At least 20 dead in campus shootings at Virginia Tech

Rushlimbo

CNN) -- The Virginia Tech Police Chief said at least 20 people were killed in twin shootings on the Blacksburg campus Monday morning.

"Some victims were shot in a classroom," Chief Wendell Flinchum said, adding that the gunman was dead.

President Charles Steger called the shootings "a tragedy of monumental proportions."

A hospital spokeswoman told The Associated Press that 17 Virginia Tech students were being treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries. Sharon Honaker at the Carilion New River Valley Medical Center told CNN that four patients had been transported there, one in critical condition.

One person was killed and others were wounded at multiple locations inside a dormitory about 7:15 a.m., Flinchum said. Two hours later, another shooting at Norris Hall, an engineering building, resulted in multiple casualties, the university reported. (Watch police, ambulances hustle to the scene)

The first reported shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory that houses 895 students. The dormitory, one of the largest residence halls on the 2,600-acre campus, is located near the drill field and stadium.

Amie Steele, editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, said one of her reporters at the dormitory reported "mass chaos."

The reporter said there were "lots of students running around, going crazy, and the police officers were trying to settle everyone down and keep everything under control," according to Steele.

Kristyn Heiser said she was in class about 9:30 a.m. when she and her classmates saw about six gun-wielding police officers run by a window.

"We were like, 'What's going on?' Because this definitely is a quaint town where stuff doesn't really happen. It's pretty boring here," said Heiser during a phone interview as she sat on her classroom floor.

Student Matt Waldron said he did not hear the gunshots because he was listening to music, but he heard police sirens and saw officers hiding behind trees with their guns drawn.

"They told us to get out of there so we ran across the drill field as quick as we could," he said.

Waldron described the scene on campus as "mayhem." (Watch a student's recording of police responding to loud bangs)

"It was kind of scary," he said. "These two kids I guess had panicked and jumped out of the top story window and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground."

Madison Van Duyne said she and her classmates in a media writing class were on "lockdown" in their classrooms. They were huddled in the middle of the classroom, writing stories about the shootings and posting them online.

The university is updating its 26,000 students through e-mails, and an Internet webcam is broadcasting live pictures of the campus.

The shootings came three days after a bomb threat Friday forced the cancellation of classes in three buildings, WDBJ in Roanoke reported. Also, the 100,000-square-foot Torgersen Hall was evacuated April 2 after police received a written bomb threat, The Roanoke Times reported.

After the Monday shootings, students were instructed to stay indoors and away from windows, police at the university said.

"A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows," read a warning from the university.

"Virginia Tech has canceled all classes. Those on campus are asked to remain where they are, lock their doors and stay away from windows. Persons off campus are asked not to come to campus," a statement on the university Web site said.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/index.html

yostarama

This Blow's someone must have snapped or something. When I was at Ohio state in 1990 they had the murders at FSU and poeple where going crazy in Columbus.

josevolution

whoa this sucks are these getting to be more frequent ......

sonicreducer

this is tragic. 20 people in blacksburg, how many iraqis? how many in afghanistan?

Ms. Haiku

This is very sad and tragic. Sounds incredibly scary.

fanch75

sonicreducer wrote:

this is tragic. 20 people in blacksburg, how many iraqis? how many in afghanistan?

i'm not really sure what iraq or afghanistan has to do with this. it's as relevant as bringing up nationalized healthcare.

anyway, the real story behind this hopefully will come out soon.

BinFrog

sonicreducer wrote:

this is tragic. 20 people in blacksburg, how many iraqis? how many in afghanistan?

Useless post.

Vedderlution_Baby

fanch75 wrote:

i'm not really sure what iraq or afghanistan has to do with this. it's as relevant as bringing up nationalized healthcare.

anyway, the real story behind this hopefully will come out soon.

I understand what he's getting at. Twenty people got shot over here. But how many have died in iraq and afghanistan today. why is this tragic but the other isnt.


Anyway, 20 dead? I'm not sure but thats the highest number of dead on a campus shooting isnt it?

dg1979us

Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:

I understand what he's getting at. Twenty people got shot over here. But how many have died in iraq and afghanistan today. why is this tragic but the other isnt.


Anyway, 20 dead? I'm not sure but thats the highest number of dead on a campus shooting isnt it?

