Victims Remembered and Questions Swirl Around Response

Condolences continue to pour into Blacksburg from all corners of the country and President Bush attended a special service on the campus to remember and memorialize those who died.

So, we learn that other students began to realize that Cho was a ticking time bomb and that even some professors thought something wasn't quite right and referred Cho to counseling because of several creative writing pieces that included extremely disturbing themes.

He was a chubby-cheeked campus creep who stalked at least three pretty co-eds - terrifying one enough that her parents called the cops on him - before he wound up unleashing Virginia Tech's bloodbath.

"I stopped telling friends to come to my room, especially girls," the shaken roommate of mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui, identified only as John, revealed in a chilling interview yesterday.

One night earlier this year, the twisted Cho "closed the door [of their room] and turned to me and said, 'Hey, you want to know why I went up to that girl's dorm room the other night?' " John said.

The brother of a roommate of Cho said that Cho was an extremely quiet person who didn't say much of anything to him in the eight months they lived together. There were several times when his brother commented that Cho's quiet demeanor creeped him out and that Cho wouldn't even return simple greetings like "hello" when they would pass in the halls. He was a loner and spent quite a bit of time on the Internet.

The New York Times is reporting that the two hour delay was due to chasing down a lead that turned out to be false.

And new information emerged that may help explain a fateful two-hour delay by university officials in warning the campus of a gunman at large. According to search warrants and statements from the police, campus investigators had been busy pursuing what appears to have been a fruitless lead in the first of two shooting episodes Monday.

After two people, Emily Jane Hilscher, a freshman, and Ryan Clark, the resident adviser whose room was nearby in the dormitory, were shot dead, the campus police began searching for Karl D. Thornhill, who was described in Internet memorials as Ms. Hilscher’s boyfriend.

According to a search warrant filed by the police, Ms. Hilscher’s roommate had told the police that Mr. Thornhill, a student at nearby Radford University, had guns at his town house. The roommate told the police that she had recently been at a shooting range with Mr. Thornhill, the affidavit said, leading the police to believe he may have been the gunman.

But as they were questioning Mr. Thornhill, reports of widespread shooting at Norris Hall came in, making it clear that they had not contained the threat on campus. Mr. Thornhill was not arrested, although he continues to be an important witness in the case, the police said.

Of course, folks are getting into the overheated debate over gun control and whether the concealed carry restrictions played a role in this horrible criminal act. Some would like to see the Second Amendment repealed. Good luck with that. No way in hell that would happen. Besides, criminals by their very definition, are going to violate whatever laws are on the books to obtain the weapons. Law abiding citizens are the ones would be most harmed by such restrictions.

Some folks who are commenting on the weapons used have no clue about what weapons were involved, let alone the gun laws that are applicable in the case. Keith Olbermann for example. He decides to blame President Bush and the GOP for letting a certain law expire that would have prohibited the sale of high capacity ammunition clips. Big problem Keith - the weapons actually used in the massacre could not even use the expanded ammunition clips. Confederate Yankee slices and dices Olbermann's feeble argument and takes ABC News to task for peddling that bogus argument about expanded ammunition clips despite no evidence they were even part of the criminal acts at Virginia Tech.

There's a separate question of whether the screening process to purchase handguns was sufficient, and that is an issue that should be examined. I wonder just how much screening would actually be sufficient to avoid selling a weapon to someone who is mentally unstable. Are you going to prevent sales to people who are taking certain medications - such as those used in treating mental illness, sleep disorders, or even acne.

Meanwhile, the training and tactics of the police responding to the developing situation at Virginia Tech is being scrutinized from all corners.

UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee posts another lengthy rejoinder to the misstatements about the state of firearms laws over the past decade and its application to the extended ammo clips.

UPDATE:
The more we learn about Cho, the more people are realizing just how much of a ticking time bomb this guy was. He appears to have had serious issues and worried the heck out of a lot of people.

Flopping Aces note that the police appeared to have acted reasonably based on the information that was developing from the initial crime scene - Johnston Hall where the first two people were found shot to death. The police were going on evidence that pointed to a lovers' quarrel and that a complete shutdown of the campus wasn't warranted.

We also learn that Cho was taken to a mental health facility in December 2005. Apparently they were quite concerned about his condition. It's quite difficult to deal with someone suffering from mental illness, let alone someone who may not be willing to be treated or recognize that something is wrong.

And Hot Air points to a mental health expert who believes that Cho wasn't simply suffering from depression, but schizophrenia.

How he related to his roommate was just too bizarre to be depression. The bizarre content of his plays — mashing a half-eaten “banana bar” in someone’s mouth, the hypersexual, nihilistic (death obsessed) obsessions in the absence of depressive guilt or tearfulness are another clue. The progressive decline of a period of years. Those with schizophrenia, especially in their earliest years, are not readily recognizable as such — their condition is evolving. But here was someone who, as early as 2005, was carrying himself so strangely that he was a spectacle. The depressed withdraw and disappear. Those who are so peculiar in their manner so as to be inappropriate (taking cell phone pictures of his teacher, speaking inaudibly, pulling a cap low over his eyes) exhibit signs and symptoms more indicative of schizophrenia. He was communicating in a rambling manner reflective of what we appreciate as autistic thinking — characteristic of schizophrenia. In a similar vein, Mr. Cho’s stilted communication in his homicide note (deceitful charlatans — not the language of a 23-year-old college kid) is also the manner of a schizophrenic’s communications, as is his pronounced delay in responding to questions.

I'd actually be interested to read what the mental health experts who actually treated Cho in 2005 had to say on the matter - since they actually interacted, or attempted to interact, with Cho.

Ace makes an interesting observation about why people don't come forward when they see someone acting strangely. It's part of our cultural experience. Two of the women who were harassed by Cho declined to press charges. Maybe people don't want the hassle. Maybe people second guess themselves. And more to the point is whether people should report people who simply act weird.

I have no idea if it's a good idea, on balance, to start reporting the chronically strange to the authorities. I'm not sure what the cops could do, precisely, if they do in fact determine someone is deeply weird -- which is itself not an accepted diagnosis in the DSM IV. And cops can't "keep an eye" on certified weirdos forever.

But maybe it is about time people stopped being so damn nice and nonjudgmental and acted a little bit nosier and a little bit more the tattletale. Previously we've seen assassins and mass-murderers described so, so many times as "quiet" but "no one I'd ever imagine was capable of doing something like this." It's been speculated that that last bit was bullshit all along -- that people did suspect they were capable of doing something precisely like that -- and, perhaps because that cliche has been so well parodied, people are now much more willing to admit, "Yeah, I figured he was nuts, and maybe a pedophile, and maybe likely to shoot up the joint one day."

We'd probably have the police chasing after half the population that may act weird from time to time. There is no way to separate out the genuine weird and potentially dangerous from the transitory weird and nonthreatening types.

Besides, as it was pointed out elsewhere yesterday, you could find similar disturbing screenplays and themes written by Hollywood types and that wouldn't make anyone blink an eye, but Cho's writing in the university setting did raise eyebrows.

UPDATE:
Here come the copycats, including an incident at a New Jersey high school. Friday also marks the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, so there may be yet more threats called in forcing the shutdown of schools and facilities around the country. And for one student it cuts real close. Regina Rohde was at both Columbine and Virginia Tech when gunmen went on their shooting sprees.

UPDATE:
The updated list of victims can be found here. The VT College Paper is also covering various aspects of the crisis and its aftermath, including interviews with people in the English Department who interacted with Cho, along with a suspicious incident that was called in this morning and turned out to be a bogus threat.

UPDATE:
This is definitely going to be the lede on tonight's news broadcasts. What makes this stuff newsworthy? Is anyone in the media balancing the need to know versus the way this information may affect the families who lost loved ones or might spur copycats. Cho sent a package to NBC News - with the intent to become infamous in his last murderous acts. Well, he's succeeded in the murderous intent and his name and visage is definitely known to many.

UPDATE:
Hot Air has more details and analysis. How was Cho able to take the video in the window of time between the shootings, and where exactly was it shot? It would also appear that he used hollow point bullets, which would be particularly lethal ammo.

Others blogging: Sister Toldjah, Dan Riehl, and follow the links at memeorandum.