Continuing Coverage of the Massacre at Virginia Tech
VA GOVERNOR CLOSES LOOPHOLE
The governor has closed a loophole in state law that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to pass a weapons background check despite having mental health issues.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine signed an executive order Monday requiring that anyone ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a state police database of people barred from buying guns.
The order, the first change in state policy resulting from the shootings, eliminates the distinction between inpatient and outpatient mental health care as long as it is ordered by a court.
The Virginia Tech gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, was judged mentally ill and a danger to himself by a court in 2005. He was ordered to attend outpatient counseling.
But because he was not committed to a mental hospital, he was never entered into the database that licensed gun dealers use to do instant background checks before any sale. People judged as mental defectives can't legally buy guns.
Cho, a 23-year-old Tech senior who killed himself as police stormed a classroom building, legally bought the guns he used to kill 32 Tech students and faculty on April 16.
The executive order does not apply to people who seek mental health care of their own will. After the report is added to Virginia's state police database, it becomes part of a federal database that gun dealers nationwide use.
Virginia already is the leading state in reporting mental health records, with more than 80,000 in the federal database. Twenty-eight states do not supply any records, either because they lack the technical ability or are barred by state privacy laws.
Had Kaine's order been in place a year ago, the background check could have flagged Cho when he tried to buy a weapon from a licensed dealer. Cho did not disclose his mental health problems or the court-ordered outpatient treatment in a form he was required to complete before buying the guns.
``His lie on the form would have been caught,'' Kaine said.
But it would not have prevented Cho from acquiring guns by several other means that require no background check in Virginia, including buy-and-trade publications, individual transactions among gun collectors or hobbyists, and gun shows - vast firearms bazaars where scores of people sell or swap firearms.
Legislation that would also subject firearms sales at gun shows to instant background checks is introduced annually in Virginia, and just as often it dies without reaching a floor vote in the General Assembly.
Kaine, a Democrat, has said that he expects new support for the legislation this year and that he would support it, as he has in the past.
CLASSES RESUME
Thousands of Virginia Tech students and faculty filled the center of campus Monday to pay solemn tribute to the victims of last week's massacre - pausing for moments of silence on the day classes resumed a week after a student gunman killed 32 people.
Mourners met at the main campus lawn, listening quietly as a bell rung for each of the 32 victims of gunman Seung-Hui Cho, and watched as 33 white balloons were released into the air in their memory.
An antique, 850-pound brass bell was installed on a limestone rostrum for the occasion, brought to Virginia Tech from the city of Salem. The chimes of the bell echoed through the campus covered with memorials and tributes to the students, including flowers, writings and candles.
The moment of silence began at 9:45 a.m., around the time when Cho killed 30 students and faculty members in a classroom building before committing suicide. Monday's tribute lasted 11 minutes, as the bell rang for each of the victims. Each of the balloons was tied with an orange and maroon ribbon.
As the crowd broke up, people started to chant, ``Let's Go Hokies'' several times.
``I thought last week as time goes by that I could forget this tragic incident,'' graduate student Sijung Kim said. ``But as time goes by I find I cannot forget.''
A moment of silence was also observed at about 7:15 a.m., near the dormitory where the first victims, Ryan Clark and Emily Hilscher, were killed.
In front of the dorm, a small marching band from Alabama played ``America the Beautiful'' and carried a banner that read, ``Alabama loves VT Hokies. Be strong, press on.''
Afterward, a group of students and campus ministers brought 33 white prayer flags - one for each of the dead, including the gunman - from the dorm to the school's War Memorial Chapel. They placed the flags in front of the campus landmark and adorned them with pastel-colored ribbons as the Beatles' song ``The Long and Winding Road'' played through loudspeakers.
``You could choose to either be sad, or cheer up a little and continue the regular routine,'' said student Juan Carlos Ugarte,
22. ``Right now, I think all of us need to cheer up.''
Ugarte, a senior from Bolivia, wrote a message on a yellow ribbon for one of the victims, Reema Samaha. ``God will forever be with you. I will always pray for you, and remember.''
Andy Koch, a former roommate of the gunman, was among the many students who remembered the shooting Monday. ``Last night, I didn't sleep much,'' he said.
On the main campus lawn stood a semicircle of stones - 33 chunks of locally quarried limestone to remember each person who died in the rampage.
Someone left a laminated letter at Cho's stone, along with a lit purple candle.
