BLACKSBURG, Va. - One person was killed and seven or eight more were shot in a dorm and in a classroom on the Virginia Tech campus Monday before police arrested a suspected gunman, officials told The Associated Press. Police confirmed they had a suspect in custody, the university said on its Web site.
On the Web site, the university also confirmed the shooting at opposite ends of the 2,600-acre campus at West Ambler Johnston, a residence hall, and reported âmultiple victimsâ at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18134671/
That's crazy! I will keep all involved in my prayers. I hope they have the right suspect in custody!
MSNBC is now saying one killed, up to 17 wounded.
Thats very scary and bad right there. All involved will be in my prayers.
CNN, MSNBC and Fox News all have coverage on about it right now
NBC just reported that 20 are dead, 28 injured, and the presumed suspect is dead as well.
They are not sure if the shooter killed himself or was shot by authorities.
They are now reporting at least 20 dead and 28 injured... and the gunman was shot and killed
Victims were shot in a science and engineering classroom and in 2 different dorms, Ambler Johnston Hall and Norris Hall... the gunman was shot and killed in Norris Hall...
The first shooting occured in Ambler Johnston Hall, the 2nd in the classroom and the 3rd in Norris Hall.
There was also multiple bomb threats on the campus just last week
Norris hall is the Engineering Building. Only 2 locations where shootings occurred.
22 Dead -- 20+ injured.
Very Sad.
Yeah... CNN reported 2 buildings.. I think it was WSAZ that said they thought 3 locations... but I just saw where it was 2
They are saying 29 wounded now and 22 dead..... Man this is crazy.....
They said the last 2 weeks they have had multiple bomb threats on campus.
MSNBC just reported the death toll is up to 31.....
This is every parent's worse nightmare.
God comfort those who have lost a child and heal those who were injured.
[SIZE=2]Can't believe that 50+ were shot. First, the "brick wrapped in aluminum foil" bomb in Newman/Torgenson, then Morva in the Fall, now this. Totally unreal.
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Those news anchors are pathetic.
"Where did the shooter hide duing those 2 hours?"
"... a long way between locations".
Have any of them EVER been on a college campus?
Yes, Norris is a hike from AJ (about 10 minutes on foot), but come on, that's nothing!
And why try to "hide"? Best hiding place on campus is out in the open.
Wouldn't surprise me to hear that the shooter was in Deitrich for breakfast at 8 a.m.
And before you ask, yes, I've been in AJ before. Back in h.s., I went to 4-H state congress a few years, and the check-in desk was at AJ (girls stayed there, boys over in Lee).
Just glad CNN hasn't brought up the ASL shootings ... yet.
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Also didn't help that MedFlight couldn't get there form Roanoke because of the wind.
Up to 32 dead now including the shooter and 28 wounded. Hard to believe one person could do such a horrific thing.
HUGE thoughts and prayers to all those who lost
loved ones today at Virginia Tech.... The
media keep fishing with leading questions about
what could have been done and when emails were
sent...as for me, I don't see how these types
of things can be prevented. I know we all have
a desire to feel safe...but we just don't live
in a world where complete safety can be any
kind of guarantee.
Now up to 33 dead including the shooter according to Va. Tech Press.
I've been watching the news coverage on and off all day and all that I can say is that this is a horrific tragedy. My heart goes out to all parties involved. I cannot begin to imagine how the parents of these children are feeling, other loved ones of them as well, family members of any professors if they were involved, students that had to watch their friends die at their feet, just so many people across the nation, perhaps the world involved right now. I too have been on VT's campus and there isn't THAT big of a distance between the two locations. Why would someone hide for 2 hours and then go on another shooting rampage? Would the police not be right on top of the situation trying to find out who did it before 2 hours passed and he struck again?
