33 DEAD IN MASSACRE

President George W. Bush APR 17, 2007

Our nation is shocked and saddened by the news of the shootings at Virginia Tech today. The exact total has not yet been confirmed, but it appears that more than 30 people were killed and many more were wounded.I've spoken with Governor Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech President Charles Steger.

I told them that Laura and I and many across our nation are praying for the victims and their families and all the members of the university community who have been devastated by this terrible tragedy. I told them that my administration would do everything possible to assist with the investigation, and that I pledged that we would stand ready to help local law enforcement and the local community in any way we can during this time of sorrow.

President George W. Bush delivers a statement Monday, April 16, 2007, regarding the shooting deaths of more than 30 Virginia Tech students. Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech, said the President. We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today. White House photo by Eric Draper Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community.Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones at Virginia Tech. We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers, and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today.

BRUTAL SHOOTER MASSACRES 32 PLUS SELF AT BLACKSBURG VIRGINIA.
By Stan L Bowman Jr at 3PM APR 17,07

It was just an ordinary day until 7:15 AM at Virginia Tech when Police were called to the Campus about a shooting were 22 year old Ryan Clark and a Female student were found shot dead.

The Police thought it was a domestic dispute and never had a clue of what was to come two hours later. So they were collecting evidence from the crime scene.

Then at 10 AM as the reports go Cho the gunman went a half mile from the first crime scene to Norris Hall were he chained two doors closed and went on a shooting spree that spanned the stairwell as well as four different class rooms before the worst massacre in the U.S history was complete and then Cho the Gunman committed Suicide in one of the four class rooms.

In the German class at least 21 of the 25 students were unconscious or dead a student from the class reported who escaped death by pretending she was dead. If 21 did die in this class room alone as she said then there was a total of 11 deaths plus the gunman in the 3 rooms as well as in the stairwell.

We now need to PRAY TO GOD for healing and miracles in the lives of these students and teachers and family members. Its only JESUS that can heal the wounds and cleanse the soul now. And just pray that Prayer and the ten commandments get back in schools so we don't see this kind of Massacre ever again.

Father we Pray that you heal all the people affected by Cho, and I pray father you protect Chos family from persecussion because of this incident. We all have free will and Cho choose to do this not his family members. We also pray father that lives will be given to you through this incident and that people will realize that their is a GOD who loves and cares for everyone he created. We pray that forgiveness will be done (which is hard in a situation like this) but for your own sake you must forgive Cho and let the Holy Spirit give you life and power to go on. And we Pray this all to be accomplished in JESUS precious name Amen and Amen.

I will put the names of the People affected as I get them.

Guns confirmed connected to both shootings

9MM GLOCK MODEL 19
WALTHER P22

Gunman 23 year old South Korean Cho Seung-Hui. (SHOT SELF AFTER MASSACRE)

SHOT DEAD BY CHO

PROFESSORS

Jamie Bishop (Instructor in German) - 35
Kevin Granata (Science and Mechanics) - 45
Liviu Librescu (Science and Mechanics) (Israeli) - 76
G.V Loganathan (Civil and Enviromental Engineering) - 51
Jocelyn Couture-Nowak (French Instructor) -

STUDENTS

Ross Alameddine - 20
Brian Bluhm - 25
Ryan Clark - 22
Austin Cloyd -
Daniel Perez Cueva - 21
Matt Gwaltney - 24
Caitlin Hammeran - 19
Jeremy Herbstritt - 27
Rachael Hill - 18 *
Emily Hilscher - 19 (2nd shot in 7:15 AM Shooting)
Jarrett Lane - 22
Matthew LaPorte - 20
Henry Lee - 20
Partahi Lumbantoruan - 34
Lauren McCain - 20
Daniel O'Neil - 22
Juan Ortiz - 26
Minal Panchal - 26
Erin Peterson - 18
Michael Pohle Jr - 23
Julia Pryde - 23
Mary Read - 19
Reema Samaha - 18
Waleed Shaalan - 32
Leslie Sherman -
Maxine Turner - 22
Nicole White - 20


THE LIVES LOST IN THE MASSACRE NOT JUST NAMES

Friends mourn loss of Virginia Tech professor (JAMIE BISHOP)
By DORIE TURNER, Associated Press Writer

LaGRANGE, Ga. (AP) — Christopher Jamie Bishop was gentle and creative, often collaborating with his father, an author, on novels and short stories.Bishop, 35, designed the cover for at least one of the books his father, Michael Bishop, wrote, family friends said.Mourners gathered Tuesday at LaGrange College where the elder Bishop teaches creative writing and is writer-in-residence to remember Jamie Bishop, one of 33 people killed at Virginia Tech on Monday in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.Bishop, who had taught German at Virginia Tech for two years, was in the middle of a class when the gunman entered the classroom and opened fire, killing the instructor.He was a talented artist, said Nina Dulin-Mallory, a co-worker of Michael Bishop. (The Bishops) talked of their children so often — how creative, how bright.

