At least 33 dead in rampage on Virginia campus
26 others at Virginia Tech wounded in worst mass shooting in U.S. history
MSNBC and NBC News
Updated: 9:06 p.m. ET April 16, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Thirty-three people, including the gunman, were killed on a Virginia university campus Monday in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. At least 26 other people were injured, some of them as they leapt to safety from the windows of a classroom building.
The shootings, which took place in two locations on campus, came just four days before the eighth anniversary of the Columbine High School bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. They created panic and confusion at the college, where students and employees angrily asked why the first e-mail warning did not go out to them until the gunman had struck a second time.
Nearly 60 victims
Federal law enforcement officials said the gunman killed himself after he shot dozens of people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, in southwest Virginia. Thirty-two people were confirmed dead, as was the gunman.
At least 26 other people were treated for gunshot wounds or other injuries, some of whom had jumped from Norris Hall, an engineering classroom building where the second wave of shootings took place. At least four remained in critical condition early Monday evening.
Campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said investigators Monday night had preliminarily identified the gunman, whose name he did not reveal. Investigators told NBC News that they had trouble for several hours identifying the man, who died after he shot himself in the face. He carried no ID, and an initial check on his fingerprints came up empty.
Witnesses described him as a man in his 20s, wearing a maroon cap and a black leather jacket. A spokesman for the FBI in Washington said there was no immediate evidence to suggest that the incident was a terrorist attack, “but all avenues will be explored.”
Flinchum said investigators were questioning a man who knew one of the dormitory victims when reports of the second round of shooting came in. He gave few details, but he said the man was cooperating and was not in custody.
Flinchum would not confirm that the two incidents were related, but he referred to only one gunman and said no other suspect was being sought. Numerous federal and local law enforcement officials told NBC News that the events were believed to be the work of a lone gunman.
“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” said Charles Steger, the university’s president. “The university is shocked and indeed horrified.”
Warnings came too late
Steger and law enforcement authorities gave this account of the day’s events in public statements and comments to NBC News:
The rampage began about 7:15 a.m. ET at West Ambler Johnston, a coeducational residence hall that houses 895 people. The gunman, armed with a 9-mm pistol and a .22-caliber handgun, killed a man and a woman there before making his way to Norris Hall, an engineering classroom building about a half-mile away on the opposite end of the 2,600-acre campus.
About 2½ hours later, police responded to a 911 call reporting that shots had been fired at Norris Hall. They discovered that the front doors had been chained, apparently so victims could not escape and police could not enter.
Officers forced their way in and followed the sound of gunshots to the second floor, where they found the gunman, who had shot himself in the face. As they canvassed the building, the found dozens of gunshot victims. Eventually, they announced that 30 were dead in the classroom building.
“It’s probably one of the worst things I’ve seen in my life,” Flinchum said.
The first e-mail warning to students and employees did not go out to students, faculty and staff until 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the shooting at the dormitory, according to the time stamps on copies obtained by NBC News. By then, the classroom shooting was under way. The message warned students to be cautious but did not warn them not to go to class.
“I really thought they should have canceled classes sooner,” Sam Leake, a junior who lives in West Ambler Johnston, told the campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times. “If they had, maybe some of these deaths could have been prevented.”
Steger said administrators and police initially believed the first shooting was an isolated incident and did not see a need to close the university. He said they believed the gunman had fled the campus.
“We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it,” he said.
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