Update: 5:16 p.m.
Officials are holding their second major news conference of the day -- in relation to the murder of 32 students and faculty on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg, VA.
Here are the highlights:
- VT.edu is pretty much overwhelmed and not available.
- Virginia Tech has arranged for counseling for faculty, staff and students.
- Charles Steger, university president, spoke with President Bush within the last hour. He has also spoken with the Governor twice.
- 31 deaths inside Norris Hall -- including gunman
- 15 other victims injured or wounded
- 2 confirmed dead in West Ambler Johnston -- in addition to 31 @ Norris Hall (one female victim / one male victim)
- West AJ was closed immediately, but the rest of campus was not locked down because police thought incident was isolated and that shooter had left the dorm
- Gunman carried NO identification, so law enforcement have not identified him
- Students must have "swipe card" in order to enter dorms during early morning hours
- Anticipate being able to release list of those who were killed or injured by tomorrow
- Don't know if shooter was a student or not
- One gunman deceased, but police DON'T know if two incidents were related
- Second incident happened while police were investigating first incident.
- Norris Hall gunman committed suicide
- Suspect first shooting was domestic in nature -- both victims were found in a single West AJ dorm room (one female victim / one male victim)
- NO shootout between officers & gunman (despite video showing multiple law enforcement officers firing weapons towards campus buildings)
- Some Norris Hall doors were chained shut (from the inside) -- probably by gunman
- No one is in custody -- but active investigation is ongoing as to whether or not there are two gunmen
- Another news conference will be held tonight at around 7:00pm ET