Michael Bishop, an award-winning science fiction writer, and his wife, Jeri, left their home i! n nearby Pine Mountain on Monday when they heard their son might have been injured in the shooting.

While en route, they received a call from their daughter-in-law, Stefanie Hofer, that Bishop had died, said Brenda Thomas, who also works with Michael Bishop.He said their worst fears had been confirmed, said Thomas, who talked with Michael Bishop by telephone shortly after he received the news.The small chapel at the 1,000-student United Methodist college was packed with students, faculty, staff and community members on Tuesday evening. Dozens who could not fit in the chapel sat in chairs outside, listening to the prayers and hymns.

We felt we need to come together in a ritual place as an expression of solidarity with Mike and Jeri, LaGrange College President Stuart Gulley said after the hour-long service.Another memorial service later filled the sanctuary at First United Methodist Church of Pine Mountain but was closed to the media.Joy! Roberson, who grew up with Bishop, described him as a brilliant person. You always knew when we were growing up he would become somebody, she said. I will never forget Jamie.
Bishop was described in news reports as a gentle, outgoing person who rode his bicycle to campus.

He wore his hair long and loved the Atlanta Braves, friends said.He received both his bachelor's and master's from the University of Georgia.

Another Georgian, Ryan Stack Clark of Martinez also was killed in the rampage. The 22-year-old was a resident adviser on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston dormitory, where the shooting spree began at 7:15 a.m. Monday, Clark's brother, Bryan Clark, told the Augusta Chronicle. A memorial service is planned in his honor for Saturday at Lakeside High School, which he had attended.Bryan Clark said his brother would have graduated in May with a triple major in psychology, biology and English. He was in his fifth year in the Marching Virginians band at Virginia Tech.

Kevin Granata: Professor’s reputation in department was growing

Kevin Granata Status: Professor, department of engineering science and mechanics Residence: Blacksburg Family: A wife, two sons and a daughter.Their Norris Hall offices were three doors apart, so after joining Virginia Tech’s faculty in 2003, Kevin Granata and Demetri Telionis became friends.

The fellow engineering professor visited Granata’s house, knew his wife and met his children.They often talked about sports or politics or the business of the department.But as Monday morning stretched into a long, wordless and worry-filled afternoon, Granata, a father of three and a rising star in Virginia Tech’s engineering school, still was missing.

Granata was teaching in Norris Hall when the massacre began inside the building. After the shooting, staffers from the engineering department began driving from hospital to hospital, said Ali Nayfeh, a distinguished professor in the engineering school. They were trying to account for everyone.Granata was not in any of the hospitals. No one received a phone call from the young professor who Telionis guesses was in his 40s. Time passed. Granata’s wife called Telionis’ wife. She was getting worried.

Athletic, confident and good-looking, Granata’s reputation had grown since he moved to Blacksburg from the University of Virginia, Telionis said.Granata and his students worked on human stability and movement dynamics. He sat on committees and supervised graduate students. He would teach almost any course if no one else was willing.He carried that same commitment from his to job to his family.

Telionis tried talking Granata into taking up sailing, but the younger professor was often too busy coaching his kids’ sports teams.When the news was confirmed Monday evening that Granata’s name was on the victims list, many people’s worst fears suddenly came to fruition.I was so much afraid this would be the case, said Telionis, who learned of his friend’s death when Granata’s sister-in-law called his house. He was probably one of the best in the department.— Erinn Hutkin

Canadian professor among Virginia Tech victims
Updated Wed. Apr. 18 2007 8:11 AM ET - CTV.ca News Staff

A Canadian professor, Holocaust survivor, and a renowned biomechanics researcher are among the victims killed Monday in a shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus.Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, a French-language professor from Truro, N.S., has been identified as one of the 32 victims of the worst shooting incident in U.S. history.Her husband, Virginia Tech horticulture professor Jerzy Nowak, confirmed her death in brief interviews with The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press.

