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Tim Reid
The massacre began at 7.10am yesterday when a lone gunman entered a dormitory at Virginia Tech, the state’s largest university. He began firing slowly and methodically inside the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall, one of the largest halls of residence with sleeping quarters for 895 students.
There was “mass chaos”, one undergraduate said — “lots of students running around, going crazy”. There were “multiple shooting victims”, Charles Steger, the university president, said. Two students had been killed in a dormitory, according to initial police reports.
At 7.15am, the first emergency call was made. Police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene and armed teams fanned out around the hall, on the southwest side of the 2,600-acre campus, trying to find the gunman as snow swirled around the scene.
But far worse was to come. Two hours later, reports began to come in of shots being fired in Norris Hall, an engineering building that is filled with classrooms. Students in a German lesson in the Norris Hall buildings described the gunman bursting in the classroom and shooting their teacher before turning his weapon on 15 students who were cowering on the floor.
One student, Jamal Albarghouti, filmed the scene on campus with his mobile phone, images that were broadcast on CNN even before the full scale of the massacre had been revealed.
Armed police can be seen looking left and right, startled, as shot after shot can be heard in the distance. On and on the shooting went, for at least 40 seconds. Within 30 minutes the film had been viewed 120,000 times online.
Initial reports had given the death toll as one. But then Wendell Flinchum, Virginia Tech’s police chief, brought gasps at a news conference at 12.45pm when he announced that at least 21 people had been killed. He added that all but one of the fatalities had been shot in the Norris Hall classroom, and that at least 21 others were injured. As the day wore on the toll kept growing.
Dana Perino, President Bush’s spokeswoman, announced at 1.15pm that Mr Bush had been informed of the shooting and was horrified. The death toll easily eclipsed that of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which claimed 15 lives.
Matt Waldron, a student, said that he had heard police sirens and had seen officers hiding behind trees with their guns drawn. He described the scene as mayhem, adding: “These two kids panicked and jumped out of the top-storey window. One kid broke his ankle. A girl was not in good shape, just lying on the ground.”
Steven Ratley, 21, an architecture student, witnessed the denouement of the massacre as a group of armed police ran past him a little after at 9.45am close to Norris Hall.
“I walked outside to get a cup of coffee and was told to get down on the ground by a number of police officers,” he told The Times.
“They looked like they were chasing someone. A couple of seconds later I heard two gunshots fired. It’s crazy here right now. The hospitals are all full, there are ambulances, police cars and fire rescue trucks everywhere.”
The university has 26,000 students, with many from Asia. Aimee Kanode, a first-year student, said that the first round of shooting occurred one floor above her room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Her “resident assistant” knocked on her door at about 8am to tell the students not to leave their dormitory.
“They had us under lockdown. They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again,” she said. “We were locked in our dorms surfing the internet trying to figure out what was going on.”
Madison Van Duyne, another student, said: “Most of the students are sitting on floors away from the windows just trying to be safe as possible.”
The shootings came three days after a bomb threat on Friday forced the cancellations of classes in three buildings. Last August, the first day of classes was cut short after an escaped prisoner was hunted on campus after he killed a security guard at a local hospital and a policeman.
Mr Steger said: “Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions. The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us.
“I cannot begin to convey my own personal sense of loss over this senseless and incomprehensible, heinous act.”
The incident will revive concerns over school security and access to guns in a country plagued by such massacres. Virginia law allows people to buy such weapons over the counter from the age of 21 provided they pass a background check. There is no limit on how many handguns that can be purchased per month, and there is no state registration of handguns.
But Virginia Tech itself is a gun-free zone, meaning that it is illegal for anyone other than law enforcement officers to possess a firearm on school grounds.
Campus massacres
August 1, 1966 Charles Whitman killed 16 people, including his mother and wife, and wounded 31 at University of Texas in Austin
January 29, 1979 Brenda Anne Spencer, 16, fired on a school in San Diego, killing two men and wounding eight children. Asked about her motive, she said “I don't like Mondays” — inspiring the song by the Boomtown Rats
Oct 1, 1997 Boy, 16, stabbed his mother before shooting dead two pupils at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, and injuring seven
March 24, 1998 Two boys aged 11 and 13 shot dead a teacher and four pupils at Jonesboro, Arkansas. Teacher and nine pupils injured
April 20, 1999 Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School
March 21, 2005 Jeff Weise, 16, killed five pupils and five adults, and hurt seven, at Red Lake High School, Minnesota
Oct 2, 2006 Charles Roberts killed five and injured seven at an Amish schoolhouse in Paradise, Pennsylvania
Source: Times database
The massacre began at 7.10am yesterday when a lone gunman entered a dormitory at Virginia Tech, the state’s largest university. He began firing slowly and methodically inside the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall, one of the largest halls of residence with sleeping quarters for 895 students.
