Kenny Guido
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Va. Tech shootings leave 33 dead
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, LOS ANGELES TIMES, WASHINGTON POST AND LOUISE RADNOFSKY, NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER
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April 16, 2007, 11:50 PM EDT
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Investigators offered no motive Monday for the deadliest gun rampage in U.S. history, which left at least 33 people dead here at Virginia Tech University and raised questions about whether school officials did enough to contain the attacks.
The massacre took place in two locations -- a dormitory where two people were killed and two hours later in an engineering building across campus. Officials said they knew of only one shooter but were still investigating whether the same gunman was involved in both shootings.
The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with tragedy, perhaps forever.
"I'm really at a loss for words to explain or understand the carnage that has visited our campus," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said.
He was also faced with tough questions about the school's handling of the emergency and whether it did enough to warn students and protect them after the first burst of gunfire.
The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.
Wielding two pistols, the gunman opened fire about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus, at about 9:45 a.m., chaining the doors behind him to keep anyone from escaping.
Two people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least a dozen people were hurt, some seriously.
Among Monday's dead was Ryan Clark, a student from Martinez, Ga., with several majors who carried a 4.0 grade-point average, said Vernon Collins, coroner in Columbia County, Ga.
Piecing together a reason
As authorities probed the slaughter, the number of questions also grew. There were reports that the gunman could have been a student or a former student who initially got into an argument with a former girlfriend.
Student Karina Porushkevich, 18, a freshman from Calabasas, Calif., said she and others were told by friends that the gunman was apparently a spurned boyfriend.
The gunman reportedly had been screaming at his girlfriend on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, the dorm, when the resident assistant came by, Porushkevich said she and other students were told.
After the fatal shooting at the dorm, the next shooting took place two hours later at the Norris science and engineering building.
There, students jumped from windows in panic. Young people and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. Many found themselves trapped behind the chained and padlocked doors. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed the campus.
Erin Sheehan, who was also in the German class, told the student newspaper, the Collegiate Times, that she was one of only four of about two dozen people in the class to walk out of the room. The rest were dead or wounded, she said.
She said the gunman "was just a normal-looking kid ... but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan, button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.
"I saw bullets hit people's bodies," Sheehan said. "There was blood everywhere."
Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first shots. Many said the first word from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage -- around the time the gunman struck again.
"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, LOS ANGELES TIMES, WASHINGTON POST AND LOUISE RADNOFSKY, NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER
April 16, 2007, 11:50 PM EDT
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Investigators offered no motive Monday for the deadliest gun rampage in U.S. history, which left at least 33 people dead here at Virginia Tech University and raised questions about whether school officials did enough to contain the attacks.
The massacre took place in two locations -- a dormitory where two people were killed and two hours later in an engineering building across campus. Officials said they knew of only one shooter but were still investigating whether the same gunman was involved in both shootings.
The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with tragedy, perhaps forever.
"I'm really at a loss for words to explain or understand the carnage that has visited our campus," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said.
He was also faced with tough questions about the school's handling of the emergency and whether it did enough to warn students and protect them after the first burst of gunfire.
The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.
Wielding two pistols, the gunman opened fire about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus, at about 9:45 a.m., chaining the doors behind him to keep anyone from escaping.
Two people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least a dozen people were hurt, some seriously.
Among Monday's dead was Ryan Clark, a student from Martinez, Ga., with several majors who carried a 4.0 grade-point average, said Vernon Collins, coroner in Columbia County, Ga.
Piecing together a reason
As authorities probed the slaughter, the number of questions also grew. There were reports that the gunman could have been a student or a former student who initially got into an argument with a former girlfriend.
Student Karina Porushkevich, 18, a freshman from Calabasas, Calif., said she and others were told by friends that the gunman was apparently a spurned boyfriend.
The gunman reportedly had been screaming at his girlfriend on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, the dorm, when the resident assistant came by, Porushkevich said she and other students were told.
After the fatal shooting at the dorm, the next shooting took place two hours later at the Norris science and engineering building.
There, students jumped from windows in panic. Young people and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. Many found themselves trapped behind the chained and padlocked doors. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed the campus.
Erin Sheehan, who was also in the German class, told the student newspaper, the Collegiate Times, that she was one of only four of about two dozen people in the class to walk out of the room. The rest were dead or wounded, she said.
She said the gunman "was just a normal-looking kid ... but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan, button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.
"I saw bullets hit people's bodies," Sheehan said. "There was blood everywhere."
Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first shots. Many said the first word from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage -- around the time the gunman struck again.
"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.
