BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing at least 21 people in the deadliest campus massacre in U.S. history. The gunman was killed, bringing to death toll to 22, but it was unclear if he was shot by police or took his own life.
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"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 immediately known if the gunman was a student.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said there was no immediate evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, "but all avenues will be explored."

The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus, with witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire.

The bloodbath took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building about 2,000 feet away, authorities said.

Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

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.

Some of the dead were students. One student was killed in the dorm, and the others were killed in the classroom, Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.

Up until Monday, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history was a rampage that took place in 1966 at the University of Texas at Austin, where Charles Whitman climbed the clock tower and opened fire with a rifle from the 28th-floor observation deck. He killed 16 people before he was shot to death by police.

The massacre Monday took place almost eight years to the day after the Columbine High bloodbath near Littleton, Colo. On April 20, 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.

The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby's Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

Founded in 1872, Virginia Tech is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of southwestern Virginia, about 160 miles west of Richmond. With more than 25,000 full-time students, it has the state's largest full-time student population. The school is best known for its engineering school and its powerhouse football team.

The rampage took place on a brisk spring day, with snow flurries swirling around the campus, which is centered around the Drill Field, a grassy field where military cadets — who now represent a fraction of the student body — once practiced. The dorm and the classroom building are on opposites sides of the Drill Field.

A gasp could be heard at a campus news conference when the police chief said at least 20 people had been killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed.

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.

A White House spokesman said
President Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

"The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed," spokeswoman Dana Perino said

After the shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed, and classes were canceled through Tuesday. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children. It also made counselors available and planned an assembly for Tuesday at the basketball arena.

After the shooting began, students were told to stay inside away from the windows.

Aimee Kanode, a freshman from Martinsville, said the shooting happened on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room. Kanode's resident assistant knocked on her door about 8 a.m. to notify students to stay put.

"They had us under lockdown," Kanode said. "They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again."

"We're all locked in our dorms surfing the Internet trying to figure out what's going on," Kanode said.

Maurice Hiller, 21, mechanical engineering student from Richmond, saw police and SWAT tem members with guns drawn going toward Norris Hall.

"This is something just totally beyond anybody's expectations," he said.

Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks by authorities but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070416/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_shooting

No shit. Body count up to 31 at the moment. Who needs Al Qaeda when you've got armed kids on campus?

I guess this means no more Anne Nicole Smith news until this gets old.

Suspect

This is horrible, just horrible. If any good can come out of this his next stop will be the KSex garage.

i don't like mondays

A tragedy indeed, my thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. That having been said, something about this really bothers me.

The total body count had not even been established yet and talking heads were spinning on how society is to blame. Well I am part of society and would like to be the first to state that neither you, I, or the media should be held responsible for the misactions of these individuals.

How many more shootings like this must we endure before we are able to abandon political correctness and accept that sometimes, a really stupid and bad person does a really stupid and bad thing by his own choice.

Once again we'll be hearing cries to ban everything from guns to violent movies to video games to porn. These are all things I love. I get mad. I get pissed. But I have never crossed the line and shot someone, and neither have most of you. I am tired of having my interests and hobbies come under scrutiny every time a weak person acts of his own volition.

The Great Media Whore will feast on this for a week!

Who will be the first to politician to try and capitalize on this tragedy. I got dibs on :

It's a tough call as to who'll take the blame. Obviously, it won't be the NRA or the government, so my vote goes on the local PD (inc Campus Cops) and the left wing liberal media and their porn and violence.

So basically we're all boned as a result of one fruit loop with a grudge.

imagine how many people he killed just driving to the campus...

Post deleted by Cleetus VanDamme

I blame Loners...We need to get a grip on the problem of loneliness! Round them up and squirrel em away somewhere...at least they will have each other and not be quite so lonesome.

Europe is blaming..... Charlton Heston

Obviously this ignores the fact that there weren't too many people with guns.....there were too few.

Yes lets make it harder for people to get guns and stiffen the penalties for those that misuse them. This strategy has worked so well since the federal government started using at on narcotics and calling it the war on drugs.

Actually there is a winner in all this. This guy is the luckiest mother fucker ever. First day on your news job, and you are the highest profile athlete to come out of VA.

didn't he go to that real school down there though? my parents are from ct and westchester so my dad ages three years for every one year coughlin coaches. it's comedy.

Yeah, he and Ronde went to VA. Of course there are better Public Universities.

god, did you just get born into situations where you get to root for perpetually front-running athletic teams or was this a series of conscious decisions?