I was in a meeting, so updates from the last press briefing are a little late. Here are the details I gleaned while keeping one eye on the meeting and one eye on the news conference:
The shooter at yesterday's Virginia Tech Massacre has been identified as Cho Seung-Hui (or Seung-Hui Cho; Cho is the surname). He was a 23 year old native of South Korea. Cho was in the US on an F1 student visa, studying English at Virgina Tech. He was a senior whose address lead to an apartment in Centreville, VA. At VTech, Cho was living in suite 2121 at the Harper Hall dorm.
Police have matched fingerprints and ballistics evidence to both shootings -- and to Cho Seung-Hui. They have also obtained a receipt for the purchase of a 9mm Glock handgun in March of this year. At this point, I have not heard anything about the purchase or ownership of the other gun used in the killing spree -- a Walther P22 .22 caliber pistol.
EDITORIAL: I would wager that police will end up finding a history of violent media as the mainstay of this demon's existence -- in violent video games, horror movies or extreme music such as gangsta rap or goth/death metal. Seung-Hui Cho (pronounced Sung Hue-wee Shoo) didn't just flip out and kill Emily Hilscher, and her West AJ dorm RA, Ryan Clark -- and then brood for almost two hours before heading over to Norris Hall to open fire on more than 40 other people. There is something deeper that an act of "passion" here. Cho's violence shows a rage that is not even close to normal in sane people. There is also evidence that the massacre was premeditated -- and at least partially planned over a period of more than 10 days.
UPDATE: A scrubbed Washington Post article from 4/17/07 stated, "...Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using..."
Since the text has been scrubbed from the original article, I did some investigating to make sure it was originally there. Here is what I found:
Washington Post Search Engine
Counter-Strike & Va. Tech
I wonder why the Post decided to redact the text -- possibly because they didn't want to show a link between violent media and violence acted out?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
The Manifestation of EVIL: Cho Seung-Hui
Partial List of Victims from Virginia Tech Massacre
Update: 8:50 a.m. (Revised 2:54pm)
The following is a partial list of victims killed by a gunman on the campus of Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007:
• Maxine Turner, Vienna, Va., Senior, Chemical Engineering
• Henry Lee, Roanoke, Va., Freshman, Computer Engineering
• Matt La Porte, Dumont, N.J., Freshman, University Studies [picture below]
• Jamie Bishop, Instructor, Foreign Languages and Literatures (German)
• G.V. Loganathan, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Juan Ortiz, Graduate Student, Civil Engineering
• Jarrett Lane, Narrows, Va., Senior, Civil Engineering
• Ryan Clark, Columbia County, Ga., Senior, Biology, English, Psychology (West AJ)
• Leslie Sherman, Sophomore, History and International Studies
• Caitlin Hammaren, Sophomore, International Studies and French
• Liviu Librescu, Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics
• Kevin Granata, Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics
• Reema Samaha, Centreville, Va., Freshman
• Emily Hilscher, Woodville, Va., Freshman, Animal & Poultry Sciences, Equine Science (West AJ) [picture below]
Ross Alameddine, Student, Saugus, Mass.
Daniel Cueva, Student, Peru, International Relations
Mary Read, Student, Annandale, Va. [picture at top]
I have included links to the MySpace pages of some of the victims. CNN has more pictures and short bios of a few of the victims.
Emily Hilscher was apparently the first person shot. She was not killed instantly, but died a short time later. It is presumed that she was either the girlfriend of the shooter OR a love-interest of his.Sources:
FOX News
CNN
MySpace
DelawareOnline
Virginia Tech Massacre: Gunman a Student
Update: 8:29 a.m. (Revised)
Overnight we have learned that the 23 year old Asian gunman was actually a college student at Virginia Tech. From the wording of reporting related to the executed warrant on his "room", it is also apparent that he was living in a dorm, not off campus. This may answer my earlier question as to why no one had focused on the perp's vehicle.
WSLS reports:
"The president of Virginia Tech says the shooter in yesterday's rampage was a student at the university. Charles Steger said the shooter in the second shooting at Norris Hall was Asian and lived in a dorm on the Blacksburg campus. Steger told ABC News that he expects that investigators will get a ballistics report this morning, and he said they will 'be making it public as soon as we can.'I wonder why Chief Flinchum repeatedly said that the gunman was not a student at VTech.
Steger added News that the shooter may have been locked in West Ambler Johnston dormitory when the building was locked down after the first shooting. He says the 'investigation is unfolding as we speak.'"
Massacre At Virginia Tech: Last Update for Tonight
Update: 2:31 a.m.
Additionally, MSNBC is currently reporting that one of the weapons was a .22 caliber and the other was a 44 Magnum, not a 9mm handgun, as widely stated. I guess we'll have to wait to see which is correct.
BTW, NBC has already started the blame game -- by interviewing some dweeb on "Massacre at Virgina Tech" -- airing as I type. Whodathunkit?!?
Virginia Tech Massacre: Who Is To Blame?
Update: 2:07 a.m.
The person to blame is the gunman (or gunmen). Human nature will make us want to blame someone. Since that animal is dead, many folks will seek someone else to blame. BUT, it's no one else's fault -- ONLY the gunman.
Don't fall prey to the inevitable pundits who today will most assuredly start to blame VT President Charles Steger, Campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, the Blacksburg Police Department and possibly others.
Virginia Tech: Campus Massacre Update
Geraldo Rivera (FOX News) says local LE say the Facebook.com page mentioned earlier is NOT that of massacre gunman. They say the person shown on the page is not the person who was found dead (by suicide) in Norris Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.
