Virginia Tech shootings

[hewhocaves]

This is a disgusting and disturbing turn of events:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/18/vtech. ... index.html

Gunman sent 'disturbing' photos, writings to NBC
Story Highlights
• NEW: Videos of Cho also part of package, MSNBC.com reports
• Cho apparently mailed package between the two shootings
• Virginia special justice in 2005 declared Cho Seung-Hui mentally ill
• Former roommates say Cho stalked women, spoke of suicide

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The man blamed for killing at least 30 people in Monday's shootings on the Virginia Tech campus before killing himself mailed a package containing photographs and writings to NBC, authorities announced Wednesday.

The packages also included 23 QuickTime videos showing Cho Seung-Hui talking to the camera and discussing religion and his hatred of the wealthy, MSNBC.com reported.

MSNBC.com said the package was postmarked at 9:01 a.m., during the two hours between the shootings at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory and the shootings at Norris Hall.

The package did not include pictures of the shootings, but Cho made statements such as "this did not have to happen," MSNBC.com reported.

"This may be a very new critical component of this investigation," State Police Col. Steve Flaherty said.

When the network received the package, it immediately notified authorities and the original documents were sent to the FBI for analysis, Flaherty said.

NBC reported that it agreed not to immediately disclose the contents of the package "beyond characterizing the material as 'disturbing.' "

CNN also learned Wednesday that in 2005 Cho was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who declared he was "an imminent danger" to himself, a court document states.

A temporary detention order from General District Court in the commonwealth of Virginia said Cho "presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness."

A box indicating that the subject "Presents an imminent danger to others as a result of mental illness" was not checked.

In another part of the form, Cho was described as "mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness, or is so seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for self, and is incapable of volunteering or unwilling to volunteer for treatment."

A handwritten section of the form describes Cho. "Affect is flat and mood is depressed," said the order, which was signed December 14 by Special Justice Paul M. Barnett. "He denies suicidal ideation. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal."

Barnett would not discuss Cho's case with CNN.
Student complaints

Police first investigated Cho in November 2005 after a student complained about him calling her and contacting her in person, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.(Watch how police learned of Cho's troublesVideo)

Cho was sent to the university's Office of Judicial Affairs, which handled the complaint, the outcome of which is confidential, university officials said.

"The student declined to press charges and referred to Cho's contact with her as annoying," Flinchum said of the November investigation.

Police investigated him again the next month when a female student complained about instant messages Cho sent her, Flinchum said.

"Again, no threat was made against that student. However, she made a complaint to the Virginia Tech Police Department and asked that Cho have no further contact with her," the chief said.

After police spoke to Cho, they received a call from a student concerned that he might be suicidal.

Officers spoke to Cho "at length" then asked him to see a counselor. He agreed to be evaluated by Access Services, an independent mental health facility in Blacksburg, the chief said.

"A temporary detention order was obtained and Cho was taken to a mental health facility" on December 13, 2005, he said.

A student asking to be identified only as Andy said he was the one who told police that Cho was suicidal. Police "took [Cho] away to the counseling center for a night or two," said the student, who used to room with Cho. (Watch Cho's roommates describe his 'crazy' behaviorVideo)

Authorities said they received no more complaints about Cho before the shootings, Flinchum said.

The university and its police continue to defend themselves against students' complaints that they weren't adequately warned about Cho -- even after two people were killed in a dormitory early Monday morning. (Watch how large universities protect studentsVideo)

Though police have linked a gun used in Norris Hall -- where 31 people, including Cho, died -- they have yet to say he is officially accused of the first shootings. (Learn more about those killed in the rampage)
Professor recalls 'mean streak'

As tales of Cho's worrisome behavior continued to surface Wednesday, a renowned poet and author who taught the 23-year-old gunman called the notion that he was troubled "crap" and said he was "mean."

Nikki Giovanni said she immediately suspected Cho when she got word of the shootings. (Watch Giovanni declare at a Tuesday convocation, 'We are Virginia Tech'Video)

"I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," Giovanni said, referring to her former pupil. "I would have been shocked if it wasn't."

Cho's poetry was so intimidating -- and his behavior so menacing -- that Giovanni had him removed from her class in the fall of 2005, she said. Giovanni said the final straw came when two of her students quit attending her poetry sessions because of Cho.

