MERGED--> Shooter loose on Virginia Tech campus

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i've said it before, and i'll say it again -- the VT students are an impressive bunch. their response has been extraordinary.
 
Irvine511 said:
i've said it before, and i'll say it again -- the VT students are an impressive bunch. their response has been extraordinary.
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:yes:

Just from the news clips I've seen of the convocation and vigil, I absolutely agree. It's amazing to see all the students yelling the Hokie cheer. :up:
 
I can't even express what someone does at a time like this.. don't even know what I could say to make anything better.
I can listen...
If someone needs someone to talk too. you can email me at u2spirit04@yahoo.com.
It's all I can do.

Sarah Mclachlan: In The Arms Of An Angel

Spend all your time waiting for that second chance
For the break that will make it ok
There's always some reason to feel not good enough
And it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction oh beautiful release
Memories seep from my veins
They may be empty and weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight

In the arms of an Angel fly away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

So tired of the straight line, and everywhere you turn
There's vultures and thieves at your back
The storm keeps on twisting, you keep on building the lies
That you make up for all that you lack
It don't make no difference, escaping one last time
It's easier to believe
In this sweet madness, oh this glorious sadness
That brings me to my knees

In the arms of an Angel far away from here
From this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear
You are pulled from the wreckage of your silent reverie
In the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

You're in the arms of an Angel; may you find some comfort here

Song Lyrics from Sarah McLachlan
:heart:
 
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Irvine511 said:
i've said it before, and i'll say it again -- the VT students are an impressive bunch. their response has been extraordinary.
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You know, I was thinking the same thing back when you first mentioned it. I've been very impressed by the way they've handled themselves; their lucid, mature, and frequently quite eloquent statements in interactions with the media is really impressive. I try to imagine myself in a similar situation and I doubt I would be able to string two words together.
 
Unico and Mia, and everyone else directly affected by this....

I have a hectic work schedule....have had to work noon to 10 last night and tonight, so I have not been able to even see any TV coverage and am keeping up on the web.

Listen, I know there isn't much I can do, but I know something about having to deal with grief and the recent unexpected death of a loved one. My mother took her own life 16 months ago and believe me, even though I have outwardly returned to normal I am by no means over it, and never will be.

The day after my mother's death I went on here at FYM and someone (who does not post, at least not often, in this area anyway, at FYM she is more of a lurker) sent me an email. She had had to deal with a similar situation in the past and offered to help. Even though we are on the oppostite sides of the country (I'm in NY State, she's in Seattle) and still haven't physically met, we have in all but fact. We are friends for life and I thank God that He used this humble forum to bring me even a small modicum of healing. She and her husband have been a great gift in my life, and I know I couldn't have gone on without them.

I know it sounds corny but I'd love to be able to do the same for someone in this event. Even if in a more minor way. I know you, Unico and Mia, have had plenty of consolation from "local yokels" in here but hey, if you guys need an *amateur* grief counselor, I'm here!

Mail me at Spindle40@hotmail.com and I'll pass along my phone #....
 
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Events turned on puzzling initial shootings

By Erika Hayasaki, Richard Fausset and Adam Schreck
Los Angeles Times, April 18

...Heather Haugh, who had been off campus for the weekend, walked up to the dorm shortly before 7:30 a.m. She was planning to meet her roommate, Emily Hilscher, to walk to chemistry class with her. But police pulled her aside at the door.

That interview would shape the terrible day that followed.

Investigators told Haugh, 18, that her roommate had been shot. They began asking about Hilscher's romances. Haugh told them what she knew: Her roommate had spent the weekend on another college campus with her boyfriend, Karl Thornhill. The police asked about guns; Haugh told them Thornhill had recently taken both girls to a shooting range for fun. She told police she believed he kept the weapons at his home in Blacksburg.

Though Haugh described her roommate as having "a perfect relationship with her boyfriend," investigators suspected the shooting was prompted by a lovers' quarrel. They relayed their theory to university administrators at an 8:25 a.m. meeting. By then, classes were already underway, and President Charles W. Steger saw no need to cancel them. "We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.