Both Couture-Nowak and her husband taught at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College (NSAC) before moving to Virginia Tech where they took teaching posts.He gave us a call to tell us that he and the three NSAC exchange students were fine, and at that time, wasn't aware that his wife had also been shot, Lloyd Mapplebeck, an NSAC professor, told CTV Atlantic.Three NSAC students, two from Nova Scotia and one from Prince Edward Island, are currently studying at Virginia Tech as part of an international academic mobility program. They are confirmed to be safe.In a sign of solidarity and sympathy for its sister institution, Virginia Tech, NSAC lowered its flags Tuesday.

Bernie MacDonald, NSAC's vice-president, described Couture-Novak as a very enthusiastic, vibrant person. She was very kind and warm and loving.Fellow Virginia Tech professor, Craig Brians, says he often had lunch with Nowak as she was friends with his wife. She was a very nice person, he told Canada AM. My wife often described Jocelyn as someone, when she'd walk into a room, just would bring a smile to the room, that even in the darkest of situations, she had something encouraging to say. She would have something uplifting to say. I heard nothing but exemplary comments from her students. When her students would take one of my classes, one of the things we're rated or evaluated on at this university is care and concern about students and she had the highest care and concern for her students.Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed his condolences for the victims at the beginning of question period on Tuesday.We learned that a Canadian is among the victims in Virginia and I can say that the prayers thoughts and condolences of each and every one of us here in the House are with that family, Harper said in French.It's really almost impossible to comprehend why an individual would take his own life and that of so many others in this way, but I think we can all say that our thoughts are with all the victims, their families and the community, he said.

Other victims

The names of all the victims will be released only after all the victims have been identified and families have been contacted, police said Tuesday. However, some have already been identified.

Liviu Librescu, 75, an engineering science and mathematics lecturer who survived the Nazi killings and later escaped from Communist Romania, was one of several victims of the shootings, which coincided with Israel's Holocaust remembrance day.Librescu, who taught at Virginia Tech for 20 years, had an international reputation for his work in aeronautical engineering. Librescu's son, Joe, said his father's students sent emails detailing how the professor saved their lives by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot. My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee, Librescu's son, Joe Librescu, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv.

Students started opening windows and jumping out.

Professor Kevin Granata was also killed, AP reported. Ishwar K. Puri, the head of the engineering science and mechanics department, called Granata one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy.

Indian-born G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was shot and killed by the gunman, his brother G.V. Palanivel told the NDTV news channel. Loganathan won several awards for excellence in teaching, had served on the faculty senate and was an adviser to about 75 undergraduate students.

Ryan Clark, a fifth-year student from Martinex, Ga., who was working toward degrees in biology and English.

Other victims include:

Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., according to his mother, Lynnette Alameddine.

Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, killed in his French class, according to his mother, Betty Cueva, of Peru.

Caitlin Hammaren, 19, of Westtown, N.Y., a sophomore majoring in international studies and French, according to Minisink Valley, N.Y., school officials who spoke with Hammaren's family.

Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa., according to Penn State University, his alma mater and his father's employer.

Emily Jane Hilscher, a 19-year-old freshman from Woodville, according to Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, a family friend.

Matthew J. La Porte, 20, a freshman from Dumont, N.J., according to Dumont Police Chief Brian Venezio.

Jarrett L. Lane, according to Riffe's Funeral Service Inc. in Narrows, Va.

Daniel O'Neil, 22, according to close friend Steve Craveiro and according to Eric Cardenas of Connecticut College, where O'Neil's father, Bill, is director of major gifts.

Juan Ramon Ortiz, a 26-year-old graduate student in engineering from Bayamon, Puerto Rico, according to his wife, Liselle Vega Cortes.

Mary Karen Read, 19, of Annandale, Va. according to her aunt, Karen Kuppinger, of Rochester, N.Y. With a report from CTV Atlantic's Dan McIntosh

Former Centennial student killed during Virginia Tech shootings (AUSTIN CLOYD)
University police work to prevent similar incidents on campus - By Daily Illini Staff report Posted: 4/17/07 Section: News

Austin Cloyd, a former Centennial High School student, was among those killed during the shootings at Virginia Tech, The Associated Press reports.According to The News-Gazette, Cloyd attended Centennial during her freshman, sophomore and junior years before moving to Virginia with her family. She was an international studies major at Virginia Tech.Cloyd played volleyball and basketball at Centennial.She was a very good student, said Centennial High School principal Judy Wiegand.

