School President: No Reason To Believe Gunman Would Strike Again?

Question

""We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said."

Give me a break! They didn't have the gunman in custody, yet he says they "had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur?"

If they didn't have that guy dead or apprehended, then that school should have been evacuated!

Why do you think they REALLY kept it so hush-hush?

Answer 1

They were afraid of bad publicity I guess. They had every reason to believe that another incident was going to occur, like you said unless they had the shooter in custody or in a body bag! They owe the public an explanation!



To another answer, YES the shooter is to blame, however if the other students were notified in a timely manner, maybe the other 30 would not have had to die!

Answer 2

I wasn't there, and this may sound cruel, but I honestly think that being a Monday morning, and "supposedly" thinking it was a domestic violence issue, they didn't feel like dealing with it. Hey, the school president didn't get hurt, so why should be be concerned, right? Wrong. How about; Why didn't he follow regulations? He took the responsibility to, amongst other things, keep the students and faculty safe at all costs. Calling the police maybe took five minutes. I know that there was probably some investigation to do over the first shootings of the two people, but you can't even get people to believe thah none of the staff or security could have called or gone to the other buildings to warn them and tell them what had happened. Thats thier job. Schools made emergency plans for these things long ago, and they just weren't being responsible. Two whole HOURS before a single E-MAIL was sent?! I'm quite surprised that the outcome wasn't much worse with all the irresponsibility and chance he had to do more damage.

Answer 3

I'm sure there's some conspiracy involving the president of the university. See, I don't understand it yet, but there has got to be a reason that he stands to benefit from the deaths of 33 people on his campus.



Give US a break! How do you "evacuate" a campus with 25,000 students and thousands of employees spread out over 2600 acres? And given that the killer was apparently willing to die, isn't it possibly that such a move might actually have given him more targets in a smaller space to aim at? Remember, nearly 10,000 of the students live on campus. Where do you evacuate them to? How? How do you warn them all?



When was the last time you heard of someone who engaged in a murder of passion, which the first two appear to have been, then waiting two hours to methodically engage in a well planned mass murder? I'm not saying the authorities did everything right, but this is a very strange case. I'm not sure that they should be expected to have a contingency plan to cover something this bizarre. And even if they did, "evacuating" the school isn't the answer. You don't typically evacuate an entire small town (25,000+) every time there's a murder, do you? This is NOT like a high school situation. In which you could ask the students to go home where they would be safe.

Answer 4

Well-in most cases the assumption would be that if this were a domestic violence issue, the gunman would have fled the area. In fact they were talking to a person of interest when the shootings in Norris occured.



Why assume that there is some conspiracy in how Tech responded? Everyone I have talked to who has an actual tie to Tech has been nothing but supportive of the University, the faculty, staff, and students during this time. Likely because we have a clue to the logistics of a college of 26,000 students plus 9-10,000 staff. As an Alumni of Tech I have seen a place that was near and dear to my heart for 15 years go from my college to the sight of the worst campus shooting in the US. And as a parent my heart breaks for those families. To me this is a horrible enough day with out having people who want to listen to half the facts attack the University or say that the world shouldn't care about what occured. Some of the comments made to day have made me wonder how anyone could be so callous. This is a tragic day for the Tech family-faculty, students, alumni, and parents.

Answer 5

First if the gunman is still loose there is a 50-50 chance that he is going to strike again or not and second there is reasons that the gunman will strike again.

Answer 6

Well, the security guards can only give people a "sense" of security not virtual security. Perhaps after the procedures are reviewed they will consider sounding a siren like the tornado siren to tell all students and faculty to take cover. It is the job of the security guards to keep the public calm and not have them panic.



After all the violence and the reports have been written and the investigations and recommendations people will go back to feeling secure and complacent.



I favor allowing individuals to carry concealed weapons if they have had training and have not had a felony conviction. Most of the people in the self-help group Parents of Murdered Children have strong feelings about this issue as well as Citizens against Homicide. (Members of both national groups have suffered the loss of a loved one to homicide) Compassionate Friends is also a self-help group however it is for parents who have lost a child to any cause homicide, accidental death or disease.

http://www.pomc.com

http://www.pomc.org

http://www.murdervictims.com/CAH.html

http://www.compassionatefriends.org



In 1999 at the Columbine High School shooting 22 students were killed.



So far 33 have been confirmed dead at the shootings at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — (located in the western end of the state near the borders of West Virginia and Tennessee). It has been called the worst mass shooting in modern American history. The shootings began in the Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory at 7:15 a.m. Eyewitnesses described the gunman as an Asian male about 6 feet tall. He apparently shot himself in the head after the killings; part of his face was missing when his body was found.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574&page=1



He was said to have quarrelled in a dormitory with his girlfriend, whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser was called to sort out the row. But the killer produced a gun and shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser.



The second shooting was at Norris Hall. Two hours later he rampaged through an engineering building on the other side of the campus in the town of Blacksburg, killing indiscriminately.



The gunman was said to be of Asian appearance and dressed in maroon hat, leather jacket and black-military style shooting vest.



He had ammunition strapped across his chest as he calmly walked from room to room refilling his two 9mm handguns as he shot students.



He locked the doors of several classrooms to stop anyone escaping. Some terrified students jumped for their lives from fourthfloor windows, while others used desks to barricade doors.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=448955&in_page_id=1811&ct=5



The gunman has been identified as a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa. The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/343354,vatech041607.articleprint



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.



another good account

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070417/D8OI106O0.html

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Answer 7

I actually do believe them that they thought it was a domestic dispute. who could possibly have known that a guy would be brazen enough to return 2 hours later and try it again? You cannot predict the actions of a lunatic. Anyways, It would've been impossible to evacuate a school like VT, that school is huge and not everyone on campus has the means to leave. It would be like evacuating Detroit every time somebody gets shot.

Answer 8

I think they kept it secret because they were probably threatened by the gunman, or maybe they were part of him. I just think all this is wrong and nasty. these gunmen or so cold-blooded-selfish minded-jerks. Killing innocent people and killing youself afterwards. Jerks, only thinking of themselves. That gunman is a B_ _ _ _!!!!!!

Answer 9

Hang on, are you suggesting that someone other than the shooter himself is responsible for this shooting...if you are that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Whats with all the blame in society today.



ONE PERSON IS TO BLAME...



THE SHOOTER...