Investigators, meanwhile, had tracked down Thornhill, pulling him over as he was driving off campus. He raised their suspicion at once by contradicting Haugh's account. His guns were not at his home, he said; he had taken them to his parents' house in Boston, Va., about 370 miles away. He also denied that he and Hilscher had spent the weekend at Longwood University in Farmville, about 140 miles from Blacksburg. Campus Police Det. Stephanie Henley requested a search warrant for a residence believed to be linked to Thornhill. She was looking, she wrote, for "firearms, ammunition, bloody clothing … " Authorities are as yet unwilling to clear Thornhill; he "remains a person of interest," according to the state police superintendent, Col. Steven Flaherty.

But Flaherty also said it's "reasonable to assume" that Cho committed the murders at Ambler Johnston Hall. Why he may have targeted that dorm, that room, is murky. There's no evidence that he knew Hilscher. He was a 23-year-old English major, a taciturn loner; she was an upbeat 19-year-old studying animal sciences, so close to her family that she called her mother every day.

If Cho had planned a massacre, he had ample opportunity to shoot other victims; the dorm was filled with sleeping students. But only one other student, 22-year-old senior Ryan Clark, was shot in the dorm, known as AJ. Then the gunman fled.
.............................................................................
Cho bought one gun, a .22-caliber Walther P22, in February, at a pawnshop on Main Street. The other he purchased March 12 at Roanoke Firearms, about 40 miles away. The gun shop is in a cream-colored brick building, set up against the Blue Ridge Mountains, with the words: "Protection — Service — Training" etched on the door. Inside, guns of every description, price tags dangling, are displayed in glass cases. A bumper sticker on the wall urges: "Buy a gun for America." Cho bought a Glock 9-millimeter pistol here for $535, 30 rounds of ammunition included. As required by law, he presented identification: a Virginia driver's license, checks that matched the address on the license, and a federal immigration card to prove he was a legal U.S. resident. He passed a background check and left the store with his gun. "It really was a very unremarkable sale," owner John Markell said. "He was about as clean-cut a kid as you'd ever want to see."

On campus, Cho had raised some alarms. His professor for a 2005 seminar, the renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, found his work disturbingly dark. "He was writing really creepy things," Giovanni said. Worse, Cho was intimidating the other students in the class by snapping pictures of them with his cellphone camera. Finally, Giovanni decided to ask Cho to complete the course work outside the seminar, in a one-on-one tutorial with the department head. "I couldn't allow him to destroy my class," she said.

At the end of the semester, Giovanni gave him an A — not for talent or effort, but because she feared angering him. "I think he liked the idea that he was a scary guy," Giovanni said.
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It's still so unbelievable.

Again, all the best to everyone affected.

Stay strong! I know you will.
 
Nation's Colleges Mourn Va. Tech Victims

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press, April 18

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- A hand-held bell pealed 33 times inside the soaring cathedral at Muhlenberg College, breaking the silence as students mourned the dead in the Virginia Tech massacre hundreds of miles away. Bound by the commonality of the campus experience, students sought to express their support for Virginia Tech and reassure each other that they still are safe. "There's not much we can do for them, other than with our thoughts and prayers, and I'm sure that's why people showed up," said Muhlenberg student body president Scott Gordon, one of about 175 students who attended Tuesday's vigil.

Students planned similar observances later in the week in chapels, courtyards and campus centers across the country to reach out to Blacksburg, Va., where a shooting rampage Monday left 33 people dead, including the gunman.

At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, about 300 students turned out Tuesday night for a candlelight vigil in a courtyard outside a student center. Some of them knew students who died at Virginia Tech, said Stacey Brozio, a junior who helped organize the service on short notice. Many placed candles around a reflecting pool at the end of the 45-minute gathering. "It was a somber mood," junior Jon Elson said. "We know it could have been us."

Student leaders hung a giant condolence card inside the student union at California State University, Bakersfield on Tuesday and asked members of the campus community to sign it before mailing the card to Virginia Tech. The school planned a memorial Friday to honor the victims. "We wanted to reach out and let the students at Virginia Tech know that even though we're almost 3,000 miles away, that they are in our thoughts and prayers," said student body president Ken Beurmann.

In Omaha, Neb., more than 100 students gathered at Creighton University for a prayer service for the victims and their families, and the gunman and his family. Freshman Nicole Dollries said she came to show respect. "It really does shake you, no matter where you're at, just to watch the events unfold in the news," Dollries said.
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Vincent Vega said:
Stay strong! I know you will.
Click to expand...
:up:

Again, thoughts, prayers and peace to everyone affected...it's been a somber and sobering week. Seeing some of the vigil at VT on television completely choked me up...not just because of all the grieving laid bare, but the determination to draw together and prevail that was in evidence as well.
 
