February 11, 2009 5:01 PM
- Text
At Least 33 Killed In Va. Tech Massacre
(CBS/AP)
A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.
Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first burst of gunfire. Many said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.
"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.
He defended the university's handling of the tragedy, saying: "We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it."
At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a "person of interest" in the dorm shooting who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.
"I'm not saying there is someone out there, and I'm not saying there is someone who is not," Flinchum said. Ballistics tests would help explain what happened, he said.
Sheree Mixell, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the evidence was being moved to the agency's national lab in Annandale. At least one firearm was turned over, she said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives believe the gunman, described as a young Asian male, used two handguns in the shootings before taking his own life, sources tell CBS News. One official added that the gunman was "heavily armed and wearing a vest."
Sophomore Derek O'Dell, who was shot in the arm during an attack on his German class, described the gunman. "He was male, Asian descent and he was about six feet tall wearing a black leather coat and a maroon hat," he told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. "And he didn't say anything, which I found very unusual. He just started shooting people and it was truly tragic."
O'Dell said he hid under a desk when the gunman started shooting. "I had not even realized I had been shot until I got up and saw the blood on my arm. But with the two people who hadn't been shot, with their help, we helped to barricade the door to prevent him from coming back in."
The gunman did come back, O'Dell said, and shot at the door, but was unable to get into the room.
Trey Perkins, who was also sitting in a German class in Norris Hall, told The Washington Post that the gunman barged into the room at about 9:50 a.m. and opened fire for about a minute and a half, squeezing off 30 shots in all.
The gunman, Perkins said, first shot the professor in the head and then fired on the students. Perkins said the gunman was about 19 years old and had a "very serious but very calm look on his face."
"Everyone hit the floor at that moment," said Perkins, 20, of Yorktown, Va., a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. "And the shots seemed like it lasted forever."
Investigators offered no motive for the attack, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Police have been working on identifying the suspect and say they expect to release the name in the coming hours. When asked if the gunman was a student, police say "something like that," indicating that perhaps he was a teaching assistant, reports Orr.
Alec Calhoun, a junior from Waynesboro, said he was among those who jumped. He was in a second-floor engineering class when shooting erupted next door. The gunman came to his classroom, he said, but by then students had begun leaping from windows.
"Two people behind me were shot," he said, adding that he was not seriously injured.
The massacre took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing at least two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building about a half-mile away, authorities said.
Two people were killed in a dormitory room, and 31 others were killed in the classroom building, including the gunman, police said.
Students, staff and faculty spent the rest of the day worrying about who might have been killed.
"It's an unimaginable tragedy to happen anywhere. And when it happens on your campus — I know people in Norris Hall," staff member Paul Lancaster told CBS News. "I don't know what's happening to any of them. I'm still waiting like everybody else to find out and pray that they're safe."
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," Steger said. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."
Steger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack and decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to notify members of the university, but with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out. He said that before the e-mail went out, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to spread the word.
Police Chief Flinchum would not say how many weapons the gunman carried. But a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete, said that the gunman had two pistols and multiple clips of ammunition.
Flinchum said that at least two doors in the classroom building had been chained shut from the inside.
Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.
Some students bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time.
"What happened today, this was ridiculous," student Jason Piatt told CNN. "While they send out that e-mail, 20 more people got killed."
"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.
"If you had apprehended a suspect, I could understand having classes even after two of your students have perished. But when you don't have a suspect in a college environment and to put the students in a situation where they're congregated in large numbers in open buildings, that's unacceptable to me."
Students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the first shooting.
Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first burst of gunfire. Many said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.
"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.
He defended the university's handling of the tragedy, saying: "We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it."
At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a "person of interest" in the dorm shooting who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.
"I'm not saying there is someone out there, and I'm not saying there is someone who is not," Flinchum said. Ballistics tests would help explain what happened, he said.
Sheree Mixell, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the evidence was being moved to the agency's national lab in Annandale. At least one firearm was turned over, she said.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives believe the gunman, described as a young Asian male, used two handguns in the shootings before taking his own life, sources tell CBS News. One official added that the gunman was "heavily armed and wearing a vest."
Sophomore Derek O'Dell, who was shot in the arm during an attack on his German class, described the gunman. "He was male, Asian descent and he was about six feet tall wearing a black leather coat and a maroon hat," he told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric. "And he didn't say anything, which I found very unusual. He just started shooting people and it was truly tragic."
O'Dell said he hid under a desk when the gunman started shooting. "I had not even realized I had been shot until I got up and saw the blood on my arm. But with the two people who hadn't been shot, with their help, we helped to barricade the door to prevent him from coming back in."
The gunman did come back, O'Dell said, and shot at the door, but was unable to get into the room.
Trey Perkins, who was also sitting in a German class in Norris Hall, told The Washington Post that the gunman barged into the room at about 9:50 a.m. and opened fire for about a minute and a half, squeezing off 30 shots in all.
The gunman, Perkins said, first shot the professor in the head and then fired on the students. Perkins said the gunman was about 19 years old and had a "very serious but very calm look on his face."
"Everyone hit the floor at that moment," said Perkins, 20, of Yorktown, Va., a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. "And the shots seemed like it lasted forever."
Investigators offered no motive for the attack, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Police have been working on identifying the suspect and say they expect to release the name in the coming hours. When asked if the gunman was a student, police say "something like that," indicating that perhaps he was a teaching assistant, reports Orr.
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 chained and padlocked doors. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. A student used his cell-phone camera to record the sound of bullets echoing through a stone building.
Harry Smith will co-anchor The Early Show from Blacksburg, Va., Tuesday morning from 7 to 9 a.m. There will a one-hour special on the massacre on 48 Hours Tuesday night at 10 p.m.
Photo Essay: Virginia Tech Massacre
Alec Calhoun, a junior from Waynesboro, said he was among those who jumped. He was in a second-floor engineering class when shooting erupted next door. The gunman came to his classroom, he said, but by then students had begun leaping from windows.
"Two people behind me were shot," he said, adding that he was not seriously injured.
(CBS/Virginia Tech)
Two people were killed in a dormitory room, and 31 others were killed in the classroom building, including the gunman, police said.
Students, staff and faculty spent the rest of the day worrying about who might have been killed.
"It's an unimaginable tragedy to happen anywhere. And when it happens on your campus — I know people in Norris Hall," staff member Paul Lancaster told CBS News. "I don't know what's happening to any of them. I'm still waiting like everybody else to find out and pray that they're safe."
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," Steger said. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."
Steger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack and decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to notify members of the university, but with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out. He said that before the e-mail went out, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to spread the word.
Police Chief Flinchum would not say how many weapons the gunman carried. But a law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete, said that the gunman had two pistols and multiple clips of ammunition.
Flinchum said that at least two doors in the classroom building had been chained shut from the inside.
Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.
Some students bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time.
"What happened today, this was ridiculous," student Jason Piatt told CNN. "While they send out that e-mail, 20 more people got killed."
"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.
"If you had apprehended a suspect, I could understand having classes even after two of your students have perished. But when you don't have a suspect in a college environment and to put the students in a situation where they're congregated in large numbers in open buildings, that's unacceptable to me."
Students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the first shooting.
The e-mail had few details. It read: "A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating." The message warned students to be cautious and contact police about anything suspicious.Read the e-mail alerts sent to students and staff
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