WASHINGTON, 17 April 2007 — A gunman pumped shots into a dormitory and classrooms at a US university yesterday, killing up to 32 people and injuring dozens in the bloodiest school shooting in US history, authorities said. He later shot himself dead. The media put the number of injured in the attack at 28 at Virginia Tech University, about 425 km southwest of Washington DC.
The student population of Virginia Tech is over 28,000. This is the deadliest school shooting in the history of the United States. Students complained that the university did not warn them about the first shooting until hours later. “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.”
The name of the gunman was not immediately released, and investigators offered no motive for the attack. It was not clear if the gunman was a student.
The shootings spread panic and confusion on the campus, with witnesses reporting students jumping out classroom windows to escape the gunfire. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. A police commando unit with flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed the campus.
The bloodbath took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. with one student killed at West Ambler Johnston, a coed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
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, two hours after the bloodshed began. “What happened today was ridiculous,” student Jason Piatt told CNN. He said the first warning from the university of a shooting on campus came in an e-mail about two hours after the first deadly burst of gunfire. “While they’re sending out that e-mail, 22 more people got killed,” Piatt said.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said there was no evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, “but all avenues will be explored.”
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, according to an ATF official who spoke on condition of anonymity because local authorities are leading the investigation.
President George W. Bush said he was “shocked and saddened” by the shooting rampage. “Schools should be places of safety, and sanctuary, and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community,” he said in a brief statement at the White House.
Bush said he had told Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech’s president that Washington would offer any possible assistance with the investigation or to help the community recover.
“Here we go again. Obviously I’m worried about the families of the victims, but there are just too many damn guns. I don’t have a problem with people owing guns, but I have a problem with them not being registered, and that a powerful lobby, the National Rifle Association, can influence laws that can permit this type of massacre to occur,” said Frank Sauer, a former program manager for the US government’s ballistic imagining program in Washington. The death toll was worse than a massacre at the University of Texas in Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old student, killed 13 people and wounded 31 in a 90-minute spree. Whitman had killed his mother and wife the night before.
The House of Representatives and Senate both observed a moment of silence for what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described as a “terrible, terrible tragedy.” Virginia Sen. Jim Webb called the carnage a “senseless act” and said his heart went out to the parents and families of the victims.
Gov. Kaine was cutting short a visit to Japan and said “it is difficult to comprehend senseless violence on this scale.”
Gerard Toal, a professor at Virginia Tech, said the incident would deeply affect the staff and the students. “This is a profound event obviously and it’s one that will shake at the core of the university,” he said.
