Emergency.Blog

Virginia Tech Attacks Mark Deadliest Mass Shooting in U.S. History

16 Apr 2007 - 22:00CDT - Summary/Continued Coverage

Attacks mark deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history
At least 33 killed at Virginia Tech (Including Gunman)

BLACKSBURG, VA: In a press conference tonight, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger gave a detailed timeline of the morning's tragic events. He said a 9-1-1 call reporting a shooting at a dormitory was made at approximately 7:15 a.m. While police were trying to assess what they first believed was a domestic dispute, they received a second 9-1-1 call, nearly two and a half hours later, that reported shootings on the opposite side of campus. According to the Virginia Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, officials have not definitively linked the two shootings.

Campus police have identified a person of interest who is not currently in police custody. Police say the person of interest is a male who knew the female who was killed in the original double homicide at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory. Flinchum also said he is not a student and that he knew the female who was killed in the original double homicide.

Flinchum said they have ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide in the first shooting, and that investigators have a preliminary identification of the shooter involved in the Norris Hall shooting. The police will not release the identity at this time. Two guns were recovered, a 9 mm pistol and a .22-caliber pistol. Crime scene processing is ongoing at both Ambler Johnston Hall and Norris Hall, at the time of this report... Excerpted from: ABCNews, http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574&page=1

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Gunman kills 32 at Virginia Tech before being killed

BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist

Authorities were investigating whether the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history was a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa.

The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai, the source said. Investigators have not linked him to any terrorist groups, the source said.

Police believe three bomb threats on the campus last week may have been attempts by the man to test the campus? security response, the source said. ERRI crime analysts said that they could not confirm Ms. Sneed's report with law enforcement officials in Virginia.

The exits to the buildings where the shootings occurred were chained by the shooter, the source said. Continues at: http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/343354,vatech041607.article

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ERRI Preliminary Analysis:

Investigators gave no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not immediately known whether he was a student.

Law enforcement analysts at the Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI) said that the official and press information that has become available so far would seem to indicate some level of "premeditation" on the part of the shooter at the Virginia Tech disaster. One longtime crisis analyst said tonight, "The fact that the gunman brought multiple clips of ammunition to the scene and allegedly used chains to lock doors and prevent escape of the victims or the entry of responding law enforcement officers would appear to be part of a preconceived plot to carry out the shootings."

"Of course, there is much forensic and witness evidence to be gathered and analyzed before any kind of firm conclusions can be reached in this case, but it would increasingly appear that this was not simply a 'spur-of-the-moment' event that was the result of a 'crime-of-passion'...our preliminary assessment of the incident would suggest that the gunman intended to cause a mass murder at Norris Hall," the veteran observer concluded.