If you have not already heard......another sad individual.

[Booney]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=261448

Another case of one sorry or sick person making his ill feeling part of history.Another sad day indeed.

[MW]

Only in America hey.....unbelievable

[Ian]

Very sad indead, I wish I could say "only in America", but one sicko in Tassie blew that theory

[Ian]

33 killed in deadliest US shooting
Tuesday Apr 17 07:00 AEST

By ninemsn staff and wires

A gunman who pumped bullets into a dormitory and classrooms at a US university killed 32 students and injured dozens more before taking his own life in the bloodiest shooting massacre in US history.

Charles Steger, Virginia Tech president, confirmed the death toll at a news conference.


"It is now confirmed that we have 31 deaths from Norris Hall, including the gunman .... There are two confirmed deaths from the shooting in Ambler Johnston Dormitory," Steger said.

Steiger told reporters that 15 people were wounded in the shootings and that the gunman had not yet been identified.

The attacks occured at Virginia Tech University, some 425km southwest of Washington.

Police said the gunman committed suicide after the rampage.

The gunman is believed to have initially stormed the Ambler Johnston dormitory at Virginia Tech, killing two, and then gone on to open fire in Norris Hall, a building housing engineering classrooms, two hours later.

"The gunman took his own life," campus police chief Wendell Flinchum told reporters.


Student Michael O'Brien told Fox News he was walking across the school's drill field when he heard a gunshot and saw students scrambling out of the building.

"You could see students carrying what looked like bodies out of Norris Hall (the engineering building) and there were ambulances out there that drove down to pick them up and sped off towards the hospital."

The White House, which earlier said US President George W. Bush was "horrified" by the carnage, announced he would make at statement at 4:15pm (2015 GMT).

The university earlier reported on its website that a total of 22 people had been confirmed killed, surpassing the 15 who died in the April 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that shocked the nation and world.

Even with 22 dead, Monday's shooting rampage is overshadowed only by a 1927 bombing at a Michigan school that killed 38 children and seven teachers.

Police gave only sketchy details of the carnage that started around 7:15am local time when the gunman walked into a dormitory at the 135-year-old university and opened fire, killing at least one person.

The others were killed later in the classroom building. Flinchum gave no details of the horror, but said people died in "multiple locations" in the building.

One student told CNN that the gunman entered the second building, chained the doors closed and began shooting into each classroom.

Local television quoted witnesses as saying the gunman was a young Asian man, but little else was known about the shooter, including whether or not he was a student.

"At this time we believe it was only one gunman. He is deceased," Flinchum said, without elaborating on the circumstances of his death.

Virginia Tech canceled classes and locked down the sprawling engineering and research university which has some 28,000 students and more than 100 buildings spread across 1,040 hectares. The university hosts students from 35 countries and foreign students make up seven percent of the student body.

Counseling centers were set up for students as the authorities evacuated the campus and started the process of recovering from what university president Charles Steger called a tragedy of "monumental proportion."

"The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us," Steger told a news conference. "I cannot begin to convey my own personal sense of loss over this senseless and incomprehensible heinous act."

The chaos was captured in dramatic cell phone video footage that picked up the clatter of bullets fired in the attack, which came just days ahead of the anniversary of the shooting rampage at Columbine on April 20, 1999.

Television showed heavily armed police rushing across the grounds in a light snowfall while witnesses reported scenes of terror and panic with school officials urging people to stay indoors.

"The police officers were trying to, you know, settle everyone down and keep everything under control," Amy Steele, chief editor of the student newspaper, told CNN. "One of the injuries happened from a student jumping out of a window."

The incident renewed concern over school security and access to guns that was rekindled last year by a rash of shootings. Virginia Tech itself was no stranger to violence.

In August, an escaped prisoner tried to hide on the campus, US media reported. A security guard and a policeman were killed before the man was re-arrested.

Virginia Tech's website also announced that a reward had been posted on Sunday for information leading to the arrest of those behind two bomb hoaxes at the campus on April 2 and 13.

[TroyGFC]

Very sad indeed. hopefully no copy cats.

[Il Duce]

Just like after Port Arthur & Columbine, I will ask the same question........why? and probably get the same answer that i wont accept as an excuse........ he/she/they are/were sicko's.

[PhilG]

..

[Il Duce]

When will the US get it through their thick skulls?

THEY NEED GUN LAWS!

We had the guts to do it. What's their problem?

hear hear

[Dutchy]

if you have the time check out this US forum to get their reaction -

http://forum.therx.com/showthread.php?t=477773

[rod_rooster]

When will the US get it through their thick skulls?

THEY NEED GUN LAWS!

We had the guts to do it. What's their problem?

Absolutely they do. It is far too easy to get your hands on a gun in the US. They claim it is in their constitution and it is their right to have a gun but why? Why is it anyones right to own something that is designed to kill? It will never change in the US though and is the reason there will continue to be regular mass shootings there.

[TroyGFC]

Have a look at the size of the school, far king huge.
http://www.vt.edu/where_we_are/maps/doc ... lowres.pdf

[Hondo]

Someone over there MUST stand up to the gun lobby. The right to bear arms is obselete. The invade other countries looking for terrorists and yet their own citizens do this to themselves.

[TroyGFC]

if you have the time check out this US forum to get their reaction -

http://forum.therx.com/showthread.php?t=477773

Geez some interesting reading 12pages!! Only read first 4 then last 2 but geez, not good.

[Dutchy]

from the forum here is a picture of the allegeded shooter (from a year book)

deleted - wrong bloke!

[MW]

I thought he was of asian appearance?

[TroyGFC]

Here is a lastest story from a witness in the room.

VIRGINIA Tech University student Erin Sheehan has told how her class of 25 was methodically cut down to four by a gunman who burst in to the German lesson.

Ms Sheehan spoke calmly as she recounted to CNN her brush with the killer responsible for the deadliest school shooting spree in US history that left 33 people dead.

"He was, I would say, about a little bit under six feet tall, young looking, Asian, dressed sort of strangely, almost like a boy scout, very short-sleeved light, tan shirt and some sort of ammo vest with black over it,'' she said.

She said he was carrying what appeared to be a black handgun and peeked in twice to the class before later coming back with murderous intent.

"He just stepped within five feet of the door and started firing,'' said Ms Sheehan, a first-year student and mechanical engineering major.

"He seemed very thorough about it, getting almost everyone down. I was trying to act dead,'' she said.

"He left for about 30 seconds, came back in, did almost exactly the same thing. I guess he heard us still talking.

"And then we forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, the door would not lock. And so he came and tried to force himself in another three times and started shooting through the door.''

Ms Sheehan said the class had 25 people in it plus the professor.

"When we left, only four of us left,'' she said. "Everyone was else was unconscious, either dead or wounded seriously.''

[PhilG]

..

[Dutchy]

apologies, didnt fully read it...

[TroyGFC]

The handguns used had 19 in chamber. He allegedly chained doors locked so people couldn't escape him.

[whatcha got there?]

i dont understand it. americans claim that they keep guns in their households as a form of protection because the crime rate over there is so high.


well sorry, but their crime rate wouldnt be so f**king high if they had tougher laws to obtain guns in the first place.