``Cho, you greatly underestimated our strength, courage and compassion. You have broken our hearts, but you have not broken our spirits. We are stronger and prouder than ever. I have never been more proud to be a Hokie. Love, in the end, will always prevail. Erin J.''
University officials were not sure how many students planned to be back Monday. Virginia Tech is allowing students to drop classes without penalty or to accept their current grades if they want to spend the rest of the year at their parents' homes grieving last week's campus massacre.
But whatever decisions they make academically, many students say they will do their mourning on campus _ and that they can't imagine staying away now.
``I want to go back to class just to be with the other students. If you just left without going back to classes, you would just go home and keep thinking about it,'' said Ryanne Floyd, who returned to campus after spending most of last week with her family and avoiding news coverage of the tragedy. ``At least here, being with other students, we can get some kind of closure.''
Students began returning as more details about the rampage emerged. Dr. William Massello, the assistant state medical examiner in Roanoke, said Cho died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head after firing enough shots to wound his victims more than 100 times.
But there was nothing unusual about Cho's autopsy, he said, and nothing that indicated any psychological problems that might explain his reason for the killings.
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech's Student Government Association issued a statement Sunday asking the news media to respect the privacy of students and leave campus. Around campus, camera crews and reporters are routinely met with scorn, including comments such as ``go home.''
``Our students are ready to start moving forward, and the best way we can do that is to get the campus back to normal,'' Liz Hart, director of public relations for the SGA, said in an interview.
Around campus are constant reminders of counseling options, and state police will provide security at least through Monday.
``I still feel safe. I always have,'' said Claire Guzinski, a resident of West Ambler Johnston Hall, where Clark and Hilscher were slain. ``I just think, stuff happens. It's still in the middle of nowhere, a rural area. What are the chances of it happening twice?''
The only thing she feels nervous about, she says, is what to say to classmates who lost close friends.
``What do you say?''
VIRGINIA GOVERNOR DECLARES DAY OF MOURNING; ALUMNI ASK NATION TO WEAR VT COLORS
As experts pored over Cho Seung Hui's twisted writings and his videotaped rant, parents and officials urged people to instead focus on the victims of the deadliest rampage by a lone gunman in modern U.S. history.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine declared Friday a day of mourning and called for a moment of silence at noon to honor the 32 victims in Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech. Churches around the country, from California to National Cathedral in Washington D.C., have scheduled vigils and special prayer services.
``We want the world to know and celebrate our children's lives, and we believe that's the central element that brings hope in the midst of great tragedy,'' said Peter Read, whose 19-year-old daughter, Mary Karen, was killed. ``These kids were the best that their generation has to offer.''
Private funeral ceremonies were held Thursday for two international students killed in the massacre. Egyptian Waleed Mohammed Shaalan and Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, a civil engineering doctoral student from Indonesia, also will have funerals in their home countries.
In Pennsylvania, members of Jeremy Herbstritt's family sat quietly in the front of a worship hall in State College as students and staff lit candles and signed a condolence banner to mourn Herbstritt, a Penn State alumnus who was pursing graduate studies at Virginia Tech.
``We will remember'' read a large placard next to the banner near the front of the hall. Several students and staffers wore Virginia Tech sweat shirts. Virginia Tech alumni declared Friday a national day to wear Hokie colors of orange and maroon.
Herbstritt's parents were at the Blacksburg campus Thursday. So was Read, who urged television stations to stop broadcasting the gruesome, hate-filled videos and photos of Cho, the 23-year-old English major responsible for the attack.
Police said they were disappointed that NBC - which received the materials in the mail Wednesday - opted to broadcast them. Major networks pledged to scale back their use of the material.
The videos revealed a man angry at the world but offered little explanation of why, other than rambling tirades against rich kids, snobs and people who had wronged him.
As experts analyzed the disturbing materials, it became increasingly clear that Cho was almost a classic case of a school shooter: a painfully awkward, picked-on young man who lashed out with methodical fury at a world he believed was out to get him.
``In virtually every regard, Cho is prototypical of mass killers that I've studied in the past 25 years,'' said Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox, co-author of 16 books on crime. ``That doesn't mean, however, that one could have predicted his rampage.''
When criminologists and psychologists look at mass murders, Cho fits the themes they see repeatedly: a friendless figure, someone who has been bullied, someone who blames others and is bent on revenge, a careful planner, a male. And someone who sent up warning signs with his strange behavior long in advance.
