Gunman, 32 others killed in Va. shooting Re: History of shootings at US schools and colleges

On Apr 16, 1:36 pm, "rst0w...@xxxxxxxxx" <rst0w...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2058586,00.html

Duncan Campbell
Monday April 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

In April 1999, two teenagers shot dead 12 fellow students and a
teacher and wounded 23 others before killing themselves at Columbine
school in Littleton, Colorado. The shootings, which shocked the United
States, were the worst spate of killings at a school or college campus
until today's shootings at Blacksburg, but there have been several
similar fatal incidents before and since.
· In March 1998, two schoolboys, aged 13 and 11, opened fire on their
fellow students in Jonesboro, Arkansas, killing four schoolgirls and a
teacher. Ten others were wounded. The boys were convicted and jailed

· In May 1998, a 15-year-old schoolboy shot dead two fellow students
in a school cafeteria in Springfield, Oregon. He had earlier shot dead
his parents and is now serving 112 years in jail.
· In May 2000, a 13-year-old schoolboy shot dead one of his teachers
in Lake Worth, Florida on his last day at school. He was annoyed with
the teacher for stopping him talking to two schoolgirls. · In April
2003, a 14-year-old schoolboy shot and killed his head teacher in the
cafeteria of a junior high school in Pennsylvania. He then killed
himself.

· In March 2005, a 16-year-old schoolboy in Minnesota shot and killed
five fellow students, a teacher and a security guard on a reservation
in what became known as the Red Lake high school massacre. The gunman
had also killed two relatives earlier and then finally shot himself.

· In September 2006, a middle-aged gunman took six girls hostage in
Platte Canyon high school in Colorado. He fatally shot one of them and
then himself.

· In September 2006, in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, a schoolboy, aged 15,
shot dead the head of his school, the day after being disciplined by
him for smoking on campus.

· In October 2006, a gunman shot dead five schoolgirls at an Amish
school in Pennsylvania, before turning his gun on himself.

This list didn't go far enough. I remember back in the 1960s, a man
named Charles Whitman dragged a footlocker full of ammunition up a
tower at the University of Texas and shot about 15 students before he
was shot and killed.

By SUE LINDSEY, Associated Press Writer
14 minutes ago

BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and
then, two hours later, shot up a classroom across campus Monday,
killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history.
The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.

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.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that
the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought
the gunman had fled the campus.

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur,"
he said.

He defended the university's handling of the tragedy, saying: "We can
only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You
don't have hours to reflect on it."

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.

Two people were killed in a dormitory room, and 31 others were killed
in the engineering building, including the gunman, police said.

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

Steger said the university decided to rely on e-mail and other
electronic means of notifying members of the university, but with
11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was
difficult to get the word out. He said that before the e-mail went
out, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms
to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to spread the word.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum would not say how many
weapons the gunman carried. But a law enforcement official, speaking
on condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete,
said that the gunman had two pistols and multiple clips of ammunition.

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.

Everett Good, junior, said of the lack of warning: "I'm trying to
figure that out. Someone's head is definitely going to roll over
that."

"We were kept in the dark a lot about exactly what was going on," said
Andrew Capers Thompson, a 22-year-old graduate student from Walhalla,
S.C.

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 early in the day
when the police chief announced that at least 20 people had been
killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed.

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.


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