33 Dead in Blacksburg Shootings

Up to the Minute Blog

BLACKSBURG--Officials today expect to begin releasing the names of the 33 people killed and 15 wounded yesterday in two events two hours apart at Virginia Tech. It was the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.

The events brought back memories of a deadly shooting near campus in August of a sheriff's deputy and a security guard.

Most of the students and faculty members killed yesterday were in Norris Hall, a building used mainly for engineering classes and laboratories. The killer had chained shut an undetermined number of doors, forcing some students to leap from second-story windows to escape.

Students first called for help at 7:15 a.m. from West Ambler Johnston Hall, when a man angrily trying to track down his girlfriend killed a male resident adviser and a female student.

It was nearly two hours before school officials notified the campus about yesterday's dorm shooting.

Tim Tracy, 21, of Warrenton, said he was in his fifth-floor dorm room when he heard shots on the fourth floor. "I thought it could have been doors slamming, but it seemed like shots. It was close."

More than two hours later, at 9:40 a.m., gunfire erupted inside Norris Hall, a half mile across the 2,600-acre campus from the first shootings.

"We heard screams from the room next door," recounted Joshua Wargo, 21, of Fairfax, who was in Norris Hall. The gunman, described by an eyewitness in the Collegiate Times student newspaper as Asian, apparently entered the building, chained and padlocked the doors behind him and began shooting. "Some people opened our door and heard gunshots down the hallway. Then a guy jumped out a window, and I jumped out, then everybody jumped out," Wargo said.

He said his professor, whom he would not name, was shot and killed. Two of his classmates also were shot. He said he does not know if they survived.

Authorities would not say how many students, faculty or staff were among the dead. Virginia Tech police said the gunman, who has not been publicly identified, then killed himself.

Campus police, who arrived at the scene amid snow flurries and howling winds, said they are working to eliminate any doubt that the gunman in Norris Hall was the same gunman in the West Ambler Johnston dormitory. They have identified a "person of interest" who knew one of the dormitory victims.

Witnesses at the dormitory also gave investigators a description that did not match that of the gunman in Norris Hall. Police said ballistics tests will eventually confirm whether the same weapon was used in both killings.

As the scope of the slaughter became known, some students criticized authorities for not locking down the campus after the first shooting. Students did not receive an e-mail alert about the first shooting, at West Ambler Johnston Hall, until shortly before 9:30 a.m., about 10 minutes before the shooting began at Norris Hall.

Some students questioned why Tech didn't act more decisively yesterday, given that the campus was locked down on the first day of classes in August when police chased a suspect in the slayings of a hospital employee and a Christiansburg police officer nearby.

Tech officials insisted they acted as quickly as they could to confirm information.

Tech President Charles W. Steger and Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said they had no reason to believe the assailant was still on campus. "We thought the shooter had left the campus, or the state," Flinchum said.

Virginia Tech has received two bomb threats in the past two weeks. Flinchum said investigators are looking into whether yesterday's shootings are linked to the threats.

Steger added that it took authorities time to determine the facts and decide what action should be taken.

"I am at a loss for words to explain or understand the carnage that visited our campus," Steger said at news conference yesterday afternoon. "People from around the world have expressed their shock and sorrow and endless sadness [at what] has transpired today."

The campus of 26,000 was quiet as students, heeding the advice of authorities who canceled classes, stayed in their dorm rooms or gathered with friends in off-campus apartments. "It's never been so dead, so quiet," said Mary Hardbarger, a junior from Bath County. "It was horrible [earlier]. I woke up to sirens. I never ever ever thought anything like this would happen."

Jesse Paul, 20, of Warrenton said a friend who lives in the dorm told him she heard an argument, then shots, then saw a man run past along a hallway.

Business professor Bernard Taylor said he learned of the dormitory shooting when he went to his office. "I was kind of surprised there was no lockdown."

Joshua Ehlers, a freshman from Charlottesville, said he was walking near Norris Hall when he heard two shots. "It was echoing, cops were everywhere, people started running out of buildings," he said.

Daniel Schall, 19, of Woodbridge said he was walking in front of Norris Hall at 9:40 a.m. when he heard the shooting. "I heard the gunshots, probably about 15," he said.

Lynn Nystrom, spokeswoman for the engineering department whose office is in Norris Hall, said she tried to flee the building but found an exit chained and padlocked. Tech does not chain its doors, according to authorities. Nystrom said police led her and others out through an unchained basement door.

Campus police were still notifying victims' families and were not releasing their names last night. Authorities said they could not determine whether the killer attended Tech because he carried no identification. They refused to say what kind or how many weapons he carried.

Some of the bodies remained at Norris Hall last night as police continued to pore over the crime scene. The 15 shooting victims -- some injured after leaping out of windows to safety at Norris Hall -- were taken to hospitals in Radford, Blacksburg, Roanoke and Salem. At least four were in critical condition.

"Norris Hall is a tragic and sorrowful crime scene," Steger said at the news conference. "As you can imagine, security, investigation, operational and counseling resources are very taxed at this moment."

High winds yesterday prevented helicopters from carrying the wounded to hospitals. Ambulances were parked around Norris Hall, and dozens of police patrol cars were parked across campus. Police, many armed with shotguns and rifles, guarded entrances to the campus.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who learned of the shooting while on a trade mission in Tokyo, plans to attend a convocation on campus today. Kaine declared a state of emergency on campus to help speed aid to the school.

"It is difficult to comprehend senseless violence on this scale," Kaine said in a statement.

President Bush also might attend today's convocation at 2 p.m. at Cassell Coliseum.

Bush added his condolences yesterday: "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."

"This is one of the worst things I've ever seen," Flinchum, the police chief, said of the awful scene inside Norris Hall. "It has been a very trying day."

"I never felt scared at Virginia Tech before," student Hardbarger said. "I did today. I'm going off campus tonight to get away from this."