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it is a bomb threat. it is not a residence hall. however, there may have been faculty/staff there. it is our largest auditorium, and an academic building. offices, admissions, etc.

i sincerely hope nobody is there. and i hope that they catch whoever is involved with this bomb threat. it is unsettling to think there are people here who still want to kill. it is like they have been unaffected by all this.

8:35am e-mail from university:
It was reported that suspicious activity was in burssuss hall. Police reponded. The incident was determined to be unfounded.




Police are leaving. I hope hope hope this is over.
 
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I haven't posted in this thread until now, as I haven't felt I had words that could be of much comfort or rather, words that haven't been said already. last night, I watched about two hours of coverage, flipping between CNN and ABC and CBS. It was like I couldn't stop watching and learning more. When I saw the students cheering "Let's go Hokies", I got goosebumps. it truly is hard not to feel anything about this situation and feel some of the sadness that this community and campus are feeling :(

For Mia and Laura and others affected, my heart goes out and I've been thinking about you constantly. I hope the days get easier somehow, and that you are safe :hug: :heart:
 
Craziness. This is not needed.

There are some pictures of me up on www.dailypress.com in the photo gallery from our vigil last night. (Pics 9-11 are from my school) Now the whole world has evidence that I was crying :grumpy:

The other one you can just see my legs and cell phone as I was taking a picture of people signing a canvas.
 
How sad for them :(

I'm still wrapping my mind round this whole thing. I'm really not sitting well with the whole "we're not surprised it was him" train of thought. I don't like the fact that a faculty memeber gave him an 'A' because she was scared of him. I mean what does that mean? Why are their not things in place to deal with students like him? Why is couselling not madatory for "at risk" students especially as they are kind of his employers as he is a student and the uni obviously has rules and rugulations a studnet must follow.
 
t1.nats.ap.jpg


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington Nationals wore Virginia Tech baseball caps during Tuesday night's game against the Atlanta Braves as a tribute to the victims of the shooting rampage at the school.

"It was an honor to wear that hat," Washington center fielder Ryan Church said after his team's 6-4 loss. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families."

Nationals players wore a few different versions of the hats; most were burgundy with "VT" in orange or white. Manager Manny Acta, pitching coach Randy St. Claire and other coaches wore white "VT" caps with burgundy stitching.

Left fielder Chris Snelling's cap will be sent to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., while Acta and some players autographed their hats, which will be sent to Virginia Tech.

"The Nationals have you in our hearts and in our prayers," relief pitcher Chad Cordero wrote above his signature.

The Nationals said the idea of wearing the Virginia Tech caps came from a fan from Calvert County, Md., who e-mailed team president Stan Kasten.

"When I read it, I thought, 'Wow. This is really nice,"' Kasten said. "It was the very least we could do."

He said the team ran the tribute past Major League Baseball beforehand and commissioner Bud Selig and chief operating officer Bob DuPuy "were instantly supportive."

The Nationals held moments of silence for the victims of Monday's shooting before their home games Monday and Tuesday. Washington's RFK Stadium is a drive of about 4 hours from the university's Blacksburg campus.

"This happening in our backyard, we're more sensitive to this than anybody," Kasten said.

Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is from Virginia Beach and went to college at Virginia Tech rival Virginia.

"It was special, especially for me, them kind of being the school we always wanted to beat, more than anybody else," Zimmerman said. "It kind of shows you how little sports mean. ... It makes you realize how lucky we have it and not to take any days for granted."
 
dazzlingamy said:
How sad for them :(

I'm still wrapping my mind round this whole thing. I'm really not sitting well with the whole "we're not surprised it was him" train of thought. I don't like the fact that a faculty memeber gave him an 'A' because she was scared of him. I mean what does that mean? Why are their not things in place to deal with students like him? Why is couselling not madatory for "at risk" students especially as they are kind of his employers as he is a student and the uni obviously has rules and rugulations a studnet must follow.
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His professors and roommate have reported him to police in the past, and referred him into counseling. They dismissed it b/c they said his writing didn't specifically target anyone. Unfortunately, I don't know if you can really force someone into counseling...in or out of school, you know?

I have a feeling the school might get hit for how he was handled in the past.


Apparently they found an 8-paged typed letter from him when they found his body. He was blaming "rich kids and religion" and saying "you caused me to do this."
 
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