That's what I was thinking... why wasn't the school on lockdown after the first shooting??? Everybody should have been notified and this would have been a lot less tragic
What the Chief of Police and the Univ. President said was that they believed it to be an isolated incident of domestic disturbance. From witness accounts, they had a person of interest and they believed that person to be off campus so they campus was determined to be safe. When the second incident occurred, Investigators were interviewing the 'Person of Interest' at an off-campus location.
You have to remember that this is University that has over 30,000 people on site each day. It is almost impossible to communicate with all of these individuals. They took all means necessary once they determined to place the school on lock down. But there is only so much they can do -- E-mail (some people don't check before class), Phone (some people don't have room phones), Radio (most probably don't listen to that), website (again, most don't check), call-in number (no one would call on what they thought to be a normal day).
I believe that the University did what they believed to be the proper decision.
I think if a shooting occurs, until the suspect is in custody the school should be on lockdown and they should have at least tried to notify everybody (a little quicker than 2 hours later)... I know it would have been hard for them to but I just don't think it was handled properly. And I don't think they shouldn't have assumed it was isolated... it's always better to take the highest precaution to any shooting.
Only complaint I have about this situation is the videos going along with it. You see all these police carrying out bodies when they should have been inside trying to take down the shooter.
The video I saw included the swat team of police standing outside of a building when all you hear is POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! on the inside. Maybe it's just me but having bigger guns, bulletproof vests and helmets, etc. AND being officers of law entitles them to enter the building and take down the gunman...
Very sad Day at VT. I'm keeping everyone there and the people who died and thier faimly's in my prayers
ComeFlyWithMe Wrote:Only complaint I have about this situation is the videos going along with it. You see all these police carrying out bodies when they should have been inside trying to take down the shooter.
Considering these videos are after the shooter has killed himself and the officers are trying to carry the wounded to safety and get them help. Don't see anything wrong with trying to save a life. The bodies that you see in the pictures being carried out are of live people.
thetribe Wrote:The video I saw included the swat team of police standing outside of a building when all you hear is POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! on the inside. Maybe it's just me but having bigger guns, bulletproof vests and helmets, etc. AND being officers of law entitles them to enter the building and take down the gunman...
Police NEVER rush into a possible hostage/shooting situation. They have to asses the situation and make a plan. The gunman wasn't alive in the building for very long, and police were on the steps heading to the second floor when the shooting stopped and he took his life. I would think that he did all of the killing in the second building in under 15 minutes.
my .02 (more like .22)
First, I'm so sick of the idiotic talking heads - all hot air. Speculation and the oh-so-perfect hindsight anaysis, commenting on 1 bit of info without putting the rest of the pieces in place first. For example - the gunman entered a swipe-card access dorm. Well, yeah, it is SCA, but only at night. I heard earlier today that it's turned off at 7 am. ... anyone can enter after that. And even overnight, a "guest" can enter if someone lets them in. Come on, people, college dorms don't have chastity belts on them.
Paula is such an airhead, saying something like "the shots heard on the video didn't
come from police, because there wasn't a shootout with the killer". Girl, one has nothing to do with the other. Grundy used to put chains on the doors at night. The thing is, the doors would open enough that someone could reach in and unlock the lock with a key. MAYBE the police had the door ajar and was trying to shoot through the lock. 25 tries and no luck, so, BOOM, blast the thing. Not saying that's what happened, but it blows a big hole in her A=B theory.
And what's all this stuff about students being locked (chained) in Norris? Half a dozen of 'em have said this. Come on, heads, do a LITTLE thinking. Were the chains meat to keep people IN? I Don't THINK So. Couldn't 1 of you, just 1, have come up with "maybe he was trying to keep the police locked OUT" ?!?!?!? Nahhhhh, too simple.
Next, no one EVER said the AJ shooter was the same person as the Norris shooter. The cop answered a question about "the shooter still being out there" with something like "he was found in Norris". The question didn't have anything to do with AJ, so why was the anwser applied to AJ? Come on... anyone can take a quote and make it sound any way they want ... why not make it sound like it was supposed to for once ???