Megyn Kelly (FOX News) used information from Facebook to try and track down information on the individual from the college students' social networking website. Her staff actually went out and tried to find the person shown on Facebook.com. They were unable to find him at two addresses in the Blacksburg, VA area. However, they gained no leads that this person was the gunman.
In fact, Wayne Chiang, owner of the Facebook webpage has gone public to "clear my [his] name". Chiang realizes his Facebook page is suspicious, but insists he is not a person of interest, nor the gunman. "It was five for five. I was Asian, I lived in (the dorm), I go to V Tech, I recently broke up with my girlfriend and I collect guns," says Chiang, who initially contacted ABC affiliate KNXV. Law enforcement officials confirm that Mr. Chiang is NOT a suspect, nor do they think he is related to the crimes that took place yesterday morning at VTech.
NOTE: Law enforcement and others are still working to find out whether or not the two crime scenes from yesterday morning are related. VTech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum has implied that there may be evidence that TWO different situations are at play -- and that the two shooting scenes were not perpetrated by the same individual.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Chinese National Named VTech Massacre Killer
Update: 11:45 p.m. (Revised)
The gunman apparently brought the chains used to lock doors in Norris Hall on campus with him. He was a 20-something, six foot tall, Chinese man toting a 9mm handgun with at least one high capacity clip, along with a .22 caliber pistol. It is also now known that the shooter brought additional ammunition with him -- as noted by multiple student witnesses.
At least two people (Chief Flinchum and a Sun Times reporter) now say they have the name of this person, but will not yet release it to the public. The man, who was reportedly NOT a VTech student, was in the US on an F1 visa (aka student visa).
Federal authorities are saying that they still cannot definitively tie the West AJ murders to the Norris Hall massacre. I'm starting to believe, more and more, that the two scenes are unrelated. However, the facts are easy enough to establish. a) Did the murdered girl in West AJ know the Chinese man at Norris Hall? b) Who did witnesses see in the dorm? c) Who is the person of interest the Blacksburg police talked to this morning? d) Can he be quickly linked to either the Chinese gunman at Norris or the young woman at West Ambler Johnston?
FOX News is reporting that the Chinese man has a page on Facebook.com. On his profile, there are pictures of him holding several weapons. We are NOT sure the Facebook.com person is the SAME PERSON who massacred 30+ people today. However, if the profile does show the shooter, the situation is even more disturbing.
Murder at VT's West Ambler Johnston Dorm
Update: 10:28 p.m.
The female student killed at West AJ was shot in the back of the head -- reportedly by her estranged boyfriend.
Students are saying there was an early morning argument between the female student and her boyfriend. It's not clear whether the boyfriend had been in the room all night, or had arrived early this morning. The as yet unidentified female student's Resident Advisor (RA) entered her room in an attempt to mediate and hopefully calm the situation. Within minutes, the young lady lay dead in the floor of her dorm room. Her RA Ryan "Stack" Clark was shot in the neck. He later died.
The Blacksburg Police Department was lead to believe that the killer was a "greasy haired" guy who was driving an old pickup truck with farm plates.
Some media outlets are saying that the perpetrator murdered his girlfriend, then hid out for almost two hours before heading over to first Randolph Hall, and then Norris Hall -- going on a shooting rampage in the latter. {I don't buy that idea, at all.}
Question - Were there TWO shooters?
1) An angry boyfriend killing his girlfriend & her RA at the West Ambler Johnston dorm
2) Chinese national, who was likely not a VT student, committing massacre in Norris Hall
Virginia Tech Massacre: Gunman's Identity Coming to Light
Update: 9:45 p.m. (Revised)
The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on August 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai, the source said.His name has not yet been released, but more information is coming to light as the hours pass.
Before opening fire in Norris Hall, he first went to Randolph Hall. At this point, there are no reports that he harmed anyone there. The gunman murdered dozens of students before turning the gun on himself. Local law enforcement say that a .22 caliber pistol and a 9mm handgun were recovered at the scene.
No identification was found on the gunman's body, police said. Eyewitnesses described him as an Asian male about 6 feet tall. He apparently shot himself in the head after the killings; part of his face was missing when his body was found.
VICTIM STATUS: Most of the victims have been identified. Many of the bodies of those who died in Norris Hall have been removed from the building. Death notifications are being handled right now.
My question -- Why has the gunman's vehicle not been located yet?
The College Columbine: Virginia Tech's "Person of Interest"
Update: 8:07 p.m.
The highlights of the 7:30pm ET press briefing are:
- Virginia Tech Campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum has preliminary ID of gunman, but are not releasing the name.
- Recovered two weapons, but won't release the details
- ATF is comparing ballistics from West AJ and Norris Hall
- Person of interest ID'd after shooting at West Ambler Johnston. That person is not in custody. He is not known to police, according to Chief Flinchum.
- The first "person of interest" is still a person of interest -- "because he knows one of the victims" found dead in the dorm room.
- The "person of interest" is NOT a VT student
- The gunman found dead in Norris Hall is NOT the "person of interest" questioned in the West AJ dorm shooting.
- Murder /suicide has been ruled out at the incident in the dorm
- Chief Flinchum states that the Blacksburg Police Dept. located the "person of interest" in the dorm shooting -- and conducted an interview with him about the same time as the shootings were taking place in Norris Hall
- From the above statements, we can conclude that the police think that the shootings in West AJ are NOT related to the shootings in Norris Hall
