DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Shootings at Virginia Tech

My step-sister goes there. It felt like an eternity trying to get through to my folks to find out what was up. She is OK. Alive and well.

Turns out last year she lived on the same floor in the same dorm where the first shooting occurred.

I've been sick to my stomach all day.

Good to hear man... now we just need to hear from the other Dawgs down there that things are Ok.

This is just horrible, I have been busy at work, but keep checking back, only to see the number of deaths keep rising.

Very Sad

any Dawgtalkers VT students?

I've never understood senseless violence like this. Taking 30 people's lives is never warranted under any circumstances. My prayers go out to the VaTech community and all those affected by this.

32 people now... crazy

That video is really chilling. Nothing going on but you can hear the gunshots and really feel it.

This is so [censored] up. What the heck is wrong with people?

wow, a friend of mine goes to VT and witnessed this whole thing go down. He told somebody else that he was about 20 yards away when everything started happening and that he just ran, but he is ok, completely uninjured. I've tried getting a hold of him but all I got was an away message on AIM...

Auto Response from xxxxxxxxxxVT (3:26:10 PM): Im alive. 30 some others arn't. Absolutely disgusting beyond measure...

I will try to keep you guys updated if I hear anything of interest.

ok apparantly he knew one of the girls that got shot, but she got out of surgery and is doing ok. My friend said he as in Randolph (I'm assuming this is a diff. building) and was about 20 yards away. Said that gunman would have been smarter to choose the one that he was in b/c less exits.

Swat, FBI, K-9 units storm building. Campus should have been closed after first shooting this morning. Wishes he had a gun on him, helpless feeling. A couple stories heard that were really sick that I don't want to repeat now.

Really this might be the sickest most disturbing thing I've ever heard.

WOW. I am speechless. Thoughts and many prayers go out to the VT families. I can only imagine how scary that is....

Discuss you thoughts here, over 300 have already...

Please Give your thoughts and Prayers

Also, CNN is reporting the gunman could have had a semi-automatic

Video

I know, I got home form class at 2:50P, and my sister told me.

Jeeze this is bad, who is the shooter?

Gunman, 30 others killed in Va. shooting

By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago
BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, in a classroom across campus Monday, killing at least 30 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, government officials told The Associated Press. The gunman was killed, bringing the death toll to 31.

Students complained that there were no public-address announcements or other warnings on campus after the first burst of gunfire. They said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage — around the time the gunman struck again.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said Virginia Tech president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

It was not immediately clear whether the gunman was shot by police or took his own life. Investigators offered no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.

The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus. Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive.

The massacre took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing at least two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building about a half-mile away, authorities said.

Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Some students bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time.

"What happened today this was ridiculous," student Jason Piatt told CNN. "While they send out that e-mail, 20 more people got killed."

Students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the first shooting.

The e-mail had few details. It said: "A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating." The message warned students to be cautious and contact police about anything suspicious.

Student Maurice Hiller said he went to a 9 a.m. class two buildings away from the engineering building, and no warnings were coming over the outdoor public address system on campus at the time.

Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to pre-empt an announcement by higher-ranking authorities, put the death toll at 31.

At least 26 people were being treated at three area hospitals for gunshot wounds and other injuries, authorities said. Their exact conditions were not disclosed, but at least one was sent to a trauma center and six were in surgery, authorities said.

Up until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

The massacre Monday took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

Previously, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, about 160 miles west of Richmond. With more than 25,000 full-time students, it has the state's largest full-time student population. The school is best known for its engineering school and its powerhouse Hokies football team.

The rampage took place on a brisk spring day, with snow flurries swirling around the campus. The campus is centered around the Drill Field, a grassy field where military cadets — who now represent a fraction of the student body — once practiced. The dorm and the classroom building are on opposites sides of the Drill Field.

A gasp could be heard at a campus news conference when Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum said at least 20 people had been killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed.

Investigators from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began marking and recovering the large number of shell casings and will trace the weapon used, authorities said.

A White House spokesman said President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed, and classes were canceled through Tuesday. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children. It also made counselors available and planned an assembly for Tuesday at the basketball arena.

After the shooting began, students were told to stay inside away from the windows.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode's resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks by authorities but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.

It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.

Last August, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff's deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus. The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.

Source

Imagine seeing that happen right in front of you. You're strolling along to your next class or going back to yuor dorm and all of a sudden someone about 30 yards away from you gets shot,wow.

Where would you go? Sprint for cover, your car? I don't know.......................................................

DAMN....................terrible................that is soo bad!

I just got off work................was not expecting news like this!

Any of you watching the news conference? I think this Sheriff is Barney Fife recreated. He doesn't seem to know info he should know by now.

j/c

HOLY CRAP!

RIP to the deceased (except the gunman).

Thats crazy I heard there was only 1 then later when I watched the news there was 30!

It was the video games...

Until the facts come out it is hard to comment other than is it a sad state when freaks like this do the things they do.

One other comment....this puts the Don Imus comments into perspective.

We worry about some silly stuff.

I'm about 40 minutes from Blacksburg in Roanoke this week. All of the conflicting stories are mind boggling - everyone wants to report "facts" first.

The really sad thing was that they couldn't use any helicopters to airlift the wounded, as the wind was too strong today which meant if they need to get to Roanoke it was in an ambulance. A friends wife who I work with works at one of the local hospitals in Roanoke, and she said it has been crazy. A city this small just doesn't have the medical facilities to treat such a tragedy.

A lot of people I work with have sons, daughters, relatives, and friends who go to Tech. It's been a very somber and scary day here.

The shooter was described as a 6ft male of Asian backround with somekind of boyscout shirt and black flack jacket with extra rounds of ammo.

For the record...I find it interesting that the word 'terrorism' has not been used once on this thread. This most certaintly was a terrorist act.

mad crazy.. the world is full of crazyness.. full of crazy people.. this is sad.. I feel for every one of the victims parents and family..

sad sad sad

j/c

heres to that little burning in hell as we speak

this is the most sad because theres not a silver lining or anything in this.

Theres no good to come of it. The only thing is that schools can take further measures to prevent this, but is that really a positive. This is just sad.

My heart goes out to those families of the wounded or killed today, they dont deserve this.

I thought that's what Phil was saying....it's not the guns or video games...

Ok....sorry Phil.....I pick up mid stream....sorry for the rant.

I just get sensitive about guns because it is usually about how bad they are.


My bad.

Understand your feelings,....and as you well know, familiarity with what a gun can do in the wrong hands is most probably well-versed for the both of us,...

I do not own a gun, other than an inoperable relic souvenir I brought home from an overseas tour.

I do not believe anybody should be carrying a gun other than cops and Marines. Sorry about your Second Amendment rights, but until we take it upon ourselevs as a society to PROPERLY TRAIN and LICENSE people to own guns, the idiots who do not respect their power will continue to do what's happened today.

Guns ARE NOT the problem, but the lack of control over who has them is,....