BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
Updated: 2:35 p.m. ET April 16, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire Monday in a dorm and classroom on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, killing 30 people. The gunman also was killed.
The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus, with witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive.
“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 university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
The campus was locked down and students had been ordered to stay indoors and way from windows as police investigated the first shooting. Then they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.
Some but not all the dead were students. One student was killed in a dorm and the others were killed in the classroom, said Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.
The name of the gunman was not released. It was not known if he was a student.
 GammOMG · Mon Apr 16, 2007 @ 08:11pm · 1 Comments |
