San Francisco Virginia Tech alumnus shocked - UC President vows security review
17 April 2007POLICE IDENTIFY SHOOTER AS 23-YEAR-OLD SENIOR ENGLISH MAJOR CHO SEUNG-HUI
CHO SEUNG-HUI
PRESIDENT BUSH AND GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER ORDER NATIONAL AND STATE FLAGS FLOWN AT HALF-STAFF
Photo by Michael Kiernan
Two shootings that left 33 people dead on the Virginia Tech campus Monday morning shocked alumni who have settled in the Bay Area and prompted the University of California president to vow to review UC’s safety procedures to avert a similar tragedy.
San Francisco resident John Emami, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2005, learned of the massacre through a friend’s text-message.
Emami immediately began trying to contact friends who still attend the school.
Emami’s friends are all accounted for Monday afternoon, and he was able to speak to some of them shortly after the ordeal.
“It’s just chaos down there, pretty much. They were making everyone stay inside and they didn’t know what was going on at first,” Emami said.
Virginia Tech police today identified the shooter who took 32 lives as well as his own Monday in the worst gun rampage in U.S. history as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean national and resident alien who was a senior English major at the university.
Cho’s body was found in one of four classrooms in Norris Hall where he took most of his victims, said Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum.
President Bush and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today ordered national and state flags flown at half-staff.
“Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech. We hold the victims in our hearts. We lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering,” said Bush.
“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on Monday, April 16, 2007, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, Sunday, April 22, 2007. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.”
Police said Cho used two guns in the classroom building, where the bulk of the killings occurred. One of the guns, they said, was also the one that was used to shoot and kill the two victims in the dormitory about two hours before the slaughter in Norris Hall.
“It’s certainly reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places,” Finchum said. But he said police had not entirely ruled out the possibility that there were two shooters.
According to university officials, the incident began with a 911 call to the university police at 7:15 a.m. Officers responded to West Ambler Johnston Hall to find two shooting victims. Both victims died.
West Ambler Johnston Hall is a co-ed dormitory that houses almost 900 students and is one of the largest residential buildings on campus.
Two hours later, while police were investigating the incident, another call came in reporting a second shooting, the university reported.
The second attack took place in Norris Hall, an engineering building about a half a mile away from Ambler Johnston Hall. Thirty-one people, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall. Another 15 people shot in that location are hospitalized, the university confirmed.
Walking briskly, it would take someone about 15 minutes to travel the distance between the two locations, Emami said.
For Emami, the shooting hit especially close to home. The former engineering student attended classes at Norris Hall and lived for a time in West Ambler Johnston Hall, known to students as “West AJ.”
“It’s just shocking,” he said.
San Francisco resident Nathan Frankel, who graduated from Virginia Tech in December of 1995, was also shaken by the news. Frankel said he heard the news from his father, who lives a couple of hours from the campus.
“My dad e-mailed me this morning and he said there was a shooting and that one person was killed. By the time I clicked on the link to the news story, it was up to 20. I was really shocked,” said Frankel, who also attended classes in Norris Hall.
The campus is located in the town of Blacksburg, which Frankel described as a place where crime is relatively uncommon.
“It’s a very quiet town. If there was one murder in the year, people were surprised and took notice of it. I can’t even imagine an event of this magnitude,” Frankel said.
Blacksburg is essentially a college town, Emami said.
“It’s just a peaceful southwest Virginia town. Not much goes on besides college,” he said.
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