Her father, Bryan Cloyd, a professor of accounting and information systems at Virginia Tech, taught at the University from 1999 to 2005, The News-Gazette said. Her younger brother Andrew attended Jefferson Middle School.The Cloyds were active members of the First United Methodist Church in Champaign, Ill., the Rev. Terry Harter said.

Harter, whose church held a prayer service for the family Tuesday night, described Cloyd as a very delightful, intelligent (and) warm young lady.Her father said she wanted to work for the United Nations in hopes of fostering peace in a troubled world.According to a story from The Associated Press, Interim Police Chief Krystal Fitzpatrick says she hopes to prevent tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech.Fitzpatrick says the University has tried to take a proactive approach to find and deal with possible problems, The Associated Press reports. She said the police department and the dean of students office meet monthly to discuss issues and develop coordinated responses.Police also meet with the University's Counseling Center once a month to discuss possible threats, the story said.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Making world better was a goal for slain Middletown student (JULIA PRYDE)
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/19/07
BY ALISON HERGET AND KEVIN PENTON KEYPORT BUREAU

MIDDLETOWN — Like many other students at Virginia Tech, Julia Pryde had a lot of classwork to complete in the days leading up to Monday's tragedy.

Through several e-mails, the 23-year-old who grew up in Middletown communicated with Mary Leigh Wolfe, who served as her academic adviser at the university for more than four years.Pryde wrote no broad ruminations on life but detailed how she was preparing for finals.She was very passionate about her schoolwork, but she was also a very well-rounded person, Wolfe said. She wanted to improve the living conditions of poor people.Pryde was killed in Monday's bloodbath on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. A graduate student in the biological systems and engineering department, she was one of 33 killed in the tragedy. Three were from New Jersey.

Wolfe said Pryde aspired to either teach or continue research into improving the environment, particularly for those less privileged.

She was a very open-minded person, Wolfe said. She had a wonderful laugh that would not hold back, just like her.Pryde, a 2001 Middletown High School North graduate, also took to the water and had such a passion for swimming that she took a job as a lifeguard and office assistant in the summer of 1999 at the Middletown Swim and Tennis Club. She was also a member there for some time.Jim Kelly, who was club manager at the time, said Pryde loved what she did.She was hard working, always conscientious and really caring, said Kelly, of Middletown.A tight-knit community to which many members have belonged for decades, the swim club will feel the effects of Pryde's death.It brings you back to 9/11 and all the people (Middletown) lost then, he said. She was a part of the swim club family and we will really miss her.Pryde played soccer for several years for the Middletown Youth Athletic Association. Ben Curci, also Middletown's superintendent of recreation, was her coach for three years.She was versatile, often playing midfield, but could also play goalie when needed to help the team, Curci said.She did whatever she needed to help her teammates, he said.

Scholarship in her name

The school community is already taking steps to remember Pryde. A $500 scholarship in her name will be given this year to a North graduating senior.The sign outside High School North on Wednesday read: Julia Pryde in our hearts and thoughts.A member of the National Honor Society and frequently on the high honor roll, Pryde participated in the high school swim team all four years and was captain of the varsity team as a senior, interim Schools Superintendent Karen L. Bilbao said.
There were many, many Middletown staff members who knew her because their children went to school with her, Bilbao said. There were lots of memories, so this has really hit home for us.Even though Pryde graduated from North almost six years ago, the death has still taken its toll on the school community, she said.When something like that happens, it seems so distant, Bilbao said. Then the pieces start to come together . . . and you find out one of the victims is one of your former students that so many people knew. It's just devastating.Alison Herget: (732) 888-2621 or
aherget@app.com

Names of Victims at Virginia Tech
April 19, 2007 - 12:04pm

By The Associated Press
(AP) - A list of the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech:

_ Brian Roy Bluhm, 25, civil engineering graduate student from Stephens City, Va. He had previously lived in Iowa, Detroit and Louisville, Ky.

_ Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, 24, of Chester, Va., graduate student in civil and environmental engineering, according to his father and stepmother, Greg and Linda Gwaltney.

_ Rachael Hill, 18, of Glen Allen, Va., according to her father, Guy Hill.

