MERGED--> Shooter loose on Virginia Tech campus

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Status
Not open for further replies.
unico said:
yeah, he died doing his job. he was such a great guy. i'm proud of him and i'm missing him.

Okay, that's it. I read the Virginia Tech coverage at work today, I just watched Dateline, I just finished reading this thread ...

.... and that quote finally made me cry. :sad:

My condolences to Mia, Laura, and any other Virginia Tech students and alumni (and family members of the same) who are Interferencers. You are in my thoughts and prayers.
 
unico said:


yeah, he died doing his job. he was such a great guy. i'm proud of him and i'm missing him.

my dad drove down here. he surprised me! i'm gonna hang with him tonight. i have an awesome daddy.

goodnight everyone. i'll come back with updates tomorrow as i hear them, especially after the convocation. i hear they're gonna talk about how to finish out the rest of the semester after this.

please continue to pray for us and keep us in your thoughts and hearts.

thanks for all your support :hug:

That is heartbreaking! :sad:

But I'm glad that your father came to see you....you should be around friends and family in your time of need :hug:
 
Oh Mia, I've been thinking about you all day. I'm glad you have someone close now for some :hug: Your Bailey will give you some lovins. He can't even understand such anger and hate.

My uncle supervises the campus security at my school/workplace and he's being called to an impromtu meeting tomorrow.

This could have happened anywhere.

I hope people don't use this against VT. I understand if kids who are there now need to transfer because of the emotional damage, but I hope the school itself doesn't get bombarded. Some people are just nutty and go nuts. No amount of security checkpoints and metal detectors can stop that. :(
 
Liesje said:
Oh Mia, I've been thinking about you all day. I'm glad you have someone close now for some :hug: Your Bailey will give you some lovins. He can't even understand such anger and hate.

My uncle supervises the campus security at my school/workplace and he's being called to an impromtu meeting tomorrow.

This could have happened anywhere.

I hope people don't use this against VT. I understand if kids who are there now need to transfer because of the emotional damage, but I hope the school itself doesn't get bombarded. Some people are just nutty and go nuts. No amount of security checkpoints and metal detectors can stop that. :(

Yea...I remember hearing about a bomb threat during my lunch peroid a couple of days after Columbine and all the security people was there along with the vice principal.
 
unico said:
thanks again everyone for your support. i've been on some news programs already. i've been saying yes to everyone who asks. i'm doing my best to tell the world how wonderful a guy ryan was. so far i've been on:

c-tv (canada)
reuters
cnn
tbs

he died serving his community. doing what he loved best.

I saw you on CNN tonight. My condolences for your lost. :hug:
 
Have not had time to post much in recent weeks but just found out this story an hr ago and have been crying over my keyboard. There was no way I could go without posting...a HEARTFELT PRAYER for the victims familaes, the friends, all our beloved FYM'ers affected by this.

People have mentioned SBS and POE. I think, though, that "One" is the song of the moment, if it has to be a U2 song.

"One love
One blood One life
You've got to do what you should
One life, with each other
Sisters, Brothers
One love but we're not the same
We *GET TO* carry each other, carry each other..."

It was many yrs before I learned to appreciate the subtlty of that lyric, and never more so than now.

May God bless and help us all.





PS. If the gunamn was indeed a Chinese national on a student visa, I know this is not the time for this, but wait until the IMMIGRATION debates begin, and if the 2008-Olympics sensitive Chinese gov't comments....

Like I said, not the time for this, but I am afraid we must prepare ourselves for a trying time. This is only the beginning....
 
Student played dead to escape college gunman

DSC_9953.jpg


Virginia Tech University student Erin Sheehan played dead to save herself as a gunman burst into her German class and methodically mowed her class-mates down.

Ms Sheehan, sporting glasses and a shaved head, spoke calmly as she told CNN about her brush with the killer responsible for the deadliest school shooting spree in US history.

The gunman killed 32 people before killing himself.

"He was, I would say, about a little bit under six feet tall, young looking, Asian, dressed sort of strangely, almost like a boy scout, very short-sleeved light, tan shirt and some sort of ammo vest with black over it," Ms Sheehan said.

She said he was carrying what appeared to be a black handgun and peeked into the class twice before later coming back with murderous intent.

