By Katherine Ramsland
Video Footage:
Sequence of Events
VA Tech buildings on campus
Police respond on campus
Volunteer Medical Responders
Press Conference 4-17-2007
April 18, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. (Crime Library) — He seemed like a clean-cut college kid to the gun shop owner who sold him the Glock 9-mm, with ammunition. There was no reason to suspect that Cho Seung-Hui, 23, had a plan that involved filing off the serial number and using this gun to kill a lot of the students with whom he attended classes at Virginia Tech.
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| Cho Seung-Hui (Virginia State Police) |
But some of Cho's classmates would have sweated had they known he had a lethal weapon. Those in his English class had read his anger-laden plays, filled with vulgarity and scorn for authority figures - not to mention chainsaws. They had considered him "troubled," as did some of his teachers, and when these students heard about the shooting, some of them even thought first of Cho as the perpetrator. From what they'd seen of him, he seemed to fit the profile of a mass murderer.
Cho had even been sent for counseling in light of the violent imagery that emerged in his creative writing projects. But sometimes it's too late for intervention, or the type of counseling offered fails to break the surface. Perhaps he resisted any help offered. The chair of the English department, who took the boy aside to teach him poetry one on one (because the other students were disturbed about having him in class with them), repeatedly tried to get him help and said that in her twenty-two years of teaching, he was the most troubled student she had ever encountered. Thus, he did stand out and the warning signs were evident, even to people who barely knew him.
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| Virginia Tech logo |
Clearly, Cho was angry. He was also unfriendly, often not even acknowledging when someone greeted him. Several students called him "gloomy" and a "downer," or "always in a funk." It's likely he was in pain from his persistent isolation and one of his notes seemed to blame others for his difficulties. Some say it was a girlfriend who set off his rampage, while others hint at stalking, as if he only imagined a relationship. Given his unresponsiveness, how did he get a girlfriend, anyway? In any event, he could have believed they were involved, because reality or delusion, the end result is usually the same: a stalker or boyfriend who perceives an injustice done will still seek to punish. Cho's actual connection to the murdered female student in the dorm has yet to be revealed.
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| Cho Seung-Hui |
The glimpses that journalists have gained of this senior English major, who was about to graduate, indicate that he carried grudges, had a list of grievances, and blamed others for his problems. He'd also allegedly been on medication for depression and had behaved erratically in recent weeks — even setting fire to his dorm room and speeding through campus. While no mention has yet been made of his grades, a look at his transcripts might provide a timeline for his troubles. Perhaps it will even indicate with whom he had grudges.
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| Virginia Tech |
According to early reports, Cho's shooting spree was methodical and based in preparation. He'd waited the thirty-day period for the gun and he'd brought the chains with him to secure the doors of Norris Hall. He seemed to target a specific building, as if he'd thought it through. He'd also trained himself in how to use the expensive weapons he possessed. He even seemed to know a few things about how the school might respond to an emergency, perhaps having tested it with earlier bomb threats.
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VA Tech Massacre Full Coverage & Breaking News
Video Footage:
Sequence of Events
VA Tech buildings on campus
Police respond on campus
Volunteer Medical Responders
Press Conference 4-17-2007
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