Virginia Tech Killer Identified

RICHARD ESPOSITO and DAVID SCHOETZ
ABC
Apr. 17, 2007

We now know the identity of the killer at Virginia Tech.

He is Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old resident alien of the United States, as first reported by ABC News.

Cho is a South Korean national, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in English and the man who killed 33 people -- including himself -- on the Virginia Tech campus Monday.

Sources tell ABC News that Cho killed two people in a dorm room, returned to his own dorm room where he re-armed and left a "disturbing note" before entering a classroom building on the other side of campus to continue his rampage.

Cho's identity has been confirmed with a positive fingerprint match on the guns used in the rampage and with immigration materials.

"Lab results confirm that one of the two weapons seized in Norris Hall was used in both shootings," Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said at a press conference Tuesday morning.

At this time, police are not looking for a second shooter, however, they did not rule out the possibility that an accomplice may have been involved. Sources say Cho was carrying a backpack that contained receipts for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Witnesses had told authorities that the shooter was carrying a backpack. Police also said this morning that Cho had a .22 caliber pistol. Sections of chain similar to those used to lock the main doors at Norris Hall, the site of the second shooting that left 31 dead, were also found inside a Virginia Tech dormitory, sources confirmed to ABC News.

Full coverage continues on "Good Morning America" and "World News With Charles Gibson" an ABC network special Tuesday at 10 p.m. EDT

Some continue to wonder why administrators did not cancel classes after the first shooting, and why it took more than two hours to inform the university community via e-mail about the first incident. The first e-mail notifying students of the dorm shooting was not sent by the school until 9:24 a.m.

According to President Charles Steger, the administration locked down West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory after the first shooting. But classes weren't canceled because the shooting was believed to be tied to a domestic dispute and campus police believed the shooter had left the campus.

Steger defended the school's response to the 7:15 a.m. shooting at West Ambler Johnston Hall in an interview Tuesday with "Good Morning America's" Diane Sawyer, saying that they believed the incident was confined to the dormitory.

"The second shooting, no one predicted that was also going to happen that morning," Steger said. "So if you're talking about locking it down, what is it you're going to lock down? It's like closing a city. It doesn't happen simultaneously."

Steger also said he would not step down, and at Tuesday's press conference, John Marshall, secretary of public safety in Virginia, came to Steger's side.



"It's important we get this done, but more importantly, we must get this done right," Marshall said.

In a press conference Monday night, the university president gave a detailed timeline of the morning's tragic events.

A 911 call reporting a shooting inside a dormitory was made at approximately 7:15 a.m. Monday. While police were trying to assess what they first believed was some type of lover's quarrel, they received a second 911 call, nearly two and a half hours later, that reported shootings on the opposite side of campus.

Police yesterday stopped a car driven by a male "person of interest," an acquaintance of the female victim who had been in the dorm where the first shootings had occurred. They interviewed and released the driver, and police said that they will continue to look for him for information.

By Monday night, investigators also had ruled out the possibility of a murder-suicide in the first dormitory shooting. Ryan "Stack" Clark, a member of the school's marching band, the Marching Virginians, and a student resident assistant, was killed there by a shot in the neck. The second victim in the dorm shooting was a female.

At Norris Hall, the gunman left a trail of bloodshed, which Flinchum, the Virginia Tech chief called "one of the worst things I've seen in my life."

Flinchum would not name any of the victims, but said that university staff members were among the dead.

There have been, however, at least 15 shooting victims identified in press accounts, including four professors and 11 students. A state medical examiner Tuesday said the identification process could take several days to complete.

President Bush and the first lady will attend a convocation on the Virginia Tech campus at 2 p.m. On Monday, Bush addressed the shooting, worst gun rampage in American history.

"Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary in learning," Bush said. "When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community."

Law enforcement officials told ABC News have said that Cho might have been wearing a bulletproof vest, and that he killed himself after opening fire on his victims inside Norris Hall.

It is unknown at this time if the guns had standard or extended clips, which can fire as many as 30 shots before the gun has to be reloaded.

No identification was found on Cho's body, police said. He apparently shot himself in the head after the killings; part of his face was missing when his body was found.

Two-Hour Gap Between Shootings

It is also not clear what happened between the two shootings -- a gap of two hours. The buildings where they happened are about half a mile apart, a distance one can walk in about 10 minutes.

The first e-mail to students about the first shooting went out at 9:24 a.m., according to copies forwarded to ABC News. By then the shootings were over.

A count by ABC News showed that at least 28 people had been admitted to are hospitals. Some had suffered gunshot wounds; others needed medical attention for broken bones sustained trying to flee the gunman.

No Confirmed Connection to Earlier Bomb Threats

Police said they could not confirm that the two separate bomb threats last week the targeted Virginia Tech engineering buildings are connected to Monday's rampage.

The first of the two threats was directed at Torgersen Hall, a classroom and laboratory building, while the second was directed at multiple engineering buildings. Students and staff were evacuated, and the university sent out e-mails across campus, offering a $5,000 reward for information about the threats.

Virginia Tech -- formally known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University -- is located in the western end of the state near the borders of West Virginia and Tennessee. It has more than 25,000 full-time students. Its campus, which spreads over 2,600 acres, has more than 100 buildings.

The number of dead is almost twice as high as the previous record for a mass shooting on an American college campus. That took place at the University of Texas at Austin on Aug. 1, 1966, when a gunman named Charles Whitman opened fire from the 28th floor of a campus tower. Whitman killed 16 and injured 31.












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