The Virginia Tech Massacre is considered the deadliest school shooting in United States history, consisting of two separate attacks made by the same person. Both occurred on the same day – April 16, 2007, hours apart. The Virginia Tech campus, located in Blacksburg, Virginia, was home to Seung-Hui Cho and more than 30 others who were murdered that day.
Seung-Hui Cho moved to the United States at age eight from South Korea. At the time of the shooting, Cho was a senior English major at the university. One point that should be made is that Cho suffered from severe anxiety disorder during school, and had received support and therapy for it. Cho had been accused of stalking two female students almost two years before the shooting, and was declared mentally ill.
The first attack to take place was in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a residence hall that almost 900 students call home. The attack occurred around 7 AM. At this time, Cho shot his first victim, freshman Emily J. Hilscher, and a second, senior Ryan Clark.
It is during the next block of time that Cho returned to his dorm, changed clothes, and deleted his email and campus account. He also removed the hard drive from his computer. This, along with a cell phone, were never found. It was almost two hours after those first two killings that Cho mailed a package of writings and video recordings to NBC News, postmarked 9:01 AM.
Soon after sending the package, Cho entered Norris Hall, which is apparently an engineering hall, and chained three doors shut. Several students claimed that he peeked into a couple of classes before shooting. The first attack occurred in a class taught by Professor Loganathan, who was shot and murdered. Then, Cho continued shooting, and killed 9 of the 13 students in attendance.
Next, Cho crossed the hall to a course taught by Christopher J. Bishop, who was also killed. Four students were killed here, and six wounded. He entered at least two more classes, shooting the entire time, sometimes re-entering a classroom. The entire shooting lasted nine minutes, but during this short amount of time, Cho was able to fire 174 rounds, kill 30 people, and injure 17 more. It is also reported that 6 more people were injured as they attempted to jump out of a second-story building to escape.
Cho was found dead, due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound by police once they were able to get into the building.
During times of tragedy, there are often great people who are willing to put their lives on the line to help others. Professor Liviu Librescau held the door to his classroom shut while Cho tried to enter it. While the professor was able to save the lives of many students, he was shot through the door, and one student was killed in his classroom.
Another professor, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, tried to barricade the door as well, but was not successful and was killed. A student, Henry Lee, attempted to help her and was killed.
Waleed Shaalan allegedly distracted Cho from shooting another student after they were already injured, and was shot a second time and killed.
Student Zach Petkewicz and professor Haiyan Cheng barricaded a classroom with a table, and nobody in the classroom was injured or killed.
It is reported that students Katelyn Carney, Derek O’Dell, Trey Perkins, and Erin Sheehan, barricaded their classroom after it was already attacked, and helped those injured. Cho returned, however, two of the students prevented him from re-turning. They were both injured in the process.
Victims – RIP
Ryan Clark
Emily Hilscher
Liviu Librescu
Minal Panchal
G. V. Loganathan
Jarrett Lane
Brian Bluhm
Matthew Gwaltney
Jeremy Herbstritt
Partahi Lumbantoruan
Daniel O’Neil
Juan Ortiz
Julia Pryde
Waleed Shaalan
Christopher James Bishop
Lauren McCain
Michael Pohle Jr.
Maxine Turner
Nicole White
Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
Ross Alameddine
Austin Cloyd
Daniel Perez Cueva
Catilin Hammaren
Rachael Hill
Matthew La Porte
Henry Lee
Erin Peterson
Mary Read
Reema Samaha
Leslie Sherman
Kevin Granata
