College massacre claims 33 lives, 15 injured
A gunman killed 32 people today in the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.
He struck in two separate attacks at a college campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, then committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.
Students at Virginia Tech 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 email 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.”
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.
Some people jumped out of windows to escape the scene.
After the first shots were fired, students were warned to stay indoors and away from the windows. But some students said they thought the precautions had been lifted by the time the second burst of gunfire was heard, and some bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time, two hours after the bloodshed began.
“What happened today, this was ridiculous. And I don’t know what happened or what was going through this guy’s mind,” student Jason Piatt told CNN.
“But I’m pretty outraged and I’ll say on the record I’m pretty outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 o’clock in the morning and the first email about it – no mention of locking down campus, no mention of cancelling classes – they just mention that they’re investigating a shooting two hours later.”
He added: “That’s pretty ridiculous and meanwhile, while they’re sending out that email, 22 more people got killed.”
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said there was no evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, “but all avenues will be explored.”
President Bush said tonight that the mass shooting affects every student across the nation.
“Schools should be places of safety, sanctuary and learning,” he said in reaction to the deaths of more than 30 people on the campus. “When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom, in every American community.”
Bush spoke with Governor Timothy Kaine and Virginia Tech president Charles Steger.
“I told them that Laura and I and many across our nation are praying for the victims and all the members of university community that have been devastated by this terrible tragedy,” Mr Bush said in the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
“Today our nation grieves with those who have lose loved ones at Virginia Tech,” he said. “We hold the victims in our hearts. We lift them up in our prayers and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today.”
