Horrific details surrounding massacre trickle out
Saira Haider and Kevin Anderson, CT News Staff
April 17, 2007
In a series of press conferences held last night at The Inn at Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum and University Spokesperson Larry Hincker confirmed a preliminary number of 15 injured along with the 32 fatalities by a gunman on campus in addition to his suicide.
There is no update on the identification of the victims. Police have confirmed a preliminary identity of the shooter that will not be released at this time.
The police have recovered two weapons. The ATF is still investigating the ballistics from the first homicide, but no specific information has been released.
A person of interest has been associated to the first shooting incident at West Ambler-Johnston. He is a male who knows the victim and is not a student. He is not in custody, but police are still investigating.
"We are actively pursuing all leads," Flinchum said.
One victim in the first shooting was confirmed to be a male resident advisor. The other is a female student. These shootings occurred on the fourth floor of the dormitory.
Steger and his staff and the police have worked on notifying families of the victims.
Flinchum confirmed that there were two people who jumped out of windows. There has been no confirmation as to where the people jumped out and when.
Police are still investigating the crime scene and waiting on lab results. The whole building is being treated in the crime scene.
It has not been cleared yet because it is so large, Flinchum said.
There are still victims inside Norris Hall. Police are not sure of when the bodies will be taken out and of the amount of bodies that are still inside.
"It's probably one of the worst things I've seen in my life," Flinchum said.
The university believes they handled the situation as well as they could.
"We made the best decision based on the information we had at the time," Steger said.
Shock and grief were the main reactions from the campus community. Some students witnessed the account firsthand.
Erin Sheehan was one of four people able to walk out of her 9:05 German class in room 207 Norris Hall.
"It's a small class, about 25 people," she said. "And I would say no more than 2 people didn't show up, were absent. And of those of us that were in there today, only four of us walked out of that room, but two of us had been injured during the shooting."
Sheehan said that the shooter looked into the classroom a couple of times before firing.
"It seemed so strange," Sheehan said. "Because he peaked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in."
Sheehan witnessed the shooting as it happened.
"I saw bullets hit people's bodies," Sheehan said. "There was blood everywhere. People in the class were passed out, I don't know maybe from shock from the pain. But I was one of only four that made it out of that classroom. The rest were dead or injured." She described.
Steger recounted the day's events with a timeline of police activity.
At 7:15 a.m., Virginia Tech police responded to a 911 call from the Ambler-Johnston territory. Within minutes, police and the Virginia Tech Rescue squad responded to find two gunshot victims, a male RA and a female.
The residence hall was immediately secured by Tech police and the incident was treated as an isolated incident, domestic in nature, according to police.
At 7:30 a.m., investigators followed up on a lead to a person of interest.
The student body was notified at 9:26 a.m. by email about the incident at West Ambler-Johnston and a press release was posted on the school website.
At 9:45 a.m. the police received notice of a shooting at Norris Hall and immediately responded. Upon arrival, the police found the front doors barricaded. After they breached the doors, the police heard gunshots and followed it to the second floor, where they stopped. The officers reported that the gunman had taken his own life and that there was no engagement between the responding officers and the gunman, police said.
The university notified campus of the incident at Norris Hall at 9:55 a.m.
There are two counseling centers set up, one in West Ambler-Johnston and the other in McComas Hall.