Among other things, the South Korean immigrant was sent to a psychiatric hospital and pronounced an imminent danger to himself. He was accused of stalking two women and photographing female students in class with his cell phone. And his violence-filled writings were so disturbing he was removed from one class, and professors begged him to get counseling. Cho rarely looked anyone in the eye and did not even talk to his own roommates.
He described himself in his video diatribe as a persecuted figure like Jesus Christ. Cho, who came to the U.S. at about age 8 in 1992 and whose parents worked at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington, also ranted against rich ``brats'' with Mercedes, gold necklaces, cognac and trust funds.
Classmates in Virginia, where Cho grew up, said he was teased and picked on, apparently because of shyness and his strange, mumbly way of speaking.
Once, in English class at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., when the teacher had the students read aloud, Cho looked down when it was his turn, said Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior and high school classmate. After the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded ``like he had something in his mouth,'' Davids said.
``The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,''' Davids said.
Cho's great-aunt, who lives in South Korea, said Thursday that because he did not speak much as a child and after the family emigrated to the United States, doctors thought he may be autistic.
``Normally sons and mothers talk. There was none of that for them. He was very cold,'' Kim Yang-soon said in an interview with AP Television News. ``When they went to the United States, they told them it was autism.''
Neither school officials, who have his educational records, nor police who have his medical records, have mentioned such a diagnosis. Autistic individuals often have difficulty communicating, but such a diagnosis would not necessarily explain his violence.
Regan Wilder, 21, who attended Virginia Tech, high school and middle school with Cho, said she was sure Cho probably was picked on in middle school, but so was everyone else. And it didn't seem as if English was the problem for him, she said. If he didn't speak English well, there were several other Korean students he could have reached out to for friendship, but he didn't.
A 2002 federal study on common characteristics of school shooters found that 71 percent of them ``felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack.''
Cho ``would almost be a poster child for the pattern that we saw,'' said Marisa Randazzo, the former chief research psychologist at the U.S. Secret Service and co-author of the study, conducted jointly with the Education Department.
Among the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre were two other Westfield High graduates, Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson. Both young women graduated from the high school last year, but police said it is not clear whether Cho singled them out.
Another expert who has worked with mentally disturbed young criminals suggested that Cho's actions probably had genetic causes.
``This is very different'' from someone who was bullied to the breaking point _ Cho was clearly psychotic and delusional, said Dr. Louis Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center.
``This type of mental illness that this poor man had was not something that was likely precipitated by teasing or bullying,'' he said. More likely, he said, is that Cho had a biological psychiatric disorder that may have worsened in recent years because of the pressures of college life and his leaving the support of his family.
Fox, the criminologist, said Cho probably made the decision to go on a killing spree months ago based on his weapon purchase. That would explain why witnesses described him as remarkably calm when he did the shooting.
``There's a lot of scripting that's going on in their heads, a lot of planning. Once they've decided it, there's a certain degree of comfort and satisfaction that they'll be the last to laugh,'' Fox said.
Fox said there is typically a precipitating event that sets a gunman off. It is not yet known what that was in Cho's case.
"It may not be huge'' to normal people, but to Cho ``it was the final straw that broke the camel's back,'' Fox said.
HOSPITAL: REMAINING VICTIMS ARE PROGRESSING WELL
Eleven people hurt in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech remain hospitalized, including at least one in serious condition.
Scott Hill, the CEO of Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, says eight shooting victims at his facility are progressing well. He says all are in stable condition, with four in the intensive care unit. One of the surgeons says ``things appear to be headed in the right direction.''
Some of the patients are doing so well they're ready to leave the hospital. Hill says three of the eight could possibly be discharged by tomorrow morning.
Hill says he can't say enough about the strength of the students and their families. He says they're ``really working hard to recover. They don't want to be beaten in this.''
VICTIMS GETTING POSTHUMOUS DEGREES
The disturbing manifest and videos of Cho Seung-Hui delivering a snarling tirade about rich ``brats'' and their ``hedonistic needs'' had some marginal value to police, but they didn't add much that investigators didn't already know, officials said Thursday.
The self-made video and photos of Cho pointing guns as if he were imitating a movie poster were mailed to NBC on the morning of the Virginia Tech massacre.
