and laugh at him," Roberts said Wednesday. "He didn't speak English really well and they would really make fun of him."
Virginia Tech student Alison Heck said a suitemate of hers on campus — Christina Lilick — found a mysterious question mark scrawled on the dry erase board on her door. Lilick went to the same high school as Cho, according to Lilick's Facebook page. Cho once scrawled a question mark on the sign-in sheet on the first day of a literature class, and other students came to know him as "the question mark kid."
"I don't know if she knew that it was him for sure," Heck said. "I do remember that that fall that she was being stalked and she had mentioned the question mark. And there was a question mark on her door."
Heck added: "She just let us know about it just in case there was a strange person walking around our suite."
Lilick could not immediately be located for comment, via e-mail or telephone.
On Wednesday, NBC received a package containing a rambling and often incoherent 23-page written statement from Cho, 28 video clips and 43 photos — many of them showing Cho brandishing handguns. A Postal Service time stamp reads 9:01 a.m. — between the two attacks on campus.
The package helped explain one mystery: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom building.
"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," a snarling Cho says on video. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."
Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said Thursday that the material contained little they did not already know. Flaherty said he was disappointed that NBC decided to broadcast parts of it.
"I just hate that a lot of people not used to seeing that type of image had to see it," he said.
On NBC's "Today" show Thursday, host Meredith Vieira said the decision to air the information "was not taken lightly." Some victims' relatives canceled their plans to speak with NBC because they were upset over the airing of the images, she said.
"I saw his picture on TV, and when I did I just got chills," said Kristy Venning, a junior from Franklin County, Va. "There's really no words. It shows he put so much thought into this and I think it's sick."
Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.
There has been some speculation, especially among online forums, that Cho may have been inspired by the South Korean movie "Oldboy." One of the killer's mailed photos shows him brandishing a hammer — the signature weapon of the protagonist — and in a pose similar to one from the film.
The film won the Gran Prix prize at the
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Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It is about a man unjustly imprisoned for 15 years. After escaping, he goes on a rampage against his captor.
Authorities on Thursday disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho had been accused of sending unwanted messages to two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.
The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.
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Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg, Va., Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va., Colleen Long and Tom Hays in New York, and Lara Jakes Jordan and Sarah Karush in Washington contributed to this report.
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