"He just stepped within five feet (1.5 meters) of the door and started firing," said Ms Sheehan, a freshman and mechanical engineering major.

"He seemed very thorough about it, getting almost everyone down. I was trying to act dead," she said.

"He left for about 30 seconds, came back in, did almost exactly the same thing. I guess he heard us still talking.

"And then we forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, the door would not lock. And so he came and tried to force himself in another three times and started shooting through the door."

Ms Sheehan said the class had 25 people in it plus the professor. "When we left, only four of us left," she said. "Everyone was else was unconscious, either dead or wounded seriously."

-AFP
 
U2isthebest said:
Mia my love,:sad: I just saw you on CNN. They showed it again. You almost made me cry. I feel so bad for you. You are amazing!!! Call me soon, k?:hug: :pray:

I just saw her too on the news ....that was pretty cool. Too bad under such sad circumstances :(
 
okay...so i don't think sleep is gonna happen tonight. it has been really hard to swallow this all. i haven't even begun to accept the magnitude of this. people are calling it a massacre. i've never had to use that term locally. it is comforting to know that our campus has been embraced by the global community.

except for john mccain. i want to punch him in the face.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6562115.stm
"We have to look at what happened here, but... I do believe in the constitutional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon. Obviously we have to keep guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens."
way to show some fucking respect asshole.
 
I just saw you on CNN, Mia. Wonderful of you to share your thoughts of your friend with us. Thank you.:hug:
 
Mia, I'm so sorry about your student. It sounds like he died trying to help, God bless him. Laura and europop, I'm praying the news about your friends will be good. And all the other victims still undergoing treatment...what an incomprehensibly awful thing to have happen. Like BonoIsMyMuse, I could not stop looking out at my own students yesterday and thinking What if... and the thought just turned my stomach. Thoughts and prayers for the entire community there and all their families and friends affected by this; they are going to have a lot to contend with as they try to come to terms with it all and move on.

Based on the incomplete information we have so far, I think I can understand why the police assumed the shooter had fled the campus and that there was no reason to suspect he might return to randomly shoot others. But if I had students or children or friends among the dead or wounded...not at all sure I could still see it that way. My guess is this will cause campuses across the country to re-evaluate how they handle any such incidents in the future.

I read of at least one other person (besides Mia's student Ryan) who apparently died trying to save others, an Israeli engineering professor who blocked the door with his body to buy his students time to jump out the windows or climb under desks.
 
04ROSSLTP04172007.jpg


Saugus MA mother mourns son, 20

Boston Herald

The bloodiest shooting rampage in the nation’s history has claimed the life of a promising young Saugus man, a sophomore gunned down in his morning French class at Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech shooting
“I just got word he was of the ones killed in the classroom,” said a sobbing Lynnette Alameddine moments after a chaplain called with word that her 20-year-old son, Ross Alameddine, was among the dead. She was too grief-stricken to speak further.
Earlier last night, the tormented Saugus mother was waiting by her phone. She spent hours calling police and hospitals, which she said were unresponsive to her frantic pleas for information.
“This is torture - complete torture,” Alameddine said of waiting to hear from her son. “I thought I saw my son injured on TV - I thought I recognized his legs. I talked to him (Monday) night and he was so happy. I’m such a wreck.”
Ross Alameddine is a sophomore who had just declared English as his major. A graduate of Austin Preparatory School in Reading, he was in French class yesterday morning in Room 211 of Norris Hall, where many were slain on the campus.
Messages from friends and family members on were pouring in all day on Alameddine’s Facebook Web page begging him to get in touch with anyone. Later, postings were full of grief.
“Have no idea how I am going to deal with this. You have affected me so much,” wrote one.
“R.I.P. Ross, we love you man and your memory will live on forever with us all,” wrote another.
Alameddine’s Facebook page shows he wished a friend a happy birthday before heading off to class yesterday. He lists musical interests from Jim Morrison to the Beastie Boys as well as several movies and books.
Massachusetts students at Virginia Tech described being caught in an unimaginable maelstrom of events as the bloodshed unfolded.
“It reminds me of being younger and watching Columbine on TV, and now actually being part of what’s happening, it’s crazy,” said Wesley Hagan, a freshman from Boxford who lives next door to West Ambler Johnston, the dorm where the horrific rampage began shortly after 7 a.m.
An NFL draft prospect from Monson is among those touched by the tragedy, but grateful for their lives.
His voice flat with shock, Hokies star fullback Jesse Allen, 23, recalled yesterday how after he and his girlfriend, Kelly Brown, spent the morning together, she went to campus for a 10 a.m. class. She was unaware two people had already been killed at the dorm, and 30 others were being massacred right where she was headed: Norris Hall.
“The cops rushed her into a room and locked it down with a bunch of other kids,” the Pathfinder Regional High graduate said. “If she had been early to class, who knows what would have happened.”
John Marsh, 19, a sophomore from Reading, watched in horror as rifle-toting SWAT team members rushed toward Norris Hall. Marsh saw one of the injured clutching his arm as he was driven away by police.
“I was shocked and thought, ‘I’m just going to get away from here,’ ” Marsh said.
Brockton native and former Boston College baseball coach Pete Hughes, who now coaches at Virginia Tech, returned home with his team from a game at Florida State University about 3 a.m. yesterday. Hughes was rousted from bed by the news and immediately began scrambling to track down his players.
One was “bunkered down” in the basement of Norris Hall and managed to escape, while three others fled West AJ.
Freshman Jonathan Ryding of Barre said he heard “faint” gunshots coming from Norris Hall, an engineering building, as he crossed campus.
“I saw a bunch of people just running out every few minutes when police were able to get them,” he said. “Everyone is just shocked that this kind of thing occurred.”
 