A Postal Service time stamp reads 9:01 a.m. - between the two attacks that left 33 people dead. University officials announced Thursday that Cho's victims would be awarded their degrees posthumously and that other students might have the option of ending their semester immediately.
In much of Cho's videotaped rants, the 23-year-old speaks in a harsh monotone, but it isn't clear to whom he is speaking.
``You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,'' Cho says in one, with a snarl on his lips. ``But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.''
In another, he appears more melancholy, saying: ``This is it. This is where it all ends. What a life it was. Some life.''
NBC said the package contained a rambling and often incoherent 23-page written statement, 28 video clips and 43 photos.
It was given to State Police but contained little that they didn't already know, Col. Steve Flaherty said Thursday. Flaherty said he was disappointed that NBC decided to broadcast parts of it.
``I just hate that a lot of people not used to seeing that type of image had to see it,'' he said.
On NBC's ``Today'' show Thursday, host Meredith Vieira said the decision to air the information ``was not taken lightly.'' Some victims' relatives canceled their plans to speak with NBC because they were upset over the airing of the images, she said.
``I saw his picture on TV, and when I did I just got chills,'' said Kristy Venning, a junior from Franklin County, Va. ``There's really no words. It shows he put so much thought into this and I think it's sick.''
The package helped explain one mystery: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom building.
``Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats,'' says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. ``Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.''
There has been some speculation, especially among online forums, that Cho may have been inspired by the South Korean movie ``Oldboy,'' part of Chan-wook Park's ``Vengeance Trilogy.'' One of the killer's mailed photos shows him brandishing a hammer - the signature weapon of the protagonist - and in a pose similar to one from the film.
The film won the Gran Prix prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. It was the second of Park's ``Vengeance Trilogy'' and is about a man unjustly imprisoned for 15 years. After escaping, he goes on a rampage against his captor.
The connection was spotted by Professor Paul Harris of Virginia Tech, who alerted the authorities, according to London's Evening Standard.
It has become commonplace for movies or music to be linked to especially violent killers. One blogger for the Huffington Post, filmmaker Bob Cesca, dismissed the connection as ``the most ridiculous hypothesis yet.''
Authorities on Thursday disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho had been accused of sending unwanted messages to two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.
The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.
Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.
He refers to ``martyrs like Eric and Dylan'' - a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High School massacre.
NBC News President Steve Capus said the package was sent by overnight delivery but apparently had the wrong ZIP code and wasn't opened until Wednesday, NBC said.
An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC's attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm after the bloodbath, ``Ismail Ax,'' NBC said.
Capus said that the network notified the FBI around noon, but held off reporting on it at the FBI's request, so that the bureau could look at it first. NBC finally broke the story just before police announced the development at 4:30 p.m.
It was clear Cho videotaped himself, Capus said, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera.
State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made.
Cho repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.
``You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience,'' he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. ``You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.''
A law enforcement official said Cho's letter also refers in the same sentence to President Bush and John Mark Karr, who falsely confessed last year to having killed child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the media.
Earlier Wednesday, authorities disclosed that in November and December 2005, two women complained to campus police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho. But the women considered the messages ``annoying,'' not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.
Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.
After the second complaint about Cho's behavior, the university obtained a temporary detention order and took Cho away because an acquaintance reported he might be suicidal, authorities said. Police did not identify the acquaintance.
On Dec. 13, 2005, a magistrate ordered Cho to undergo an evaluation at Carilion St. Albans, a private psychiatric hospital. The magistrate signed the order after an initial evaluation found probable cause that Cho was a danger to himself or others as a result of mental illness.
The next day, according to court records, doctors at Carilion conducted further examination and a special justice, Paul M. Barnett, approved outpatient treatment.
A medical examination conducted Dec. 14 reported that that Cho's ``affect is flat. ... He denies suicidal ideations. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal.''
The court papers indicate that Barnett checked a box that said Cho ``presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness.'' Barnett did not check the box that would indicate a danger to others.
It is unclear how long Cho stayed at Carilion, though court papers indicate he was free to leave as of Dec. 14. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Cho had been continually enrolled at Tech and never took a leave of absence.
A spokesman for Carilion St. Albans would not comment.
Though the incidents with the two women did not result in criminal charges, police referred Cho to the university's disciplinary system, Flinchum said. But Ed Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs, would not comment on any disciplinary proceedings, saying federal law protects students' medical privacy even after death.