There was “mass chaos”, one undergraduate said — “lots of students running around, going crazy”. There were “multiple shooting victims”, Charles Steger, the university president, said. Two students had been killed in a dormitory, according to initial police reports.
At 7.15am, the first emergency call was made. Police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene and armed teams fanned out around the hall, on the southwest side of the 2,600-acre campus, trying to find the gunman as snow swirled around the scene.
But far worse was to come. Two hours later, reports began to come in of shots being fired in Norris Hall, an engineering building that is filled with classrooms. Students in a German lesson in the Norris Hall buildings described the gunman bursting in the classroom and shooting their teacher before turning his weapon on 15 students who were cowering on the floor.
One student, Jamal Albarghouti, filmed the scene on campus with his mobile phone, images that were broadcast on CNN even before the full scale of the massacre had been revealed.
Armed police can be seen looking left and right, startled, as shot after shot can be heard in the distance. On and on the shooting went, for at least 40 seconds. Within 30 minutes the film had been viewed 120,000 times online.
Initial reports had given the death toll as one. But then Wendell Flinchum, Virginia Tech’s police chief, brought gasps at a news conference at 12.45pm when he announced that at least 21 people had been killed. He added that all but one of the fatalities had been shot in the Norris Hall classroom, and that at least 21 others were injured. As the day wore on the toll kept growing.
Dana Perino, President Bush’s spokeswoman, announced at 1.15pm that Mr Bush had been informed of the shooting and was horrified. The death toll easily eclipsed that of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, which claimed 15 lives.
Matt Waldron, a student, said that he had heard police sirens and had seen officers hiding behind trees with their guns drawn. He described the scene as mayhem, adding: “These two kids panicked and jumped out of the top-storey window. One kid broke his ankle. A girl was not in good shape, just lying on the ground.”
Steven Ratley, 21, an architecture student, witnessed the denouement of the massacre as a group of armed police ran past him a little after at 9.45am close to Norris Hall.
“I walked outside to get a cup of coffee and was told to get down on the ground by a number of police officers,” he told The Times.
“They looked like they were chasing someone. A couple of seconds later I heard two gunshots fired. It’s crazy here right now. The hospitals are all full, there are ambulances, police cars and fire rescue trucks everywhere.”
The university has 26,000 students, with many from Asia. Aimee Kanode, a first-year student, said that the first round of shooting occurred one floor above her room in West Ambler Johnston Hall. Her “resident assistant” knocked on her door at about 8am to tell the students not to leave their dormitory.
“They had us under lockdown. They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again,” she said. “We were locked in our dorms surfing the internet trying to figure out what was going on.”
Madison Van Duyne, another student, said: “Most of the students are sitting on floors away from the windows just trying to be safe as possible.”
The shootings came three days after a bomb threat on Friday forced the cancellations of classes in three buildings. Last August, the first day of classes was cut short after an escaped prisoner was hunted on campus after he killed a security guard at a local hospital and a policeman.
Mr Steger said: “Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions. The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us.
“I cannot begin to convey my own personal sense of loss over this senseless and incomprehensible, heinous act.”
The incident will revive concerns over school security and access to guns in a country plagued by such massacres. Virginia law allows people to buy such weapons over the counter from the age of 21 provided they pass a background check. There is no limit on how many handguns that can be purchased per month, and there is no state registration of handguns.
But Virginia Tech itself is a gun-free zone, meaning that it is illegal for anyone other than law enforcement officers to possess a firearm on school grounds.
Campus massacres
August 1, 1966 Charles Whitman killed 16 people, including his mother and wife, and wounded 31 at University of Texas in Austin
January 29, 1979 Brenda Anne Spencer, 16, fired on a school in San Diego, killing two men and wounding eight children. Asked about her motive, she said “I don't like Mondays” — inspiring the song by the Boomtown Rats
Oct 1, 1997 Boy, 16, stabbed his mother before shooting dead two pupils at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi, and injuring seven
March 24, 1998 Two boys aged 11 and 13 shot dead a teacher and four pupils at Jonesboro, Arkansas. Teacher and nine pupils injured
April 20, 1999 Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School
March 21, 2005 Jeff Weise, 16, killed five pupils and five adults, and hurt seven, at Red Lake High School, Minnesota
Oct 2, 2006 Charles Roberts killed five and injured seven at an Amish schoolhouse in Paradise, Pennsylvania
Source: Times database
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