Tuesday, April 17, 2007

VirginiaTech Shooter said "You made me do it."




Massacre gunman's note said: "You made me do this"

On 17 April 2007 it was revealed that college gunman Cho Seung-Hui penned a "disturbing note" before going on a shooting spree which left 32 people dead, police have revealed.
The 23-year-old South Korean student killed his first victim, 18-year-old Emily Hilscher, before he went on the rampage and blasted to death whoever was in range.
It is not yet clear as to why Seung-Hui, described as a loner, killed Emily and then went on to slaughter dozens more people with two handguns.
Police sources said a "disturbing note" left in his room contained a bomb threat and that he probably went back there to re-arm during his deadly spree.
The note is reported to have contained the line "You made me do this".
Reports say the English undergraduate's creative writing was so "troubled" that Seung-Hui had been referred by teachers to the school's counselling service.
Theories under investigation include:
• The killer and Emily Hilscher were an item and it was an argument between them over another student which sparked the slaughter
• Seung-Hui was obsessed with Hilscher and wanted to be with her but she had refused his advances leading him to go on the rampage
• The bitter gunman despised rich students and went on the rampage to kill those with money



Some reports have suggested that Seung-Hui suspected Hilscher of cheating on him with Ryan Clark. Seung-Hui murdered them both, Clark dying with a bullet wound in the neck, according to U.S. media.
Seung-Hui whereabouts are unaccounted for from that moment until roughly two hours later, when massacre began. By the time night fell in Virginia 33 people were dead, including the gunman.
The 23-year-old's body was discovered among those of his victims in a classroom in Norris Hall, where all the dead save Clark and Hilscher were found.
Police have recovered a 9mm handgun and a .22 calibre handgun. Ballistics tests have confirmed one of the two weapons seized was used in both shootings.
The names of 32 victims will be released once identifications on the bodies are complete. A preliminary list has been released by the Associated Press, a link to which can be found above.
Steve Flaherty of Virginia State police said: "We cannot say at this stage that the same shooter was involved in both instances. We are now exploring that evidence and trying to make that trail. It's certainly reasonable for us to assume this but we don't have the evidence."
Victims were found in at least four classrooms as well as a stairwell, he said.
The college has faced fierce critcism from grieving students who demanded to why the campus was not locked down and how Seung-Hui was able to massacre 30 people two hours after the first murders.
However Virginia Secretary of Public Safety John Marshall stated in a press conference: "(The college)made the right decisions based on the information they had available at the time."
Other reports clamed that the gunman who carried out the US campus massacre shot his victims three times. "There were leg, arm, head, face (injuries), the more critical ones actually had head or facial shots," an emergency room doctor said.
Dr Joseph Cacioppo, who treated the wounded, added: "There were chest shots, leg shots, arm shots. He was just shooting to kill."
All the wounded still in hospital are now in stable condition, a hospital spokesman has said. All those 12 wounded have three or more bullet wounds.
Seung-Hui was a student at the university. He had residency status in the U.S. and was residing on campus in Harper Residence Hall. He majored in English.
He was a South Korean citizen who has lived in the United States since 1992, said U.S. immigration spokesman Chris Bentley. He and his family lived in Centreville, Virginia.
South Korea's president reiterated his condolences over the U.S. university shooting after the revelation that the suspect was of South Korean origin.
Hilscher and Clark were neighbours on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory.
On her own personal Myspace web page Emily Hilscher went under the pseudonym Pixie.



On her personal profile, which has not been updated since October 2006, she talks about meeting a new boy.
She wrote: "I am the pixie. my friends are what keep me smiling. i unfortunatly am alone... all alone.. i live love and get booted but eventually that will change. have a wonderful guy who is hopefully going to change all of that... but dont know what is going to happen." It is unclear what boy she was meant, and it was obvious that she did not update her MySpace page often.
Emily and Ryan Clark were shot at 7.15am. U.S. media reported that Clark had been shot in the neck.



