Breaking- Gunman kills 21 32 and wounds 21 28 more at Virginia Tech (UPDATED)
Posted by Lance on 16 Apr 2007 at 6:15 pm | Tagged as: Lance's Page, Uncategorized
Editor & Publisher reports that a bomb threat was made earlier this month at Va. Tech, although there has not been any connection made between that and today’s tragedy:
It’s not yet known if there is any connection, but the media carried reports at the beginning of this month, and again last Friday, of bomb threats on the campus of Virginia Tech where at least 29 students were shot and killed earlier today.
Police are now investigating a link, in any case.
The most recent reports came last Friday, when the school closed Torgersen, Durham, and Whittemore Halls because of a bomb threat and canceled classes. A handwritten note was found that day the university said there have been a connection between the bomb threats.
***BUMPED TO TOP***
Roanoke Times has continuous updates and eye witness accounts.
MORE: HotAir has running updates including this from a Va. Tech student:
Just got this from a reader who says it was posted on his VTech frat listserv. Grain of salt:
Zach just got back and he told us his story. he can tell u the details better but he deserves to be recognized immediately. He was in norris hall and heard the gunshots comign from down the hall. while others hid in the class room zach got up and got a few others to help him baracade the door with desks. He could hear the gunman coming down the hall opening doors n firing into class rooms. Zach then saw his door handle turn and the gun man tried to get in but zach slammed the door back shut, others then got up to help, trying to hold the door shut with desks. zach then said he heard the the gunman reload a new magazine and fired two shots directly through the door, luckily didnt hit anybody. the gunman then gave up an continued down the hall
THIS IS AWFUL: “At least 20 people were killed this morning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University after a shooting spree at two buildings on the campus.” Nobody seems to know much yet on what happened. These things do seem to take place in locations where it’s not legal for people with carry permits to carry guns, though, and I believe that’s the case where the Virginia Tech campus is concerned. I certainly wish that someone had been in a position to shoot this guy at the outset.
UPDATE: More here and here. And some background here. And reader John Lucas, who works with a Virginia law firm, emails that Va. Tech is a “gun-free zone.” Well, for those who follow the law. There was an effort to change that but it failed: “A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly.” That’s unfortunate.
I think Insty meant it is unfortunate the bill didn’t pass, not that no shots were fired. One shouldn’t have to say that, but certain people have a tendency to read things in the most tendentious manner possible.
OTHERS BLOGGING: Sista Toldja, Hog On Ice (re “gun free campus” issue), Wesley Fryer (”What we should NOT do, in response to this incident, is live our lives each day in FEAR.”)
MORE BLOGGING: Deborah at My Little Corner of the World, Sweetness & Light, Meryl Yourish, Ankle Biting Pundits, Strata-Sphere
A whole bunch more at Pajamas.
At Captains Quarters we see this:
The White House presser has started, and of course the first questions are about gun control. Reporters want to know whether gun control would have prevented this. It didn’t prevent a sniper from targeting people in Washington DC a couple of years ago, though.
As we know the press has no preconceived notions, so we should be safe to assume the press asked whether gun control was part of the problem, right?
YET MORE: Michelle Malkin is rounding up reactions and harkens back to the Appalachian Law School shootings from a few years ago (ALS is located about 60 miles west of Va Tech). That was the first thing I thought of as well since, in that case, the gunman was stopped before he could get very far by armed students.
STUDENTS WEREN’T WARNED?: From Curt at Flopping Aces:
UPDATE V
Communication from college? I checked my e-mail about 8:30…I went to my class as I usually would. By 8:30 no one was notified that something had happened at 7. We went onto a dangerous campus not knowing…
It’s so hard because I know that those police officers are putting their lives on the line and it’s so chaotic…There needs to be a better system…
Whoa boy.
Q&O HAS MORE on lack of warnings:
Note the time differences. How is that left to happen as it did? We’re talking about 2.5 hours. Gunfire had been reported at 7:15 and by 9:45 when the second set of shots are heard the campus isn’t locked down? Classes are going on like nothing happened? Am I missing something here?
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.
On the Web site, Tech reported the shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and said there were “multiple victims” at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
All entrances to the campus were closed and classes canceled through Tuesday.
“There’s just a lot of commotion. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s going on,” said student Jason Anthony Smith, 19, who lives in the dorm where shooting took place.
Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode’s resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.
“They had us under lockdown,” Kanode said. “They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again.”
“We’re all locked in our dorms surfing the Internet trying to figure out what’s going on,” Kanode said.
Madison Van Duyne, a student who was interviewed by telephone on CNN, said, “We are all in lockdown. Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible.”
It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.
In August 2006, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff’s deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.
The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.
3 Responses to “Breaking- Gunman kills 21 32 and wounds 21 28 more at Virginia Tech (UPDATED)”
Trackback URI | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed
[…] Archives « Breaking- Gunman kills 21 32 and wounds 21 28 more at Virginia Tech (UPDATED) […]
Massacre In Virginia…
I’m sure most of you have heard about the shooting today in Virginia, some excellent blogging done already by scores of bloggers (see below). Extremely sad news, and something in which we (meaning law enforcement) train for quite routinely. …
The totals in this shooting are particularly high. I think this is the worst shooting in the US; the first to go into the 30s (assuming we don’t go into our Western history; but in that case we would be talking about actual warfare).
In Israel at a Mosqe an IDF reservist killed ~40 people. And I think the Aussi Port Arthor shooting and perhaps a Canadian shooting exceeded any in the US before this.