On April 16, 2007, 32 people died after being gunned down
on the campus of Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho, a student
at the college who later died by 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.
Cho Seung-hui, the Virginia Tech gunman who killed 32
people before turning the gun on himself. Photograph:
AP