Who said the other isnt tragic? Why cant this story be discussed in its own context and not compared to Iraq?

chopitdown

Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:

I understand what he's getting at. Twenty people got shot over here. But how many have died in iraq and afghanistan today. why is this tragic but the other isnt.


Anyway, 20 dead? I'm not sure but thats the highest number of dead on a campus shooting isnt it?

it's got to be near the top of the list. Kent state was "only" 4. They (VT) had an incident earlier this year with a gunman on the loose, but I don't think anyone was shot during that one.

BinFrog

chopitdown wrote:

it's got to be near the top of the list. Kent state was "only" 4. They (VT) had an incident earlier this year with a gunman on the loose, but I don't think anyone was shot during that one.

I think the Univ of Texas sniper toll in 1966 was 17. I may be off on that.

ProvidenceHunter

dg1979us wrote:

Who said the other isnt tragic? Why cant this story be discussed in its own context and not compared to Iraq?

Its moving train law. You cannot have a topic with out some mention of Iraq or Afganistan.

I think it is in the genevia convention also. Look it up.

hippiemom

Holy shit. I heard on the radio this morning that VTech was on lockdown after shots were fired, but they weren't reporting any deaths at that point. What a sad story :(

sonicreducer

fanch75 wrote:

i'm not really sure what iraq or afghanistan has to do with this. it's as relevant as bringing up nationalized healthcare.

anyway, the real story behind this hopefully will come out soon.

how is it irrelevant? people are dying all over the place b/c of guns and stupid people.

its in a headline as 'tragedy in blacksburg', yet the one below it says '30 die in iraq from roadside bomb'. no tragedy, just everyday life,... this is a sick sad little world that we live in,...

Vedderlution_Baby

dg1979us wrote:

Who said the other isnt tragic? Why cant this story be discussed in its own context and not compared to Iraq?

I was just saying what I believed reducer to be saying. Hell, for all I know, i could be completely wrong.

ProvidenceHunter

sonicreducer wrote:

how is it irrelevant? people are dying all over the place b/c of guns and stupid people.

its in a headline as 'tragedy in blacksburg', yet the one below it says '30 die in iraq from roadside bomb'. no tragedy, just everyday life,... this is a sick sad little world that we live in,...

Its the whole man bites dog type thing. They both suck.

This is an awsome world, sick shit just happens.

Rushlimbo

ProvidenceHunter wrote:

This is an awsome world, sick shit just happens.

Very true.

sonicreducer

dg1979us wrote:

Who said the other isnt tragic? Why cant this story be discussed in its own context and not compared to Iraq?

its in the context of people fucking died today,... all over the world,...

i go to clemson, you think i wanted to read about a campus shooting today? i was bitching about going to play golf in the wind, and now im sitting here thankful that this asshole wasn't in clemson. those poor bastards,...

yostarama

sonicreducer wrote:

how is it irrelevant? people are dying all over the place b/c of guns and stupid people.

its in a headline as 'tragedy in blacksburg', yet the one below it says '30 die in iraq from roadside bomb'. no tragedy, just everyday life,... this is a sick sad little world that we live in,...

Only some sick and I mean very sick person would shot all these people. A stpuid person would shot them self in the foot. Also don't be a gun hater last time I checked we have the right to bear arms. I'm an avid hunter and all i do is hunt. I never had any thoughts of doing anything like this with any gun I own!

dg1979us

sonicreducer wrote:

its in the context of people fucking died today,... all over the world,...

i go to clemson, you think i wanted to read about a campus shooting today? i was bitching about going to play golf in the wind, and now im sitting here thankful that this asshole wasn't in clemson. those poor bastards,...

Your second paragraph is exactly the point. This isnt everyday life on college campuses. Of course it is going to be a huge story. That doesnt mean it is more or less tragic than a death in Iraq or any other part of the world, but quite obviously something happening of this scale happening in our own country is going to be a big headline. I seriously doubt anyone wanted to read about a campus shooting today, so not sure why you would even ask that question.

stu gee

sonicreducer wrote:

this is tragic. 20 people in blacksburg, how many iraqis? how many in afghanistan?

Pointless post, there are any other number of threads started about that, people are commenting about this particular shooting in here. What is the point in starting an argument in a thread like this?

All i can say is that this is another very sad story to hear. Rip to the victims and my heart goes out to their families.