I think there's a real issue in this country and in the world at large with people who can't deal with and channel anger in appropriate ways. We want to think it is always some sort of mental illness or bizarre anomaly, perhaps because we don't want to face the alternate, and ultimately far more frightening, reality. It's all around you in everyday interactions-road rage, internet behavior, the person who loses control while waiting in line. Who is to say that those very people aren't capable of such extremes? Do people have to be mentally ill to do something like this? I don't think so.
 
Even this morning it still seems completely unbelievable that this has happened. As for the 2nd Amendment talk I believe there is a time and place for that. Personally I think it's a bit too soon for remarks about upholding it being thrown out there. Geez give everyone time to accept and grieve over the shock that they have been dealt.

Mia,Laura,and everyone else that has been affected you still remain in my :pray: and thoughts :hug: Stay strong and remember that you are being thought of.
 
BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The gunman who opened fire in Virginia Tech's Norris Hall, killing 30 people before turning the gun on himself, was "one of our students," university President Charles Steger said Tuesday.

The shooter was an Asian male who lived in a Virginia Tech dormitory, the president said, declining to provide further details.

Steger added that he was still uncertain whether the gunman at Norris was the one who fatally shot two people in a dorm two hours earlier.

However, the president said he didn't think a second gunman was on the loose.

As of early Tuesday, the identities of three other victims had been released:

G.V. Loganathan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering

Liviu Librescu, a professor of engineering science and mechanics

Ross Alameddine, a student from Saugus, Massachusetts.
 
This is just such terrible, awful news :sad:

I was so shocked to hear about this this morning on the news .. I know that it sounds strange, but one of my first thoughts, even though I don't know alot of people here properly, was that I hoped so much that any of my fellow Interference-ers were not involved or personally affected by this.

I'm so sorry :(
 
U2democrat said:
:sigh:

It sounds like my friend is in stable condition, and that she'll pull through this.

My prayers go out to those who aren't as lucky.

:hug:

I'm so sorry for you and Mia and for anyone else here who has been affected. My heart goes out to all of you.
 
Va. Tech president: Gunman was student

By ADAM GELLER
AP National Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- A Virginia Tech senior from South Korea was behind the massacre of at least 30 people locked inside a campus building in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, the university said Tuesday.

Ballistics tests also show that one of the guns inside that building was used in another shooting two hours earlier, at a dorm, Virginia State Police said.

Police identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department at Virginia Tech and lived on campus.

"It's certainly reasonable to assume that Cho was the shooter in both cases," but authorities haven't made the link for sure, said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police.

A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been announced, said Cho was carrying a backpack that contained receipts for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol.

© 2007 The Associated Press.
 
U2democrat said:
:sigh:

It sounds like my friend is in stable condition, and that she'll pull through this.

That's good news. That has to be a major relief for her family and all her friends (which obviously includes you).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom