BLACKSBURG, Virginia (CNN) -- A gunman who killed at least 30 people in one of two shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech Monday was dressed ”almost like a Boy Scout,” said a student who survived by pretending to lie dead on a classroom floor.
”He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing,” said Erin Sheehan who was in one of the Norris Hall classrooms where the second shooting incident took place.
Sheehan described the gunman -- who later shot and killed himself according to police -- as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
”He seemed very thorough about it -- getting almost everyone down -- I pretended to be dead,” she said. (Student survives by playing dead )
”He was very silent,” said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.
The gunman left but returned in about 30 seconds. ”I guess he heard us still talking,” said Sheehan.
”We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn’t come in again, because the door would not lock.”
The man tried three more times to force his way in and then began firing through the door, she said.
Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher’s office.
Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area.(Watch a student’s recording of police responding to loud bangs )
”They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn’t cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot,” Otey said. ”I guess they were afraid, like us -- like the shooter was going to be among one of us.” (Watch students react to shooting )
Some students leaped from windows to escape said Matt Waldron.
”These two kids I guess had panicked and jumped out of the top-story window and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground.”
Madison Van Duyne said she and her classmates in a media writing class were on ”lockdown” in their classroom where they where writing about the shootings and posting online.
Shooter chained doors shut
University President Charles Steger told reporters Monday night that police found the front doors of Norris chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped. (Watch gunfire on the campus )
The shooter attacked more than one classroom at Norris Hall, according to police. The death total there -- 31 including the gunman -- makes it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a 22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene.
University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that they had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.
Dormitory shooting two hours earlier
Two people were killed in a separate incident at a dormitory on the campus about two hours before the Norris Hall incident, at around 7:15 a.m.
The dormitory, West Ambler Johnston Hall, houses 895 students and is located near the drill field and stadium. (Campus map)
Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the two incidents are related.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter for the dormitory incident. (Watch the police chief explain where bodies were found )
At the time of the later shootings at Norris Hall, police were investigating a ”person of interest” in the dormitory shootings, Flinchum said. But the man -- a non-student who knew one of the victims -- had not been arrested, and it is unclear if he has any link to the other gunman, he said.
One dormitory victim identified
Courtney Dalton, an 18-year-old student who worked at West End Dining Hall, said her friend Ryan Clark was one of the two dormitory victims.
She said Clark, a resident assistant at West Johnston Ambler Hall, had once worked at the cafeteria serving pizza.
”He was a happy person; this is really sad,” she said, sobbing.
”All I can do is pray for his family now,” she told CNN.com.
Officials thought first incident was isolated
Asked why the campus, which has more than 26,000 students, was not shut down after the first shooting, Flinchum responded that police determined ”it was an isolated event to that building and the decision was made not to cancel classes at that time.” (Officials thought shooter had fled)
The university has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Classes also have been canceled Tuesday. In Washington, the House and Senate observed moments of silence for the victims and President Bush said the nation was ”shocked and saddened” by news of the tragedy.
Last August, the first day of class was cut short at Virginia Tech by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff’s deputy.
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in the United States occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.
CNN’s Ashley Fantz and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.
(更多連結)
Gunman slaughters more than 30
More than 30 people were killed Monday in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, according to university officials -- making it the deadliest school shooting incident in U.S. history. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger called the killings ”a tragedy of monumental proportions.”
FULL STORY
• Gallery: I-Reporters capture the scene of the shootings
• Officials thought killer left campus after first shooting
• 360?Blog: Tragedy caught on camera
• Students describe their ’College Columbine’
THE TRAGEDY
• Gallery: Scene of the shootings
• Cop draw guns, hunt shooter
• Map: On campus | Blacksburg, Virginia
• Where the bodies were found
• School head: ’Monumental horror’
EYEWITNESS
• Students describe panic, confusion after shooting
• Student: I knew this was serious
• I-Report: Caught on a cell phone
• I-Report: Send your thoughts, photo
• Police hustle to the scene
SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
• Time.com: Fatal shootings at colleges and schools
• Amish school shooter was ’angry at life’
• Gunman opens fire on Montreal campus
• Deadly end to Colorado school siege
離開母校幾年後，沒想到第一件聽到母校的消息，竟然是這樣子驚人的校園喋血案件....
在凌晨，有人通知我轉開電視看CNN的即時新聞，我看到的是再熟悉不過的校園、還有那一幢幢防中古世紀的建築，CNN的主播字正腔圓的說出Virginia Tech in Blacksburg had deadly shootings in the campus in the morning of 7 :15，我整個人從睡意中驚醒。
仔細看了轉播以後，才發現事情真的很嚴重，我的心裡面像是酸辣湯在肚裡燒，五味雜陳又想吐。
看了一直不斷更新的最新消息，我才意識到，一開始被開槍殺害的二個被害人就是在我們以前住的宿舍裡，而且竟然是疑似情殺。
從凌晨的CNN看到早上的台灣新聞台也報導了這個大頭條新聞，加上坐在路旁喝飲料的婦人手上的報紙也有一幅幅大篇幅的報導，我知道事態嚴重，而且整個心就更糾結在一起，擔心著學校的老師是否安然無恙，下午回到電腦前，我開始寫信給當初最照顧我的指導教授，也是當初簽核同意我的申請的教授。
我在信中除了問候老師是否安好，也問起其他同一個辦公室裡的老師及其他職員，也表示我對於母校發生這種意外感到無限的傷痛，真的很難相信一直以來都很美好安寧的校園跟整個社區會發生這種令人不可置信的慘案，一邊看著網路上CNN的最新報導及採訪錄影，我不敢相信自己的眼睛。
校園美麗的場景，那個大到一個不行的綠地，跟其他男生一起踢足球的草坪，還有學校裡的道路，每一個景都有我快樂的回憶，尤其是宿舍的場景，更讓我覺得發噱，自己曾經就住在第一命案發生的現場，跟著其他同學一起渡過我們的學生生活，沒想到...
希望那些愛害者能安息，也願受傷者能從險境脫離，更希望目前留在學校裡的每一個人，能團結，繼續對學校存有信心與希望，就像在追思會上大家在涰泣追悼受害者時一直呼喊的口號「Hokies!」，把我們Hokies的精神拿出來，渡過學校這段黑暗期，Go Hokies!!!
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