Some students refused to second-guess the university.
``Who would've woken up in the morning and said, `Maybe this student who's just troubled is really going to do something this horrific?''' said Elizabeth Hart, a communications major and a spokeswoman for the student government.
Classes were scheduled to continue at Virginia Tech on Monday. University Provost Mark McNamee said school officials were outlining a way to let students complete their courses, possibily by allowing their work to this point in the semester count as completed.
One of the first Virginia Tech officials to recognize Cho's problems was award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni, who kicked him out of her introduction to creative writing class in late 2005.
Students in Giovanni's class had told their professor that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. Female students refused to come to class. She said she considered him ``mean'' and ``a bully.''
Lucinda Roy, professor of English at Virginia Tech, said that she, too, relayed her concerns to campus police and various other college units after Cho displayed antisocial behavior in her class and handed in disturbing writing assignments.
But she said authorities ``hit a wall'' in terms of what they could do ``with a student on campus unless he'd made a very overt threat to himself or others.'' Cho resisted her repeated suggestion that he undergo counseling, Roy said.
Questions lingered over whether campus police should have issued an immediate campus-wide warning of a killer on the loose and locked down the campus after the first burst of gunfire.
Police said that after the first shooting, in which two students were killed, they believed that it was a domestic dispute, and that the gunman had fled the campus. That man is no longer a suspect.
A dormitory neighbor of the first two victims, Ryan Clark, 22, and Emily Hilscher, 19, described on ABC's ``Good Morning America'' what she saw that morning in Ambler Johnson Hall.
``I heard a really loud female voice scream. I opened my door and that's when I saw the blood and the footprints, the sneaker-prints, leading in a trail from her room,'' Molly Donahue said.
That's when she saw Clark, a resident assistant in the dorm, on the floor against a door, she said. A friend later told her he was dead. Donahue she said has since tried to return to the dorm but felt physically ill and is still terrified.
``I got to the point where I can't be alone,'' she said.
SHOOTER SENT MANIFESTO, PHOTOS TO NBC
NBC said Wednesday that it had received a package that was mailed by the gunman in the Virginia Tech shootings.
The package, mailed in the two-hour window between shootings, was sent to NBC News head Steve Capus. NBC said it contained photographs and a manifesto.
Police in Virginia said the package may be a new critical component of the investigation.
NBC news turned over the package to authorities Wednesday.
SHOOTER ACCUSED OF STALKING TWO WOMEN
More than a year before the Virginia Tech massacre, Cho Seung-Hui was accused of stalking two female students and was taken to a mental health facility because of fears he was suicidal, authorities said Wednesday.
The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the 23-year-old student shot 32 people to death and committed suicide Monday. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.
In November and December 2005, two women complained to police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho, but they considered the messages ``annoying,'' not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Chief Wendell Flinchum said.
Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.
But after the second complaint, Cho was taken to a mental health facility not connected to the university because an acquaintance reported that he might be suicidal, Flinchum said. The acquaintance was not identified.
Around the same time, one of Cho's professors informally shared some concerns about the young man's writings, but no official report was filed, Flinchum said.
The chief said he was not aware of any other contact between Cho and police after those episodes.
Police said it was unclear how long he was kept at the mental health facility, or what was learned about his Cho's mental health. Flinchum said he did not know whether the student was taken the facility voluntarily or against his will.
After the first stalking incident, police referred Cho to the university's disciplinary system, Flinchum said.
But Ed Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs, would not comment on any disciplinary proceedings, saying federal law protects students' medical privacy even after death. In any case, Cho remained enrolled up until his death.
``There is no blame from students,'' said Elizabeth Hart, a communications major and a spokeswoman for the student government. ``Who would've woken up in the morning and said, 'Maybe this student who's just troubled is really going to do something this horrific?'''
She added: ``There's no way to know which kids are just troubled students and who's going to develop into something greater.''
Campus police on Wednesday applied for search warrants for Cho's medical records from the campus health center and an off-campus facility.
``It is reasonable to believe that the medical records may provide evidence of motive, intent and designs,'' investigators said in court papers.
Police searched Cho's dorm room and recovered, among other items, two computers, books, notebooks, a digital camera, and a chain and combination lock, according to documents. The front doors of Norris Hall, the classroom building where most of the victims died, had been chained shut from the inside during the rampage.
