My friend from Va Tech, a staff member, just called me this morning. She said her office was right by where the killer was shooting and where the video from somebody's camera phone was filmed. She said there was a huge disconnect getting the info out by the school to its staff and students. The school was supposed to be open today until somebody cursed out the Va Tech president in front of a bunch of people. She has heard from all but one of her students, who was seen by another co-worker on a stretcher. She's petrified that this person was killed. This person was very close to graduating and had a great job lined up with NASA.

Thanks for the update Goombah. When you say the school was to be open today do you mean they would have had classes? That's utterly ridiculous. Half the campus should still be a crime scene.

Your friend must be a nervous wreck. I don't know what their policy is, but maybe she needs to take some days off and heal herself, if not physically then mentally.

Thanks, Sicilian Babe, that's all I meant. It's a bitch, too, that such a seasonal time of new life is now associated with so many tragedies in the US. My daughter's birthday is Sept. 10, btw.

So many are Monday-morning quarterbacking now about the time thing between the shootings. I think we should all reserve judgment until everything's a little better sorted, imho.

I would think there shouldn't be classes for the rest of the week. Sure, it's important to get on with your lives, but this tragedy still has consequences that have to unfold.

I think classes would have been cancelled, but employees would have still been expected to report. You're right - that is ridiculous. She said Va Tech never closes, regardless of weather, situation, etc. The students AND employees need the time to properly grieve and receive counseling if they choose.

The worst part, according to my friend, is if the killings were done by two separate people. That would mean that two people were murdered at 7:15 a.m., which would have been horrific enough. But then, on the same campus, the massacre occured by another person - POSSIBLY. She said that is the thought that she just cannot shake.

Yes. There are a ton of questions that have to be asked, most of which start with "why." These things are usually impossible to predict, and probably impossible to prevent altogether in light of the openness of the college campus. However, there are measures that can minimize the effects of a madman. Colleges will now accept as part of their mission comprehensive plans to provide security for such assaults. You can't protect enough what you love.

Have they identified the attacker yet?

That's how I felt yesterday. From what I've read and seen so far, if it is eventually found that someone dropped the ball, I would say that it was the police and not the school or the president. So far it seems that the school acted on information given to them by the police and that is why they did not lock down the school right away or send out any e-mails right away. So far it looks as though the police initially treated the early morning shooting as an isolated incident. Someone in law enforcement assumed that the gunman had fled the campus. Obviously a very bad assumption. Of course if God forbid it was my child or relative that was murdered or maimed, I would also be demanding answers as to why it took so long for the school to inform the others on campus or take the proper steps to secure the campus.

Just a horrible tragedy all around.

I don't think they've given his name yet, but in a link I posted above they listed him as a student.

EDIT: Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior from South Korea, named as shooter in Virginia Tech massacre.

"He is Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old resident alien of the United States, as first reported by ABC News.

Cho is a South Korean national, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in English and the man who killed 33 people — inlcuding himself — on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.

Sources tell ABC News that Cho killed two people in a dorm room, returned to his own dorm room where he re-armed and left a "disturbing note" before entering a classroom building on the other side of campus to continue his rampage.

Cho's identity has been confirmed with a positive fingerprint match on the guns used in the rampage and with immigration materials.

"Lab results confirm that one of the two weapons seized in Norris Hall was used in both shootings," Virigina Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said at a press conference Tuesday morning."

Per the Drudge Report & ABC News.

I'm wondering if my school was shut down today as a combination of the rain AND this incident. I think every school needs to be on the look out for copycats right now.

I wanted to comment on the school closing though. When I was in middle school someone in the school was killed (I don't really remember) but they shut the school down for 2 weeks, to give everyone time to grieve. Which to me would be the same time that the school would be shut down in West Virginia to let kids try and get a hold of what just happened. The problem with that though, is that its close to the end of the semester, and shutting school down for 2 weeks will force people to graduate 2 weeks later. So when you have 10's of thousands of students graduating in your field on May 5th, and you aren't able to get out interviewing with that diploma until May 19th, you are at a distinct disadvantage.

So as much as society might say to the President of the School, shut it down for a week or 2, I guarantee you there are 1000s of seniors protesting the school being shut down (those who were or weren't effected by it).

I know everyone will have different opinions about it, but I'm just saying its not as cut and dry about closing the college as it would be for a middle or high school.

I think you're right, DMC. There are definitely different ways to view it, but I'm sure the school is looking at the "let's-go-on-with-life" part of it, which is certainly understandable. And it might be best to let the school allow students to graduate and take a much needed LONG break. I think school officials or someone, however, should be willing to try and follow up with as many of those students as humanly possible to make sure they're getting counseling following the graduation. Yeah, I know they can't do that with all 26,000 students, but perhaps they should at least attempt it with those closest to the shootings and those whom they know are having a hard time coping.

One of the things bothering me from the media's coverage is the "why didn't VT go into 'lockdown' mode" after the first shooting? I don't know how Va Tech's buildings are designed, but not many of the university buildings where I work have gates that come down and lock people in. And we have a good combination of building built in the 70s and brand new buildings. I'm not sure how many colleges/universities have these gates. Sure most high schools do, but it's a much different environment on a campus.

