2008 Woodie Awards
Gun rampage sends shock waves
Virginia Tech tragedy raises security questions, concerns
Brittany Raine and Courtney Kohloff
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
|
Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA was the location. The devastation extends far beyond the school's borders. 33 people, including the shooter, dead and another 29 injured.
Over 24-hours after the second shootings, the identity of the killer, who went to extreme measures to conceal his identity, was released at a nation-wide Virginia Tech press conference. The silent gunman, who took his own life, was identified as an undergraduate student, named Cho Seung-Hui. Cho, a senior, attended Virginia Tech as a legal resident, originally from South Korea.
The 23-year old lived in Harper Hall and purchased a 9 mm and .22 caliber handguns several days before in nearby gun stores.
The deadliest shooting rampage in American history not only resulted in unexplainable grief, but raised challenging and major concerns regarding safety, security and numerous questions.
What if the university was evacuated? Why were students left in the "dark" for so long?
Why weren't classes cancelled? Did police wait too long to act?
With a roughly two hour window between the first deadly attack at 7:15 a.m. in West Ambler Johnston Hall and the shooting rampage a half mile away at Norris Hall, the site of the science and engineering school, over 26,000 students were on campus.
Many wonder why students remained in classrooms and on campus after the first, isolated shootings, thought to be a "domestic dispute."
"The second shooting, no one predicted that was also going to happen that morning," said Virginia Tech President, Charles Steger, who does not plan to resign. "So if you're talking about locking it down, what is it you're going to lock down? It's like closing a city. It doesn't happen instantaneously."
Reacting in the best means the university knew how, without causing mass hysteria with a possible gunman on the lose, Virginia Tech's decisions based on the amount of information that was available is being both criticized and commended.
No one could predict the massacre at Virginia Tech and no one could predict the devastation that has swept the nation.
In the wake of the mass shooting, students here at Sacred Heart and across the country, and the world, start to wonder, what if?
Be the first to comment on this story