Monday, April 16, 2007

Massacre At University Residence & Norris Halls

כ"ח בניסן תשס"ז

Chaim of Life Of Rubin blogs today's tragic massacre at the Virginia Tech:

A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 30 people in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, a Justice Department official told CBS News. The gunman was killed but it was unclear if he was shot by police or took his own life.

At least 20 others were injured in the shootings, police said.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said Virginia Tech president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. EST at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.

See link above for several associated newslinks.

UPDATE: Including the shooter, 33 reported dead, at least 29 more injured.

UPDATES blogged here.

Professor Liviu Librescu: Israeli Hero At VA Tech

7 comments:

Charlie said...

Regarding the West AJ crime scene:
Before assuming that both this incident and the Norris Hall scene were perpetrated by the same person, think about this scenario...

A disgruntled boyfriend goes upstairs to the 4th floor of the West AJ dorm. He kills his girlfriend, then commits suicide. In that circumstance, the two incidents would most likely not be related at all.

Both incidents may be related, BUT we are NOT sure just yet...

Lori said...

The details of the crime scene are not part of my dream, so I am as clueless as the rest of the world as to what went on at Virginia Tech. My dream disconnects from reality at the point where I ran from the hall following the ladies' act of separating my food out from the kettle.

My thinking on the connection is this: the act of separation that I found objectionable was an act designed to separate the man who liked me from me; in other words, to separate something not meant to be separated. There was no violence perpetrated in my dream. I escaped the act meant to bring violence into my life. Having escaped, in the dream, the violence aimed at me through the ladies' act of separation (in the dream) found expression in the real world at Virginia Tech.

Lori said...

In my mind, I am connecting the attack directed at me through the dream with unrefined erroneous-thinking zealotry. You know, the kind of thinking that believes everyone else who thinks differently is wrong and evil.

Lori said...

Clearly, in my dream, there was a united effort among the ladies to make my contribution appear insufficient even though it wasn't.

Lori said...

Why would I want to consider a disgruntled boyfriend killing his girlfriend and then committing suicide? I have no cause to consider such a thing. The police investigators will, however, consider what the evidence suggests.

Charlie said...

I was wrong about the original idea of a murder/suicide...

The highlights of the 7:30pm ET press briefing are:

* Virginia Tech Campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum has preliminary ID of gunman, but are not releasing the name.
* Recovered two weapons, but won't release the details
* ATF is comparing ballistics from West AJ and Norris Hall
* Person of interest ID'd after shooting at West Ambler Johnston. That person is not in custody. He is not known to police, according to Chief Flinchum.
* The first "person of interest" is still a person of interest -- "because he knows one of the victims" found dead in the dorm room.
* The "person of interest" is NOT a VT student
* The gunman found dead in Norris Hall is NOT the "person of interest" questioned in the West AJ dorm shooting.
* Murder /suicide has been ruled out at the incident in the dorm
* Chief Flinchum states that the Blacksburg Police Dept. located the "person of interest" in the dorm shooting -- and conducted an interview with him about the same time as the shootings were taking place in Norris Hall
* From the above statements, we can conclude that the police think that the shootings in West AJ are NOT related to the shootings in Norris Hall

Lori said...

Sunday evening, April 15, we counted thirteen days, which was one week and six days of the Omer.

Day 13 - Yesod of Gevurah: Bonding in Discipline.

Dare to be true to yourself.