• Police ID shooter as 23-year-old resident alien, English major
• Police say one of the guns recovered was used in both shooting incidents
• At least two professors among the dead in Virginia Tech massacre
• Officials: 33 dead, including gunman, in Norris Hall and dormitory shootings
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BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- The gunman who killed 30 people at Virginia Tech's Norris Hall before turning the gun on himself was student Cho Seung-hui, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said Tuesday.
University officials said they were still trying to determine whether Cho was responsible for an earlier shooting at a dormitory that left two dead.
However, Flinchum said ballistics tests show that one of the two guns recovered at Norris Hall was used at Norris and at the dorm, both located on the 26,000-student campus. (Watch police disclose new information about the shooter )
Authorities are still investigating whether Cho had any accomplices in planning or executing Monday's rampage, Col. Steven Flaherty of the Virginia State Police said.
"It certainly is reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places, but we don't have the evidence to take us there at this particular point in time," Flaherty said.
Cho, a 23-year-old South Korean and resident alien, lived at the university's Harper Hall, Flinchum said. He was an English major, the chief said.
Cho was a loner and authorities are having a hard time finding information about him, said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.
A department of Homeland Security official said Cho came to the United States in 1992, through Detroit, Michigan. He had lawful permanent residence, via his parents, and renewed his green card in October 2003, the official said.
His residence was listed as Centreville, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C.
The university and police are still in the process of releasing the names of the 32 people killed in Monday's shootings. (Watch how some are asking why warnings weren't issued sooner )
"What went on during that incident certainly caused tremendous chaos and panic in Norris Hall," Flaherty said, describing how victims were found in four classrooms and in the stairwell of the school's engineering science and mechanics building.
I'm no psychiatrist, but it seems to me that over the years, the nature of on-campus violence has changed right along with the level of intensity demanded from the students.
ReplyDeleteOf course, there have always been protests and riots, but murder and rape are reported every semester from campuses all over the country. This particular rampage at V-Tech is of course the worst yet, but I have to wonder why somebody would be driven to the point of insanity like this in a school setting.
College used to be about more than lecture halls and finals: it was about learning how to interact with people. Parties weren't stopped by the police and drinking in dorms was regular. People were learning how to balance hard work with relaxation. Now people graduate with 5 degrees and 2 internships completed, living off 4 hours of sleep a night and crushing up caffine pills into their Ramen to stay up longer.
Obviously, this new view of college as being a place to work hard and then work harder (as opposed to a place to learn how to interact with people and have an active and regular social life) is a direct response to the job market placing so much emphasis on degrees, which isn't about to change. However, as we see here, there's a dark side to people being pushed to a limit. Instead of having fun and exploring social opportunities, you get people whose minds snap and start shooting.
And now nobody can tell the police about Cho Seung-hui. Why? Because the students at Virginia Tech never got to know him. He was just the quiet kid in the corner whose writing apparently reflected depression, anger, and a great deal of bitter animosity to those around him. As I said before, I'm no psychiatrist, but it seems to me that if the people in his dorm had stopped to talk to him or if there had been parties on his floor that the university allowed to happen, then perhaps instead of having 31 dead students and 2 dead professors, we'd have 31 more graduates in the work force including a budding writer whose work had the same dark qualities that we so admire in Poe and Nietzsche.
If only universities were about more than lectures and degrees, perhaps the matriculates at the more prestigious schools wouldn't be wound so tightly that murders like those that occured at Virginia Tech are just a matter of time instead of a matter of unfortunate luck or poor upbringing.