Fourteen people remained hospitalized Wednesday.
Cho's roommates and professors portrayed him as a creepy, solitary figure who rarely even made eye contact with his roommates, much less speak to them.
His bizarre behavior became even less predictable in recent weeks, roommate Karan Grewal said. Grewal had pulled an all-nighter on homework the day of the shootings and saw Cho at around 5 a.m., a few hours earlier than normal.
As usual, Cho didn't look him the eye or say anything, Grewal said.
He said Cho usually worked alone on his computer and watched TV, including Friday night wrestling. He was always alone _ in the dining hall, watching television, working out with weights in the gym. He rarely spoke to anyone.
``I had no idea he was capable of this,'' Grewal said. ``We were never told his teachers had concern about him committing suicide and all these dark feelings.
``We were never told that our suitemate was depressed or suicidal.''
Authorities said he left a rambling note raging against women, religion and rich kids. News reports said that Cho, a South Korean immigrant who came to the U.S. as a boy and whose parents worked at a dry cleaners, may have been taking medication for depression.
Professors and classmates were alarmed by his class writings _ pages filled with twisted, violence-drenched writing.
``It was not bad poetry. It was intimidating,'' poet Nikki Giovanni, one of his professors, told CNN.
``I know we're talking about a youngster, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings,'' she said. ``There was something mean about this boy. It was the meanness _ I've taught troubled youngsters and crazy people _ it was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak.''
Giovanni said her students were so unnerved by Cho's behavior, including taking pictures of them with his cell phone, that some stopped coming to class and she had security check on her room. She eventually had him taken out of her class, after threatening to quit if he wasn't removed.
Lucinda Roy, a co-director of creative writing at Virginia Tech, said she tutored Cho after that. She said she tried to get him into counseling in late 2005 but he always refused.
``He was so distant and so lonely,'' she told ABC's ``Good Morning America'' Wednesday. ``It was almost like talking to a hole, as though he wasn't there most of the time. He wore sunglasses and his hat very low so it was hard to see his face.''
Roy also said she arranged to use a code word with her assistant to call police if she ever felt threatened by Cho, but she said she never used it. MOURNING THE LOSS OF TRI-STATE VICTIMS
Nineteen year old student from upstate New York is among the 32 people shot and killed by a gunman on the Virginia Tech campus yesterday.
According to officials at her former school district in rural Orange County, Caitlin Hammaren of Westtown was a sophomore majoring in international studies and French.
The principal of Minisink Valley High School says Hammaren was one of the most outstanding young people he had ever worked with in more than 30 years as an educator. He called the 2005 graduate a leader among her schoolmates.
Minisink Valley students and teachers are sharing their grief today at a counseling center set up in the school, located near the New Jersey border in western Orange County.
CODEY CONFIRMS AT LEAST FOUR NEW JERSEYANS KILLED IN SHOOTING
At least four students from New Jersey were among those killed in Monday's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech and another was seriously injured, the New Jersey governor's office said Tuesday.
Jennifer Sciortino, a spokeswoman for acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, confirmed the numbers, but would not disclose the names, saying it was up to authorities in Virginia.
News of the dead and wounded, however, was nevertheless making its way to towns across the Garden State:
_ Matthew La Porte, 20, (shown on the left) a sophomore from Dumont, was among those killed, according to Dumont police and the private boarding school in Pennsylvania he attended from 1999 to 2005.
_ Julia Pryde, (shown on the right) a graduate student from Middletown, was also killed, a Virginia Tech professor told The Star-Ledger of Newark.
_ Clearview High School grad Sean McQuade was in critical condition at Carlion Roanoke Memorial Hospital after being shot in the face, his grandmother, Lorrie Forsmam, told the Gloucester County Times of Woodbury.
La Porte credited the Carson Long Military Institute in New Bloomfield, Pa., with turning his life around. ``I know that Carson Long was my second chance,'' he said during a graduation speech, printed in the school yearbook.
But on Monday, La Porte's new chance on life ended in a mass killing that left 33 people dead, including the shooter.
Lt. Col. Rodney P. Grove, Carson Long's commandant of cadets, described La Porte as a natural leader who exhibited self-discipline and a dry sense of humor.
``The world has been robbed of someone who really wanted to go out and make a difference,'' Grove said.
