On the morning of April 16, 2007, Cho Seung-Hui, a senior at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, killed 32 people and wounded 25 others in the worst school shooting in American history. The 23-year-old Cho then killed himself to avoid capture.
Fast Facts:
- Occured on Monday, April 16, 2007
- Timeframe: 7:15 and 9:30 am
- Cho's name is also correctly given, in Americanized form, as 'Seung-Hui Cho'
- Used hollow-point ammunition
- Deaths: 33 (including Cho)
- Six of the injuries were from students jumping from windows to escape
- The deadliest school massacre remains the 1927 bombing in Bath, Michigan, with 45 dead and 58 injured
First Incident
The shootings occurred in two separate incidents, beginning at around 7:15 AM at the university's West Ambler Johnston dorm. Cho reportedly gained access to the building and shot a supposed former girlfriend, Emily Hilscher, 19, and dorm resident advisor Ryan Clark, 22, in Hilscher's room. Cho then left the scene and returned to his own dorm, where he deleted email from his computer and removed its hard drive. He then stopped at the campus post office and mailed a package containing videos and writings to NBC News.
Second Incident
The second and more deadly phase of the shootings began shortly after 9 AM, when Cho reportedly entered a classroom building, Norris Hall, armed with a Glock 19 and Walther P-22 handguns. Cho chained the exits shut, leaving a note on one of the chained doors that opening it would detonate a bomb, then went to the building's second floor and entered several classrooms, firing approximately 175 rounds in a sustained attack that lasted nine minutes.Police then entered the building, and Cho shot himself in the head before officers reached the second floor.
Response
Response to the shootings included mobilization by the American Red Cross, who sent counselors to the traumatized Virginia Tech campus, and a visit by President George W. Bush. Congress passed a gun-control measure, with rare approval by the National Rifle Association, designed to tighten restrictions on handgun purchases by criminals or individuals, like Cho, with a history of mental illness.
