2 Hours of Terror at Virginia Tech

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/4/16/202943.shtml?s=lh

2 Hours of Terror at Virginia Tech

NewsMax.com Wires Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The first crackle of gunfire shattered the Monday morning calm. It was 7:15

a.m. on the campus of Virginia Tech and an epic killing spree had just

begun.

Snow was swirling on the windy April day and classes had not yet started

when a murderous rampage that would shake the nation started in a coed

dormitory, West Ambler Johnston, home to 895 students.

The first reports of trouble were tragic, but small in scope, no hint of the

massacre about to unfold in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia: One person

was dead, another injured.

The official word to students apparently did not come right away.

In a mass e-mail, Virginia Tech officials announced a shooting had occurred

at the dorm, police were on the scene and urged anyone in the university

community to "be cautious" and contact police if they saw anything

suspicious or had information on the case.

The e-mail was signed off at 9:26 a.m.

Police would later say they thought the two had been shot in a domestic

dispute. They thought the gunman had fled the campus.

"We secured the building, we secured the crime scene," Virginia Tech Police

Chief Wendell Flinchum said. For a long while, there were no new reports of

anything suspicious.

Classes on the Blacksburg, Va., campus had gone ahead as schedule; the first

period began at 8 a.m. The doors of the buildings remained open. And the

heavily armed gunman with a motive yet unknown had set his sights elsewhere,

at Norris Hall, an engineering building nearly a half-mile away on the

26,000-acre campus.

Police believe the shooting at Norris began around 9:45 a.m. The building's

doors had been chained shut, possibly by the gunman, authorities said.

At 9:55 a.m, the school sent out a second e-mail.

"Please stay put," it warned. "A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in

buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows."

Soon after, horrifying sounds and images flooded TV screens and Internet

sites across America. SWAT teams in flak jackets swarmed the campus.

Students helped faculty members carry out the wounded, as ambulances

streamed to the site.

CNN showed a jerky video provided by a student's cell phone that showed what

seemed to be police outside Norris Hall accompanied by a chilling

soundtrack - the crackle of gunshots.

What had happened inside? Reports were fragmentary.

One student told the Washington Post that the gunman, said to be about 19

years old, burst into the room and fired about 30 shots in just a minute a

half - first blasting a professor in the head, then shooting the students.

Planet Blacksburg - a local, student-run Web site - quoted Ruiqi Zhang,

identified as a computer engineering student who said he was on the second

floor of Norris.

"A student rushed in and told everybody to get down," Zhang said. "We put a

table against the door and when the gunman tried to shoulder his way in and

when he saw that he couldn't, he put two shots through the door. It was the

scariest moment of my life."

The Web site also quoted Gene Cole, a building worker, as saying the shooter

wore a hat and carried an automatic weapon. "He loaded his gun at me," Cole

said. "I ran down the steps to get out of there."

It was eerily reminiscent of the shocking images from the shootings at

Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago this very week. And

something else recalled some of the most shocking images of Sept. 11, 2001:

Students jumping from windows to escape.

Virginia Tech sent out a third e-mail at 10:17 a.m. announcing classes were

canceled and repeating the warning for everyone to lock their doors and stay

away from windows.

By then, the magnitude of this bloody day was becoming increasingly clear.

Grim-faced TV anchors reported the rising death toll: 21, 31, then 33,

including the shooter himself, not immediately identified. He put a bullet

to his head. Two of the dead were shot at the dorm, the remainder at Norris

Hall. Authorities also reported that 26 people were wounded, some seriously.

At 10:53 a.m. - more than two-and-half hours after the terror began - the

announcement of the end of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history came in a

fourth e-mail from the school.

It read:

"Subject: Second Shooting Reported; Police have one gunman in custody

"In addition to an earlier shooting today in West Ambler Johnston, there has

been a multiple shooting with multiple victims in Norris Hall.

"Police and EMS are on the scene.

"Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure,

they continue to search for a second shooter.

"All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until

further notice.

"All entrances to campus are closed."

As the wind whipped through the campus on Monday night, a steady stream of

students from West Ambler-Johnston carried suitcases, backpacks and other

personal items - one held a large stuffed dog nicknamed Hokie after the

school mascot - to find someplace else in sleep.

They said they couldn't bear to spend the night in the dorm.