Gunman's Writings Were Disturbing
Pastor Dale Morgan
Gunman's Writings Were Disturbing*
Wednesday April 18, 2007 2:01 AM
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was a
sullen loner who alarmed professors and classmates with his twisted,
violence-drenched creative writing and left a rambling note raging
against women and rich kids.
A chilling picture emerged Tuesday of Cho Seung-Hui - a 23-year-old
senior majoring in English - a day after the bloodbath that left 33
people dead, including Cho, who killed himself as police closed in.
News reports said that he may have been taking medication for depression
and that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic.
Despite the many warning signs that came to light in the bloody
aftermath, police and university officials offered no clues as to
exactly what set Cho off on the deadliest shooting rampage in modern
U.S. history.
``He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about
him,'' school spokesman Larry Hincker said.
A student who attended Virginia Tech last fall provided obscenity- and
violence-laced screenplays that he said Cho wrote as part of a
playwriting class they both took. One was about a fight between a
stepson and his stepfather, and involved throwing of hammers and attacks
with a chainsaw. Another was about students fantasizing about stalking
and killing a teacher who sexually molested them.
``When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare.
The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I
wouldn't have even thought of,'' former classmate Ian MacFarlane, now an
AOL employee, wrote in a blog posted on an AOL Web site. He said he and
other students ``were talking to each other with serious worry about
whether he could be a school shooter.''
``We always joked we were just waiting for him to do something, waiting
to hear about something he did,'' said another classmate, Stephanie
Derry. ``But when I got the call it was Cho who had done this, I started
crying, bawling.''
Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English
department, said Cho's writing was so disturbing that he had been
referred to the university's counseling service.
``Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never
know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're
imagining things or just how real it might be,'' Rude said. ``But we're
all alert to not ignore things like this.''
She said she did not know when he was referred for counseling, or what
the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his
grades, citing privacy laws. The counseling service refused to comment.
Cho - who arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992
and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., where his parents worked at
a dry cleaners - left a note that was found after the bloodbath.
A law enforcement official who read Cho's note described it Tuesday as a
typed, eight-page rant against rich kids and religion. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak
to the media.
``You caused me to do this,'' the official quoted the note as saying.
Cho indicated in his letter that the end was near and that there was a
deed to be done, the official said. He also expressed disappointment in
his own religion, and made several references to Christianity, the
official said.
The official said the letter was either found in Cho's dorm room or in
his backpack. The backpack was found in the hallway of the classroom
building where the shootings happened, and contained several rounds of
ammunition, the official said.
Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said
authorities were going through a considerable number of writings.
Citing unidentified sources, the Chicago Tribune reported Cho had
recently set a fire in a dorm room and had stalked some women.
Monday's rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart -
first at a dormitory, where two people were killed, then inside a
classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died. Two handguns -
a 9 mm and a .22-caliber - were found in the classroom building.
The Washington Post quoted law enforcement sources as saying Cho died
with the words ``Ismail Ax'' in red ink on one of his arms, but they
were not sure what that meant.
According to court papers, police found a ``bomb threat'' note -
directed at engineering school buildings - near the victims in the
classroom building. In the past three weeks, Virginia Tech was hit with
two other bomb threats. Investigators have not connected those earlier
threats to Cho.
Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003. His
family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse in Centreville, Va.
At least one of those killed in the rampage, Reema Samaha, graduated
from Westfield High in 2006. But there was no immediate word from
authorities on whether Cho knew the young woman and singled her out.
``He was very quiet, always by himself,'' neighbor Abdul Shash said.
Shash said Cho spent a lot of his free time playing basketball and would
not respond if someone greeted him.
Classmates painted a similar picture. Some said that on the first day of
a British literature class last year, the 30 or so students went around
and introduced themselves. When it was Cho's turn, he didn't speak.
On the sign-in sheet where everyone else had written their names, Cho
had written a question mark. ``Is your name, `Question mark?'''
classmate Julie Poole recalled the professor asking. The young man
offered little response.
Cho spent much of that class sitting in the back of the room, wearing a
hat and seldom participating. In a small department, Cho distinguished
himself for being anonymous. ``He didn't reach out to anyone. He never
talked,'' Poole said.
``We just really knew him as the question mark kid,'' Poole said.
One law enforcement official said Cho's backpack contained a receipt for
a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol. Cho held a green card, meaning
he was a legal, permanent resident. That meant he was eligible to buy a
handgun unless he had been convicted of a felony.
Roanoke Firearms owner John Markell said his shop sold the Glock and a
box of practice ammo to Cho 36 days ago for $571.
``He was a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have
any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious,'' Markell said.
Investigators stopped short of saying Cho carried out both attacks. But
State Police ballistics tests showed one gun was used in both.
And two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
because the information had not been announced, said Cho's fingerprints
were on both guns, whose serial numbers had been filed off.
Gov. Tim Kaine said he will appoint a panel at the university's request
to review authorities' handling of the disaster. Parents and students
bitterly complained that the university should have locked down the
campus immediately after the first burst of gunfire and did not do
enough to warn people.
Kaine warned against making snap judgments and said he had ``nothing but
loathing'' for those who take the tragedy and ``make it their political
hobby horse to ride.''
On Tuesday afternoon, thousands of people gathered in the basketball
arena for a memorial service for the victims, with an overflow crowd of
thousands watching on a jumbo TV screen in the football stadium.
President Bush and the first lady attended.
``As you draw closer to your families in the coming days, I ask you to
reach out to those who ache for sons and daughters who are never coming
home,'' Bush said.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger received a 30-second standing
ovation, despite the criticism of the school administration.
With classes canceled for the rest of the week, many students left town
in a hurry, lugging pillows, sleeping bags and backpacks down the sidewalks.
Jessie Ferguson, 19, a freshman from Arlington, headed for her car with
tears streaming down her cheeks.
``I'm still kind of shaky,'' she said. ``I had to pump myself up just to
kind of come out of the building. I was going to come out, but it took a
little bit of 'OK, it's going to be all right. There's lots of cops
around.'''
She added: ``I just don't want to be on campus.''
Stories of heroism and ingenuity emerged Tuesday.
Liviu Librescu, an Israeli engineering and math lecturer, was killed
after he was said to have protected his students' lives by blocking the
doorway of his classroom from the gunman. And one student, an Eagle
Scout, probably saved his own life by using an electrical cord as a
tourniquet around his bleeding thigh, a doctor reported.
On Tuesday night as darkness fell, thousands of Virginia Tech students,
faculty and area residents poured into the center of campus to grieve
together. They held thousands of candles aloft as speakers urged them to
find solace in one another.
``We will move on from this. But it will take the strength of each other
to do that,'' said Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student affairs.
``We want the world to know we are Virginia Tech, we will recover, we
will survive with your prayers.''
---
Associated Press writers Stephen Manning in Centreville, Va.; Matt
Barakat in Richmond, Va.; Lara Jakes Jordan and Beverley Lumpkin in
Washington; and Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey, Adam Geller and Justin Pope in
Blacksburg contributed to this report.