"I was trying to find out, what am I doing wrong here?" Giovanni recalled thinking, but the students later explained, "He's taking photographs of us. We don't know what he's doing." (Classmates called Cho 'question mark kid')

Giovanni went to the department's then-chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, and told her, "I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him." Roy took Cho out of Giovanni's class.

"I know we're talking about a troubled youngster and crap like that, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings; troubled youngsters drink and drive," Giovanni said. "I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak." (Watch how the cause of Cho's behavior could have been physicalVideo)

Roy, who taught Cho one-on-one after removing him from Giovanni's class, recalled Cho exhibiting a palpable anger and secretly taking photographs of other students while holding the camera under his desk. (Watch the professor tell how her student frightened herVideo)

His writings were so disturbing, she said, that she went to the police and university administrators for help.

"The threats seemed to be underneath the surface," she said. "They were not explicit and that was the difficulty the police had."

Ian McFarlane, who had class with Cho, said two plays written by Cho were so "twisted" that McFarlane and other students openly pondered "whether he could be a school shooter." (Read McFarlane's blog and the two playsexternal link)
University stands by handling of shooting

Though two professors, Cho's former roommates and a classmate and police all recall Cho behaving in a disturbing manner, officials said there was nothing criminal about his demeanor.

The gun shop owner who sold him the Glock 9 mm, one of the guns used at Norris Hall, said Cho easily passed a background check last month before buying the weapon. (Watch dealer recount selling weapon to ChoVideo)

Asked about Roy's concerns that Cho was writing troubling plays and poems in his classes, Flinchum said no official report was filed.

"These course assignments were for a creative writing course and the students were encouraged to be imaginative and artistic," the chief said. "The writings did not express any threatening intentions or allude to criminal activity. No criminal violation had taken place."

Flinchum's remarks were the latest in the university's defense, not only of its handling of situations that arose before the shootings, but also of how it handled situations in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at West Ambler Johnston dorm.

The recurring question: Why weren't students warned or the campus locked down before Cho was able to walk into Norris Hall more than two hours later and exact the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history? (Watch how Virginia Tech students will never forget Monday's massacreVideo)

Flinchum said Wednesday that details gleaned from the investigation at the dorm led to a decision among university officials and police that the campus did not need to be locked down.

"There are a lot of details we were providing to the administration and a decision was made based on that information," the chief said.

University President Charles Steger has said police believed the incident was "a domestic fight, perhaps a murder-suicide" that was contained to one dorm room.

Police cordoned off the 895-student dorm and all residents were told about the shooting as police looked for witnesses, Steger said.

"I don't think anyone could have predicted that another event was going to take place two hours later," Steger said.

Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage.

[wendy]

FYI if you live in or near a college campus, please be aware of your surroundings, etc, tis the season for stupid copycats

[Wormster]

This story got a lot of coverage over here in the UK.

What I find disturbing is the fact that the gunman sent videos of himself to various news agencies that then broadcast them.

My Thoughts and condolences to all the families involved.

[Squirrel Girl]

What I find disturbing is the fact that the gunman sent videos of himself to various news agencies that then broadcast them.

I'm curious about that. What is so disturbing about that?
(Edit: I think he only sent the stuff to NBC, then it was reported by all news outlets after that)

To me, of course, the whole blame thing is disturbing. Incredibly tragic. Such sorrow for the families. Almost beyond words the sadness.

But the shooter was seriously mentally ill. What was so disburbing about his sending the videos? To me it was just tragic that a guy was so messed up in his head. And it manifested itself in a horrible way. That it included incoherent ranting that got sent to a media outlet is pretty much neither here nor there.

Just my view.

[Wayne Harrison]

And yet there are those who would complain if the media censored the information and would probably scream about interfering with their right to know. It's a no-win situation -- people will be offended either way. Same thing happened with the Columbine videos.

Personally, watching the tape helps me better understand the whacked-out mind that perpetrated this horrible crime.

[Squirrel Girl]

And yet there are those who would complain if the media censored the information and would probably scream about interfering with their right to know. It's a no-win situation -- people will be offended either way. Same thing happened with the Columbine videos.

Personally, watching the tape helps me better understand the whacked-out mind that perpetrated this horrible crime.