La Porte, who graduated third in his class of 33, was also drum major for the school's drum and bugle corps during his senior year. He loved playing the cello and listening to heavy metal music, Grove said.
He was attending Virginia Tech on an Air Force ROTC scholarship, according to Dumont Police Chief Brian Venezio, who said La Porte's parents were still in shock when he spoke with them.
Meanwhile, Pryde's parents were grappling with ``enormous loss and tragedy'' after driving nine hours from Middletown to Virginia, a professor in her department told The Star-Ledger.
Saied Mostaghimi, chairman of the biological systems and engineering department where Pryde was seeking her master's degree, said Pryde was attending a civil engineering class when she was killed.
Pryde was an ``exceptional student academically and personally,'' Mostaghimi said. ``She was the nicest person you ever met,'' he said.
The previous summer, Pryde had traveled to Ecuador to research water quality issues with a professor. She planned to return this summer for follow-up work, Mostaghimi said.
A 2001 graduate of Middletown North High School, Pryde was on the school's the swim team, and played softball in two town leagues.
Her hometown has been touched by tragedy before, losing 37 residents and former residents in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
``The town pulls together in these situations. Everything that we can do for this family, we'll see what can be done,'' said Middletown Mayor Gerard P. Scharfenberger.
Back in New Jersey, around 100 students attended a prayer service at Seton Hall University Monday afternoon, before it was even known that some of the victims were from the state.
``It was not possible for us yesterday to do anything for those at Virginia Tech, but we could offer our prayers for those suffering down there,'' said the Rev. Anthony Ziccardi, executive director of mission and ministry at the school.
Others colleges in the state were also planning services. At Princeton University, Provost Christopher Eisgruber, who said the tragedy has filled the school with ``sorrow and heartbreak,'' was to speak a ``gathering in remembrance'' Tuesday night. In the southern part of the state, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey was planning a ceremony for Thursday night where administrators and students could talk about the tragedy. CLICK HERE and view the list of confirmed killed in the shooting.
SHOOTER IDENTIFIED; SUITEMATES DESCRIBE HIS BEHAVIOR
A Virginia Tech senior from South Korea was behind the massacre of at least 30 people locked inside a campus building in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, the university said Tuesday.
Professors and college suitemates of the gunman blamed in the deadliest shooting in modern US history are painting a dark portrait of Cho Seung-Hui.
Cho's suitemates say he rarely spoke to them or made eye contact. They and his professors describe him as a troubled, very quiet young man.
One of the suitemates, Karan Grewal, says no told him that his teachers were concerned about him being dangerous or suicidal.
Grewal says Cho was always alone -- in the dining hall, watching TV or working out in the gym.
Grewal says he pulled an all-nighter to do homework the day of the shootings and saw Cho up around 5 am, a few hours earlier than normal. He says that Cho was his usually silent self.
Still, Grewal says he had no idea Cho was capable of killing 32 people plus himself. THE DAY OF THE TRAGEDY
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 people. CLICK HERE and listen to a CBS Special Report
CLICK HERE and listen to President Bush's comments on the shooting.
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.fled the campus.
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 scheduled; 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 2,600-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.
Brittany Zachar, an 18-year-old freshman who lives at West Ambler Johnston, decided to attend an economics class even though she saw a handwritten sign on pink paper posted in the dorm bathroom saying something had happened and going to class was optional.
As she walked on campus, she heard the pop of gunshots coming from the direction of Norris Hall. She saw police running.
``I heard the gunshots and just sprinted,'' she says, adding that she took cover in another school building. ``It was probably one of the scariest things in my life.''
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.''
The university also began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to get the word out, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said at a news conference.
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 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 15 people were wounded, some seriously.
At 10:53 a.m., more than three-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.
VA. Gov. Heads Home
Virginia's governor is on his way home from Japan after today's deadly shooting at Virginia Tech University.
Governor Tim Kaine had been in Tokyo, where he was set to begin a two-week Asian trade mission. But instead he'll be back in Virginia tomorrow.
At least 33 people were killed by a gunman at the school. A statement from Kaine says it is ``difficult to comprehend senseless violence on this scale.''
Kaine says the state is working closely with police, medical officials and Virginia Tech to provide any additional resources and support that may be needed.
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Police in Virginia said the package may be a new critical component of the investigation.
killed, a Virginia Tech professor told The Star-Ledger of Newark.
``Please stay put,'' it warned. ``A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows.''