The parents of Ryan Clark, who is from the town of Martinez in Georgia, were told their son had died in a telephone call from the coroner in the town of compiling the list of dead from the massacre.
Stan and Letitie Clark were being comforted by friends and family last night at their home as the investigation into the massacre continued.
Ryan Clark, who has a twin brother, was an officer in the college's army reserve unit.
Pals of the Emily and Ryan posted messages of tribute on Internet social-networking site 'Facebook' and other blogs remembering Hilscher her as a vibrant girl with an engaging personality.
"Emily was a kind and wonderful person who always put a smile on my face," wrote pal Jessica Gould.
Ryan Clark - a prefect in the dormitory - was in his fifth year at Virginia Tech and a leader in the school's marching band.
"He was such a friendly person," said friend Sarah Davis, 21, a trombone player in the band.
"When I came in as a freshman, I was scared to death. He was always really friendly. If he didn't know you, he'd introduce himself.
"He was like, 'I want to know everybody."
Columbia County Sheriff's Office in Georgia confirmed that 22-year-old Ryan Clark from Martinez, Georgia, was one of the first shooting victims.
Hilscher, from Rappahannock County, Virginia, was confirmed dead by Rappahannock Country administrator John McCarthy, a friend of the Hilscher family.
"You hear about people in other places mourning the loss of a child of great potential and great hope, and now we're the ones that have to bear that great loss," McCarthy said last night.
"It's a great loss to the county, and a terrible, terrible tragedy to the family," McCarthy said.
"The Hilschers are strong people, and this is a strong community, and they'll have our support. And the best we can hope for is a time of healing."
Police are still investigating the motive behind the attacks and detectives have not ruled out the possibility that there was a second shooter or an accomplice to the gunman.
Two hours after the slayings of Clark and Hilscher in the West Ambler Johnston Hall building at least 31 more victims - including the gunman - were shot dead in the University's Norris Hall building.
Virginia Tech officials are expected to release a list of those killed and wounded later today.
By Monday afternoon information about those who had been killed had already began to filter out.
The list of the dead is known to include at least four staff members working inside the Norris Hill building.
A message on the front page of the school's engineering department website paid tribute to two of the staff.
It read: "In Memoriam. Professor Kevin Granata and Professor Liviu Librescu who died on April 16, 2007 wwhile serving Virginia Tech."
Prof Kevin Granata was killed while holding his course in the Norris Hall building.
Professor Liviu Librescu, originally from Romania, was killed alongside Granata.
A third instructor in the engineering department, Professor GV Loganathan, was also killed in the massacre.
Loganathan was teaching in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering when the gunman went on rampage.
His colleague Prof Raman Kumar confirmed the news of Loganathan's death.
A language teacher, German instructor Jamie Bishop, 35, was also confirmed dead. He had been leading a class when a gunman burst through the doors and shot him in the head, according to witnesses.
"I don't think he was the type of person who had an enemy," said Troy Paddock, a close friend of Bishop.
"He was a very friendly person. He did weekly gatherings for students out of class to practice German where they could talk about anything. He was a nice and helpful person."
Bishop's wife, Dr. Stefanie Hofer, is another instructor in the school's German department.
All victims in hospital now are in stable condition.





1 comment:

ichbinalj said...

The son of the former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, arrested at Arkansas airport with handgun.
David Huckabee, a son of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, was arrested at an Arkansas airport Thursday after a federal X-ray technician detected a loaded Glock pistol in his carry-on luggage.
Huckabee, 26, later pleaded guilty in Little Rock District Court after being charged with a misdemeanor count of possessing a weapon in a prohibited place.

"It was a silly mistake," Huckabee told reporters as he left the Pulaski County Jail. When asked whether it would affect his father's presidential campaign, Huckabee responded, "It shouldn't."

District Judge Lee Munson gave Huckabee a one-year suspended jail sentence and ordered him into 10 days of community service — which Huckabee can avoid by paying $100. Huckabee will be on probation for a year. Fines and costs totaled $855.
The elder Huckabee, who said last week that Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho perhaps could have been stopped if a teacher or student had also been armed, also has a concealed weapons permit.

"My wife and I love our son. What he did was irresponsible but not intentional," Mike Huckabee said.
David Huckabee had a .40-caliber Glock pistol in his black carry-on bag. Eight live rounds were in the gun — none in the chamber — and a nine-round clip was also in the bag. The weapon and ammunition were detained by Little Rock police while David Huckabee's gun permit was seized and given to the Arkansas State Police.
26 April. AP.