News & Politics - Gunman loose on Virginia Tech campus

JD Bluth · 04-16-2007, 07:57 AM

OMG

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Gunmen On The Loose Of Virginia Tech Campus, One Killed, One Injured
By Staff
Apr 16, 2007

A gunman is loose on the campus of Virginia Tech. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows is the notice being posted on the Virginia Tech web site.
According to university offcials, the suspect in an early morning shooting is still on the loose, possibly still on campus.

The shooting happened at West Ambler Johnston hall early Monday morning. University police are reportedly on the scene and investigating. The hall houses almost 900 students.

chicah · 04-16-2007, 09:05 AM

Oh Lord... This is the umptieth shooting in, what, ten years?
This is exactly what you need gun restrictions for. I feel for the victims and all the terrified witnesses, and I hope it's all sorted out.

I also feel for the gunman and hope that he somehow manages to get a grip on himself, stop what he's doing and turn himself in. Even though he probably won't. But it is too much to ask that I'll keep my hopes regarding humanity just a bit more?
These kinds of stories always make me sad.

JD Bluth · 04-16-2007, 09:28 AM

20 are dead. That's more than Columbine, right ??

collide · 04-16-2007, 09:34 AM

I heard that 22 people are dead and at least 20 more are injured. Completely horrible.

Lexis · 04-16-2007, 09:37 AM

This is just so tragic. So many people just murdered like this...good thoughts going out to all those injured.

**TheAngel** · 04-16-2007, 09:45 AM

Apparently the shooter was loose in a classroom and a dorm which is probably one reason why the casualties were so high. I wonder if those numbers will continue to rise. A girl in my dorm has some friends that go there. She's pretty worried so we're glued to the TV. Being in college, it's scary when this stuff hits home.

Quote:

BLACKSBURG, Va. (April 16) - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.

Talk About It: Post Thoughts
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger.

The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.

All entrances to the campus were closed and classes canceled through Tuesday.

"There's just a lot of commotion. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on," said student Jason Anthony Smith, 19, who lives in the dorm where shooting took place.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode's resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.

"They had us under lockdown," Kanode said. "They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again."

"We're all locked in our dorms surfing the Internet trying to figure out what's going on," Kanode said.

Madison Van Duyne, a student who was interviewed by telephone on CNN, said, "We are all in lockdown. Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible."

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

In August 2006, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff's deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.

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

migamoo · 04-16-2007, 10:07 AM

This is so sad. I just don't get why people do this though.

mcdreamylover · 04-16-2007, 10:37 AM

I just heard about it and threw up. Why do people do stuff like this? Friday is the 8th Anniversary of Columbine. People have mentioned on TV it reminds them of that.

mild toxicity · 04-16-2007, 10:49 AM

This is just so horrible. I have a friend that goes to VA Tech and the first thing I had to do was check facebook to make sure he was ok. We weren't good friends or anything, but it's amazing how much you worry about people when things like this happen.

riot · 04-16-2007, 10:51 AM

I'm from Sweden and I heard about it about an hour ago. It makes me sick to my stomach. We have never had any school shootings in Sweden and honestly I don't understand how you have the courage to go to school. I would be constantly worried.

mcdreamylover · 04-16-2007, 10:52 AM

CNN said 29 may be dead. Holy ****!

riot · 04-16-2007, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcdreamylover (View Post)

CNN said 29 may be dead. Holy ****!

29?! Oh ****.

mcdreamylover · 04-16-2007, 11:31 AM

Make that 31 according to MSNBC. There's a bullentin on there right now.

*Stacy* · 04-16-2007, 11:45 AM

This is really sad.

**TheAngel** · 04-16-2007, 11:49 AM

Yeah, the death toll is 30 plus the shooter which brings it to 31. I wonder how high it will be by the end of the day. This is horrible.

Edit:
This article says 32 dead so I don't know what's certain. but there are still quite a few people being treated for wounds. This article gives a little more information about some possibly related events. I wonder if we'll ever find out why the shooter did this.

Quote:

32 killed' in deadliest US school shooting
Tuesday Apr 17 04:09 AEST

By ninemsn staff and wires

At least 32 people were killed in a shooting rampage at a US university in Virginia Monday, Fox News reported citing federal sources.

"The numbers we have right now are 32 people killed and 28 being treated," Fox reported.

On its website, Virginia Tech University confirmed that 22 people had died, including a gunman, in the deadliest school shooting in US history.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum told reporters earlier the toll was "at least 20 fatalities." .

One of the dead was the gunman, but Flinchum had no information as to whether he killed himself or had been killed by others.

"At this time we believe it was only one gunman," Flinchum said. "He is deceased.

The university in Blacksburg, in western Virginia, was locked down as police combed the campus after shootings in two separate buidings, which went well beyond the toll of 15 dead in a shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.

University president Charels Steger called the shootings a tragedy of "monumental proportion."

"The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us," he said at a press conference hours after the morning shootings.

Gunfire first broke out earlier Monday in a residence on the campus of Virginia Tech, a university of about 25,000 students located some 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of Washington.

Gunfire was then also heard in a second building, called the Norris Hall.

"Those on campus are asked to remain where they are, lock their doors and stay away from windows," the university initially announced before it began evacuating the students and faculty in waves.

Entrances to the campus were meanwhile closed as television images showed heavily armed police rushing across the school grounds in a light snowfall.

The shooting comes just days ahead of the anniversary of the shooting rampage at Columbine in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999.

Amy Steele, the chief editor of of the student newspaper, told CNN that she had spoken to students in the buildings where the shootings were heard, and was told many were running around in a panic.

"The police officers were trying to, you know, settle everyone down and keep everything under control," she said.

"One of the injuries happened from a student jumping out of a window."

Last August Virigina Tech was the site of another shooting when an escaped prisoner tried to hide on the campus, US media reported.

A security guard and a policeman were killed before the man was re-arrested. Virginia Tech's website also announced that a reward of 5,000 dollars had been posted on Sunday for information leading to the arrest of those behind two bomb hoaxes at the campus on April 2 and 13.


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