On the one hand, I don't think there's anything to "understand." He was so ill, that there's little "sense" to be made. But, I too wanted to know. It's such a shocking, beyond normality incident that one doesn't want to know and "understand" more.

But I also would have been happy to have, at very least, been made to wait a few days while the families grieved a few more days. But yes, it would be hard for the media to win. Someone would complain no matter what.

[Phil Winkler]

There has been a lot of discussion about "Where is the story here?" among journalists questioning the large, non-stop media attention.

Still, the fact that Cho deliberately spent this time (2 hours) between the two shootings to create this horrible message is a story unlike any other I'm familiar with. It is largely unprecedented behavior I think.

[Wayne Harrison]

From Wired.com:

People respond to tragedy in different ways. Some pray. Some watch the news. Some try to get rich.

Just hours after a student at Virginia Tech went on a killing spree that claimed 33 lives Monday, speculators began snatching up domain names related to the shooting.

Dozens of people registered sites like vatechbloodbath.com, virginiatechmurders.com and blacksburgmassacre.com through companies like GoDaddy.com and Enom, Inc. Several of the names went up for sale on eBay later that day.

The blood wasn't even dry in Norris Hall. In that building, home to the engineering department, Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean majoring in English and living on the Blacksburg campus, fired round after round from his Glock 9 mm and Walther .22-caliber handguns into helpless students and teachers, before turning his pistols on himself and ending the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

For most people around the country, this was a shocking and grievous moment. For the new owner of vtechkilling.com, it was an opportunity. The domain was registered through Moniker Online Services on Monday, and soon afterwards was up for auction on eBay. The registrant posted an image of an assault rifle with the listing and described vtechkilling.com as the "perfect domain name for any memorandum or other site dedicated to the recent mass killings at Virginia Tech."

The bidding opened at one cent. The "Buy It Now" price was set at $500. In an eBay auction, "Buy It Now" allows shoppers to skip the bidding altogether by paying a lump sum up front. The registrant did not respond to an interview request.

That domain was offered at a cheap price. Another, more ambitious, would-be profiteer asked for $100,000 for five sites he'd registered through GoDaddy, including vamassacre.com and vatechcarnage.com. He covered his ad in American flags and described his sites as "Great Domain Names for a Memorial Fund Development….Our Hearts go out to all the victims and families of Virginia Tech Massacre!"

Matt Owens opened bidding for virginia-tech-rampage.com at $1,000. He set his Buy It Now price at $10,000. On the listing, Owens wrote that virginia-tech-rampage.com is a "great domain name for development!" He posted a photo of an angel in a short white dress hovering next to a cross.

When reached by phone on Tuesday, Owens was surprised that his choice of domain name had provoked a backlash. "I've been getting hate mail," he said. "I didn't think it through. I was just thinking about the money first."

http://www.wired.com/culture/education/news/2007/04/vt_domainname

[Tim White]

Here is a link to a Washington Post article that was posted on the VPI LISTSERV. As someone posted, it is a moment to moment account of the events complied from interviews with witnesses.

I found it very informative, but emotional to read.

[Princess Butterfly]

Wear your Orange & Maroon to support the Hokies tomorrow.


I just got off the phone with my senior project partner who had Granata's class. We both spent several semester doing biomechanics studies in the basement of Norris for Greg Slota and Dr. Diersing who found the doors chained. This whole event is such a tragic waste of human life and the whole video thing makes me angry. I can't get over the fact that he would stop by the post office between shootings.

[Cheryl Jones]

Hi Members of the VPI Cave Club,

The Internal Organizations Committee of the NSS wants you to know that we are thinking of you in this difficult time following the massacre of students and faculty on the campus. Our sympathies go out to you and your fellow classmates. We know that the Hokie spirit will help to see you through this period.

May all your futures be bright, and your caves dark and inviting.

Keith
--
Keith D. Wheeland, Chair NSS I/O Committee
I/O Website - http://www.caves.org/committee/i-o/
Annual Report & Updates- http://www.nssio.org

[Cheryl Jones]

[Scott McCrea]

Tim, I couldn't get your link to work. It took me to a Yahoo! Mail timed out page.

[Cheryl Jones]

Try this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

'That Was the Desk I Chose to Die Under'
By David Maraniss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 19, 2007; Page A01

[Tim White]

Thanks Scott & Cheryl. I corrected the link.