_ Henry J. Lee, also known as Henh Ly, 20, first-year student majoring in computer engineering from Roanoke, Va. He had enough advanced-placement credits to be considered a sophomore by Virginia Tech.

_ Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, 34, of Indonesia, civil engineering doctoral student.

_ Lauren Ashley McCain, 20, of Hampton, Va., freshman international studies major.

_ Minal Hiralal Panchal, 26, of Mumbai, India, graduate student in architecture.

_ Erin Peterson, 18, of Chantilly, Va., an international studies major, according to her father, Grafton Peterson.

_ Michael Steven Pohle Jr., 23, of Flemington, N.J., senior majoring in biology.

_ Reema Joseph Samaha, 18, freshman from Centreville, Va.

_ Waleed Mohammed Shaalan, 32, of Zagazig, Egypt, doctoral student in civil engineering.

_ Leslie Sherman, sophomore history and international studies student from Springfield, Va., according to her grandmother Gerry Adams.

_ Maxine Turner, 22, senior majoring in chemical engineering from Vienna, Va., according to her father, Paul Turner.

_ Nicole White, 20, junior majoring in international studies from Smithfield, Va., according to a family statement released by the Suffolk, Va., Police Department.

Authorities ID gunman in Va. Tech rampage
Student’s writings raised red flags before 33 killed; bomb threat found
MSNBC and NBC News APR 17,07

BLACKSBURG, Va. - A 23-year-old senior from South Korea whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school’s counseling service was behind the massacre of 30 people locked inside a university classroom building in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history, the university said Tuesday.Ballistics tests found that one of the guns used in that attack was also used in a shooting two hours earlier at a dormitory that left two people dead at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State Police said. Investigators said in a court filing that they had found a bomb threat note near the gunman’s body.Police identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui (pronounced Choh Suhng-whee), of Centreville, Va., who was a senior in the English Department at Virginia Tech. Cho, a resident alien who immigrated to the United States from South Korea in 1992, lived on campus in Harper Residence Hall.The bloodbath ended with Cho’s suicide, bringing the death toll from two separate shootings — first at the dormitory, then in a classroom building — to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy.

Note listed gunman’s grievances

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university’s English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department’s director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as troubled. There was some concern about him, Rude told The Associated Press. Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it’s creative or if they’re describing things, if they’re imagining things or just how real it might be. But we’re all alert to not ignore things ike this.She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.NBC News Pete Williams reported that police had found a note in which Cho listed random grievances, but few other details were immediately available. That seemed in keeping for a young man who apparently left little impression in the Virginia Tech community.Cho’s fellow residents of Harper Hall said few people knew thegunman, who kept to himself. He can’t have been an outgoing kind of person, Meredith Daly, 19, of Danville, Va., told MSNBC.com’s Bill Dedman.Stephen Scott, a freshman engineering student from Marlton, N.J., said police and FBI agents went through the dorm Monday night showing a picture of Cho and trying to find anybody who recognized or knew him. He did not know whether they were successful.

Very quiet, always by himself

In Centreville, a suburb of Washington where Cho’s family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse, people who knew Cho concurred that he kept to himself.He was very quiet, always by himself, said Abdul Shash, a neighbor. Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would not respond if someone greeted him. He described the family as quiet.Rod Wells, a postal worker, said that characterization of Cho did not fit the man’s parents, who, he described as always polite, always kind to me, very quiet, always smiling. Just sweet, sweet people.I talk to particularly everybody here, Wells told NBC News. So I guess nobody had any intimation that he was like that. I don’t think the parents did, because they were quite the opposite.Cho graduated in 2003 from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., said Jack Dale, superintendent of the Fairfax County schools.I want to express the devastation that we in Fairfax County Public Schools all feel about the news from Blacksburg, Dale said in a statement.This is a time for families and friends to grieve.Dale said the school system had called in psychologists and social workers to work with students and employees who may have been affected by these terrible events.South Korea’s Foreign Ministry expressed its condolences, saying that there was no known motive for the shootings and that South Korea hoped the tragedy would not stir up racial prejudice or confrontation.

Ballistics evidence points to student

Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said it was reasonable to assume that Cho was the shooter in both attacks but that the link was not yet definitive.

There’s no evidence of any accomplice at either event, but we’re exploring the possibility, he said.An affidavit filed Tuesday in Montgomery County circuit court, said police had found a bomb threat note ... directed at engineering school department buildings near the shooter’s body, The Washington Post reported on its Web site.