The other thing bothering me was an absolutely assanine question asked by a reporter to the Va Tech president yesterday. Some fool had the nerve to ask "what are you going to do to prevent that this can never happen again?" Who asked this question - an intern? Are you kidding me? What adequate response could the VT president possibly give that would not be roundly attacked? I wish the president would have said "the same guarantee you can give, moron: none. But we're going to put as many measures in place to improve our response time, etc. in case anything like this incident were to occur in the future."

Goombah, none of the buildings at my college have that. The only thing lockdown mode would be for us would be to close to the doors, no, we couldn't even lock them, only maintenance has the keys for that.

I agree Goombah. It's not like it happened in an office building in New York or Chicago, it happened in a sleepy little town in Virginia. Bo Dietl, who I normally enjoy, if not like, was on WFAN this morning and he couldn't have been more wrong. He was going on and on about having the technology and manpower to avoid such a scenario. How ALL colleges and universities should use it. Real nice time to be promoting his security firm. What a jerkoff.

Here's the gunman's photo.

New York Mets baseball player David Wright's brother is an engineering major at Virginia Tech.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/04172007/new...s_mark_hale.htm

The Heroes of this tragedy...

One of the professors killed after barricading the door to save his students was also a holocaust survivor. For some reason this makes me intensely sad...can't describe why though: I Don't Think My Teacher Got Out

These school tragedies seem to mostly occur near the end of the school year. At the Case Western University shooting, it was May 2003. At the Kent State shooting, it was May 5, 1970. Columbine was April 20, 1999 and now Va Tech in mid-April. Throw in the atrocities from Oklahoma City and Waco and it is one messed up time on the calendar.

There have been other tragic high school/grade school shootings since the 1980's that have happened in April/May/June timeframe as well. I guess the pressures of the school year builds to a boil with these wackos who commit the aforementioned crimes.

I heard his story yesterday. There's some kind of irony in surviving Nazi concentration camps and then coming to a "land flowing with milk & honey" to live out your years, and then dying in a stupid act of violence...on same the day people are remembering the Holocaust, no less. Truly sad, and a sad commentary on our society.

Our Chancellor at Berkeley sent everyone an email to "comfort us" about the tragedy -- but we aren't really prepared either. Our buildings are old and historic.. Only the newer buildings of wealthy (computer science) departments have lockdown capabilities. We do have a large intercom they test every month (the speaker next to my office...I hear it too loudly).

I read that the gunman was hard to identify because his face was blown apart.

Yeech. Why can't I stop reading about this?

I seen on Fox news and MSNBC that some campus in Austin Texas was closed due to that they found a threatening note today.

Yes Mig, I saw that too. Unfortunately these things seem to bring all the copycats and wackos out of the woodwork.

Here is an E.R. doctor's perspective.

ER doctor: never seen 'anything like this before'
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BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- It was more like a scene from an episode of "ER" than one from a real-life hospital in a small college town. "Nobody had ever seen anything like this before," CEO for Montgomery Regional Hospital Scott Hill said. "You can never adequately prepare for this level of violence."

On a day where too many died on the scene, many more were taken, injured and bleeding to the hospital. It was a process hindered by the weather. High winds prevented the use of helicopters to move patients, Hill said.

Dr. Joseph Cacioppo, an emergency room doctor at Montgomery, indicated he was stunned when victims began pouring in. "The injuries were just amazing. This man was brutal. There wasn't a shooting victim that didn't have less than three bullet wounds in him," Cacioppo said of the victims he saw.

Not all of the injuries were life threatening. "Even, again, the less serious injuries, we saw one patient that had a bullet wound to the wrist, one to the elbow and one to the thigh. We had another one with a bullet wound to the abdomen, one to the chest and one to the head," Cacioppo said.

Seventeen of the wounded remained hospitalized Tuesday, and at least one of those patients was to be released Tuesday, Hill said. All of the nine patients at Montgomery, including three who had been critical, were now in stable condition, he said.

Montgomery in Blacksburg received a total of 19 patients, Hill said.

In addition, three patients remained at Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, two remained in critical condition at Roanoke Memorial Hospital and three were in stable condition at New River Valley Medical Center in Blacksburg, hospital officials said.

Seven patients had been released from hospitals by Tuesday, Hill said.

Yes, speaking of wackos, the Westboro Baptist Church will picket Virginia Tech Funerals.

Sick Fucks.

The words "picket" and "funeral" should never be in the same sentence.

Baptist CHURCH??? I hardly think so. God does not damm the dead like that. These places really give God fearing, loving churches a bad name.

This goes beyond free speech. These actions and displays constitute harassment and/or disorderly conduct in the funeral setting.

Those so-called "Baptists" are going to be surprised when they wake up at the "wrong" address after death. They really make me sick. Can't say I'd shed a single tear if someone shot THEM...But even then, I would not picket THEIR funeral...Although if anyone deserved a tactless and tasteless display of celebration going on at a funeral, it'd be them.

Now they're reporting there was some "concern" about the shooter and they he had written disturbing things. Why doesn't anyone ever take these warning signs seriously?

http://www.comcast.net/news/national/ind..._vatechshooting