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Crime
2007

Virginia Tech shooting leaves 32 dead

In one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, 32
people died after being gunned down on the campus of Virginia
Tech by Seung Hui Cho, a student at the college who later
committed suicide.

The Virginia Tech shooting began around 7:15 a.m., when Cho, a
23-year-old senior and English major at Blacksburg-based
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, shot a
female freshman and a male resident assistant in a campus
dormitory before fleeing the building.

Police were soon on the scene; unaware of the gunman’s identity,
they initially pursued the female victim’s boyfriend as a
suspect in what they believed to be an isolated domestic-
violence incident.

However, at around 9:40 a.m., Cho, armed with a 9-millimeter
handgun, a 22-caliber handgun and hundreds of rounds of
ammunition, entered a classroom building, chained and locked
several main doors and went from room to room shooting people.
Approximately 10 minutes after the rampage began, he died from a
self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The attack left 32 people dead and more than a dozen wounded. In
all, 27 students and five faculty members died in the massacre.

Two days later, on April 18, NBC News received a package of
materials from Cho with a timestamp indicating he had mailed it
from a Virginia post office between the first and second
shooting attacks. Contained in the package were photos of a gun-
wielding Cho, along with a rambling video diatribe in which he
ranted about wealthy “brats,” among other topics.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting, authorities
found no evidence that Cho, who was born in South Korea and
moved to America with his family in 1992, had specifically
targeted any of his victims. The public soon learned that Cho,
described by students as a loner who rarely spoke to anyone, had
a history of mental-health problems.

It was also revealed that angry, violent writings Cho made for
certain class assignments had raised concern among some of his
professors and fellow students well before the events of April
16.

In 2011, Virginia Tech was fined by the U.S. Department of
Education for failing to issue a prompt campus-wide warning
after Cho shot his first two victims.

School officials sent an email notification about the dorm
shooting to students and faculty at 9:26 that morning. According
to the Department of Education, the message was vague and did
not indicate there had been a murder or that the gunman was
still at large.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/massacre-at-virginia- tech-leaves-32-dead
 

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