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A lovers' tiff in the dormitory...
then the university killer began his rampage
DAVID WILLIAMS
UK
Daily Mail
Tuesday April 17, 2007
Terrified students lined up against the wall of their classroom
and shot, execution-style.
Doors chained shut by the killer to keep his victims in and police
out. Blood-soaked bodies piled on top of each other.
These were the scenes of almost inconceivable horror at Virginia
Tech University yesterday as a gunman claimed at least 32 lives
before killing himself.
He was said to have quarrelled in a dormitory with his girlfriend,
whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser
was called to sort out the row. But the killer produced a gun and
shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser.
Two hours later he rampaged through an engineering building on
the other side of the campus in the town of Blacksburg, killing
indiscriminately.
Student Matt Maroney said: "He had an ungodly amount of ammo
on him. He was just dressed in a vest filled with clips and started
firing away at classrooms."
Another witness said of the killer: "He had a smile on his
face but there was no emotion in his eyes."
Last night, with 15 more victims injured and the death toll expected
to rise further, police and university authorities faced stark questions
about their failure to act during the crucial two hours and prevent
America's worst-ever massacre.
Some students continued their work unaware there was a killer in their
midst, while university authorities merely sent round an email saying
that a shooting was being investigated.
The gunman was said to be of Asian appearance and dressed in maroon
hat, leather jacket and black-military style shooting vest.
He had ammunition strapped across his chest as he calmly walked
from room to room refilling his two 9mm handguns as he shot students.
He locked the doors of several classrooms to stop anyone escaping.
Some terrified students jumped for their lives from fourthfloor
windows, while others used desks to barricade doors.
Student David Jenkins said: "I know one person who was in a room
when the shooter came in and everyone was shot. To escape this person
lay on the floor and played dead." Several teachers were among
those shot. Student Derek O'Dell, who was hit in the arm, spoke
of his terror as he faced the killer.
"He came into our room and started shooting," he said.
"He let off a full round of bullets and I was probably one
of ten or 15 people hit. There was no warning. It was just random
shooting. He didn't say anything. He just shot and left. A lot of
my classmates were hit, and possibly my professor too.
"The people who were less critical like myself were able to
hold the door shut because he tried to get back inside our room.
He tried shooting through the door at us.
"Then the police came into our hall and cleared the hall and
we all managed to get out to where ambulances were waiting for us."
Virginia Tech president Charles Steger said: "The university
was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions
... the university is shocked and indeed horrified."
He said authorities at first believed that the first shooting at
the dorm was a domestic dispute and that the gunman had fled the
campus.
He added: "We can only make decisions based on the information
you had on the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it."
The sprawling 2,600-acre campus of 25,000 students housed in 100
buildings had been closed down twice in the last ten days after
bomb scares.
It was unclear whether the bomb threats were related or whether
the gunman had any possible terror associations.
The first shootings yesterday took place at 7.15am (12.15pm British
time) at the West Ambler Johnston complex, a coeducational hall
of residence which houses 895 students.
Security there is said to have been tight with individual identity
passes used to enter the dormitory complex.
An immediate lockdown was ordered with students told to remain
in their rooms and away from windows as police and security officials
swamped the area.
As some students fled the scene, they were tackled to the ground
and handcuffed by police seeking to stop the killer fleeing in the
chaos.
However other students around the campus were allowed to leave
for their 8am classes.
Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dormitory
when authorities got word of gunfire at Norris Hall, the engineering
building.
The gunman appeared to pick his victims indiscriminately. Some,
for no apparent reason, he spared. Others he shot from less than
10ft away.
He is then said to have turned one of his guns on himself despite
still having ammunition available.
Student Jason Piatt said: "I'm pretty outraged that someone
died in a shooting in a dorm at 7am and the first email about it
had no mention of locking down the campus, no mention of cancelling
classes.
"They just mentioned that they were investigating a shooting.
That's pretty ridiculous. Meanwhile, while they sent out that email,
all these people got killed."
Student Matt Maloney told how terrified students used desks to
barricade themselves in their classrooms as the gunman walked down
the main corridor blasting off shots.
He said he saw several badly wounded students being led away while
others had been injured leaping for their lives from upstairs windows.
Josh Wargo was one of those who jumped. He said: "I was in
an engineering class. We all of a sudden heard loud banging noises.
We heard screaming through the walls and everyone started to panic
and jumping out of the windows.
"We heard 40 or 50 shots. They went on for almost two minutes.
The window I jumped out of was two or three storeys up. When I landed
I was in a daze, standing outside of the building. Some of my friends
got shot. They told me my professor was shot in the face."
Tiffany Otey, who was one floor up in the Norris Building, said
that when the gunfire started she and about 20 other students went
to a teacher's office and locked the door.
"The gunshots were going off downstairs and half of our classmates
were downstairs," said Miss Otey.
"We were just sitting there as if the shooter was going to
come up the next floor.
"Maybe ten minutes later we were in the room when police arrived.
They told us to put our hands above our heads and if we did not
put our hands above our heads we will shoot you. We were running
out of the building freaking out."
The shooting will re-open the often heated debate over gun controls
in the U.S., whose Constitution declares that the people's right
to bear arms must not be infringed.
A sombre President Bush went on TV last night to say: "Schools
should be places of safety, sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary
is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom, in
every American community.
"We hold the victims in our hearts. We lift them up in our
prayers."
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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