And what's all this about him hiding for 2 hours? I never heard that anywhere.
Hey, why would he hide? He walked out of AJ before anyone could do anything. It's not like each dorm has a cop at every door 24 hours. As long as he could get to the stairs or the elevator without a confrontation, he was home free. And what student is going to confront or run down the stairs safter an armed guy?
Was it the same guy in both places? Probably so, since it doesn't seem like a big deal is being made out of the AJ shooter being loose. Balistics takes a while - cops can't just pull a bullet out of live victims and determine what gun it was from. It'll really F things up if it turns out they're was a 3rd gun.
So, what about those 2 and a half hours?
How about this scenario?
Will I hide? Walk across campus? Things didn't go the way I had planned at AJ, so I'll walk ACROSS THE STREET and take the BT back to my apartment, take off these bloody clothes, put on something a bit warmer, grab another gun and some more ammo, and ride BT BACK to Burruss, then walk up to Norris and fix this up good.
WAY too much talk by people who don't "put brain in gear before opening mouth."
Gee, didn't someone get FIRED last week for doing the same thing?
Bring back Imus and get rid of Zahn!
Finally ...
Thumbs up to NBC. Great job getting Brian Williams and a crew there to be live. Lots of facts with basically no speculation. PRICELESS scene of 20 other reporters chasing after the EMS girl after she finished.
Thumbs down - CNN/Wolf Blitzer. The CT editor saying she first heard about the AJ deal when someone from CNN called her at home (whether or not it was planned) was self-promotion at it's ugliest.
I do believe that the dorms are locked from 10pm-10am. But it isn't too hard to get into a "locked" dorm. Wait for someone to walk out. On a day of classes, this wouldn't be too hard at all.
Beef Wrote:Considering these videos are after the shooter has killed himself and the officers are trying to carry the wounded to safety and get them help. Don't see anything wrong with trying to save a life. The bodies that you see in the pictures being carried out are of live people.
Police NEVER rush into a possible hostage/shooting situation. They have to asses the situation and make a plan. The gunman wasn't alive in the building for very long, and police were on the steps heading to the second floor when the shooting stopped and he took his life. I would think that he did all of the killing in the second building in under 15 minutes.
So that main video, where they counted 27 gunshots, what exactly were they shooting at if you say the gunman was already killed? I think u misunderstood what I was saying, in that video, you count like 26 gunshots, and then you see the officers in the video take off running, they shouldn't have been standing there in the first place, they had shotguns and vests, these guys could have been in the buildings trying to get this guy, but they were shown standing around. Heck, the guy videotaping with his cell phone was being almost as brave as the cops were at that time.
yeah, Im sure youve had countless expiriences handling mass killings and could have come up a perfect plan right on the spot..
ComeFlyWithMe Wrote:So that main video, where they counted 27 gunshots, what exactly were they shooting at if you say the gunman was already killed? I think u misunderstood what I was saying, in that video, you count like 26 gunshots, and then you see the officers in the video take off running, they shouldn't have been standing there in the first place, they had shotguns and vests, these guys could have been in the buildings trying to get this guy, but they were shown standing around. Heck, the guy videotaping with his cell phone was being almost as brave as the cops were at that time.
ComeFlyWithMe Wrote:So that main video, where they counted 27 gunshots, what exactly were they shooting at if you say the gunman was already killed? I think u misunderstood what I was saying, in that video, you count like 26 gunshots, and then you see the officers in the video take off running, they shouldn't have been standing there in the first place, they had shotguns and vests, these guys could have been in the buildings trying to get this guy, but they were shown standing around. Heck, the guy videotaping with his cell phone was being almost as brave as the cops were at that time.
Are you talking about the video from the phone? If so, then the cops were still moving into position to make a run on the building. You see them advancing toward the building but being careful to try to keep cover so that they don't get shot. And not knowing where the shooter is, it is hard to watch all the windows. Vests don't stop a shot to the head/neck.