Local Student At Tech Says Information is Sparse

WSLS NewsChannel 10
Published: April 16, 2007

Virginia Tech freshman Lisa MacPherson, a graduate of Jefferson Forest High School, lives in West Ambler Johnston Hall, where the first shooting reportedly occured.

She went to her first class shortly before 9 a.m. with her resident assistant. After class let out at 10 a.m., no students were allowed to leave the class building and she hasn't returned to the dorm.

If students attempt to leave the buildings, police turn them back, she said around 11 a.m.

"I've seen ambulances and police cars drive by, driving around the drill field," she said from a cell phone while sitting in a classroom. "There's a lot of movement right now. Some sherriffs are sitting right outside our building."

The second shootings happened in Norris Hall, an academic building just a few buildings away from where MacPherson was in class.

MacPherson said she has heard conflicting information, but she said the fourth floor of her dorm, Ambler Johnston Hall, was evacuated.

She said information is sparce, but many students are on the phone with parents who are relaying information from CNN or other television news sources.