The Virginia Tech Shooter (from Gothamist.com)
The man who shot 32 people at Virginia Tech yesterday morning (April 16, 2007) was identified by authorities as Cho Seung Hui. He is described as a 23-year-old student, a senior majoring in English, who lived in one of the dorms. He is also a legal resident from South Korea.
Additionally, ballistics from one of the guns retrieved at Norris Hall, where the second shooting of 30 students took place, matched ballistics evidence from the first shooting at a dormitory. (NBC News says that it appears he legally purchased the guns in the past few days -and it’s legal for legal residents to buy guns.) The authorities are starting to release the names of victims, after they have been identified and next of kin have been notified.
Some of the Virginia Tech Victims (from msnbc.msn.com)
They came to Blacksburg, Va., from all over the country — and all over the world. They came to study, and they came to teach. They had plans. They had friends. They had families.
As the list of confirmed victims in Monday’s massacre on the Virginia Tech campus grew, so too did the number of stories about the individuals who fell victim to the gunman, 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui of Centreville, Va.
There were stories of heroism. Students of Liviu Librescu, an engineering science and mechanics lecturer, say he blocked the door of his classroom with his body to protect those inside. Librescu, 76, was a Holocaust survivor.
Ryan Clark, a popular and gregarious member of the Marching Virginians band, was just weeks away from graduation. A resident adviser on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston dorm, Clark came to the aid of a student the morning of April 16. It cost him his life.
Students told of teachers who inspired them. Neighbors spoke of children they’d seen grow up and leave for college, lives filled with promise.
Kevin Granata was one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy. He coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities.
Reema Samaha, a freshman who performed with the school’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, was shot dead in French class.
Juan Ramon Ortiz, from Puerto Rico, decorated his parents’ one-story concrete house each Christmas. A neighbor heard Ortiz’s mother scream when she learned of her son’s death.
One Blog Silence
This blog will participate in the One Day Blog Silence on April 30th 2007. In honor of the 33 victims at Virginia Tech. Read more about it here.
There is a current controversy emerging. Some Koreans are worried this might spark a racial problem. I was very compelled to respond to this, so I uploaded a video response to Youtube. If you have a moment, please take a look. If you think I have a point, please share it with someone.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rfd1RE9Sfg
I’m really disappointed with what had happened. Its very selfish to kill a lot of innocent people for no reason. The gunner probably lost his mind and sanity.
PS: I like your new layout its so cool, I mean, HOT!!
I feel so sorry for the victums of this terrible attack, but I also feel sorry for this lost soul who committed this mass murder. Who knows what had been eating away at his soul to make him commit this! Who knows what demons that where inside of him, pushing him toward this! At the same time who knows what he had been going through? How many students who had been picking on him calling him chank, gook, slent eyed, and all the other nasty remarks. This act that he commit wasn’t just over night. He built his hate up every day, building more hate on top of hate till one day he snapped. I feel sorry for him and the victums as well. Maybe now we all take the time to treat each other better whether black, white, hispanic, or asian. We can learn that when some one is a loner, to reach out to them and offer our friendship to them. Be kind to each other and embrace each other just a little more.
yeah… one of my Fil classmates who works at Pennsylvania is really worried that this will increase racism there. I always wonder why these people did what they did… I wish the world will be rid of pychopaths and everything that’s remotely related to it (schizophrenia, etc— anything that will cause a person to do such things)
I think the blogsphere should do something to remember and pay tribute to the victems in this event but I don’t think silence should be the thing.
Silence is what kept the shooter in the school and kept him from receiving help when he so obviously needed it.
So while I support the blogs who participate in the day of silence I think I’m going to pick another route for my blog.. what that route will be I’m not too sure but I’ll figure something out ;)
Hai yeah, that was selfish. *looks at Darwin’s comment above.
alam mo kung anong una kong naisip? Nice link bait. (imagine all blog links directing to that one site the whole day!!) :P haha pero joke lang syempre. Of course im participating too. :P
I don’t think this would increase racism by a huge margin; people nowadays know that every single Korean/Asian out there is not a trigger-happy freak. at least I’d assume/hope so