The affidavit was filed as part of a request for a warrant to search Cho’s room in Harper Hall, it said. The note is connected with the shooting incident, the affidavit said, according to The Post.Police said that there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks but that they had not determined a link to the shootings.Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the information had not been officially announced, said Cho’s fingerprints were found on the two guns used in the shootings.

The serial numbers had been filed off, the officials said. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that Cho was carrying a backpack that contained receipts for the purchase of a Glock 9mm pistol in March. As a permanent legal resident, Cho was eligible to buy a handgun unless he had been convicted of any felony criminal charges.Cho renewed his green card in late 2003 and would have undergone a background check at that time, immigration officials told NBC affiliate WSLS-TV of Roanoke. If a criminal record had shown up then, officials would have denied the renewal, they said.

At least 26 people were taken to hospitals after the second attack, some of them seriously injured. Twelve students remained in hospitals in stable condition Tuesday, and most were expected to be released soon, NBC News’ Michelle Kosinski reported from Montgomery Regional Medical Center. After the shootings, all campus entrances were closed, and classes were canceled for the rest of the week. The university set up a spot for families to reunite with their children.President Bush planned to attend a memorial service Tuesday afternoon, the White House said, and Gov. Timothy Kaine was flying back to Virginia from Tokyo for the 2 p.m. convocation.

He didn’t say a single word

Wielding two handguns and carrying multiple clips of ammunition, Cho opened fire about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, a high-rise coeducational dorm, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building a half-mile away on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus. Some of the doors at Norris Hall were found chained from the inside, apparently by the gunman.Two people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including Cho, who put a bullet in his head.

Students jumped from windows in panic. Trey Perkins, who was sitting in a German class in Norris Hall, told MSNBC-TV on Monday that the gunman barged into the room about 9:50 a.m. and opened fire for about a minute and a half, squeezing off 20 to 30 shots.The gunman first shot the professor in the head and then fired on the students, Perkins said, who added: He didn’t say a single word the whole time.He didn’t say, Get down. He didn’t say anything. He just started shooting, said Perkins, 20, of Yorktown, Va., a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. I got on the ground, and I was just thinking, like, there’s no way I’m going to survive this. All I could keep thinking of was my mom.

Mon, April 16, 2007 - U of C will review security in wake of Virginia massacre UPDATED: 2007-04-16 15:55:46 MST - By BILL KAUFMANN, SUN MEDIA

33 killed in Virginia Tech shootings, including gunman who killed himself

Shaken by the campus massacre in the U.S. today, University of Calgary security officials say they may learn some gruesome lessons on halting such an onslaught. In an eerie prelude to the shootings in Virginia, the U of C and Calgary police on April 4 conducted a table-top exercise in responding to just such an incident, said campus Security Director Lanny Fritz. But he said the Virginia Tech attack will be closely studied and the U of C’s strategy possibly overhauled to ensure the campus is as secure as possible. We’ll go through our emergency response plan page by page, it’ll make us stop and reflect and we’ll see if we can learn anything, said Fritz, a former Calgary police officer. Though the multiple murders occurred thousands of kilometres away, Fritz said it nonetheless hit close to home. We can quickly visualize how tough for them it must be to go through...a shooting on campus has to be the most horrific thing,he said. We just hope it’s a scenario we never have to confront, he said.

Though the Virginia gunman’s rampage apparently lasted hours, Fritz said he’s in no position to comment on that university’s security plan or performance. But he said the Calgary plan is for police to bypass victims and go straight for the source of the violence. Going directly to where the shooter is, that’s the first priority, said Fritz. We are prepared for these certain horrific incidents.Central to their strategy, he said, is evacuating buildings and locking them down while communicating with the entire campus. While many U.S. campus security forces carry firearms, the U of C’s 38 officers are equipped only with handcuffs and there’s no plan or desire to holster guns, said Fritz. For now, campus security will rely on cameras that cover 85% of its real estate at any one time and by regular patrols that are to backed up by city police when necessary. They’ll also continue to rely on information fed to a threat assessment committee that evaluates risks posed by certain individuals, said Fritz. We get at these threats at the early stages, said Fritz, adding psychiatric help is sought for many of the individuals. We may have been able to prevent some horrific things.He said about two or three such threats are assessed to be of a serious nature each year.