Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Pouya Dianat

As questions continued yesterday over whether more could have been done to protect the students killed Monday on the campus of Virginia Tech, a grim picture began to emerge of the gunman, a senior English major whose violence-ridden creative writing had alarmed professors and classmates.

Police identified the shooting suspect as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, who came to the U.S. from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in Northern Virginia. Cho turned the gun on himself, bringing Monday's death toll to 33. The names of the victims were also released.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, who attended a convocation on the Blacksburg campus yesterday, said he will appoint a panel at the university's request to review authorities' handling of the massacre. Parents and students complained bitterly that the university should have locked down the campus immediately after the first burst of gunfire and that campus leaders did not do enough to warn people.

Monday's rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart - first at a dorm, where two people were killed, then inside a classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died. Two handguns - a 9mm and a .22-caliber - were found in the classroom building.

Cho, who had apparently bought one of the hand guns used in the attacks only weeks ago at a shop in Roanoke, Va., was also found with a "bomb threat" note near the victims in the classroom building, police said. Investigators have not tied those threats to Cho, however.

Despite many warning signs that came to light in the bloody aftermath, including disturbing writing appearing in school assignments, police and university officials offered no clues as to exactly what set Cho off on the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

"He was a loner," said school spokesman Larry Hincker said, "and we're having difficulty finding information about him."

Classmates painted a similar picture. Some said that on the first day of a British literature class last year, the 30 or so students went around and introduced themselves. When it was Cho's turn, he didn't speak.

On the sign-in sheet where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. "Is your name, 'Question mark?'" classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man offered little response.

Continued...

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