Shooting at Va. Tech

[Oz]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

So there were two shooters and one is dead? By his own hand or the cops?

From what they're saying, it's as if there was only one shooter.

I imagine they want to make sure that if there was more than one, that person wasn't allowed to walk away.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

BBAM ... they said on the local news that they were using some alert system that was in place for severe weather alerts across campus. It's a huge campus, though. These shootings all took place down in the area where most of the freshman dorms are.

How's that work? Is it a outdoor horn-type thing?

Yeah, you could hear it in the background during one of the early CNN reports...I think it was just a voice saying over and over, stay inside, away from windows, lock your doors...

Student on phone with CNN said they could hear the outdoor speaker system giving that warning.

 

[SCEditor]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

I don't know. There are reports of one person being arrested and another one being dead. There may have been two shooters.

As much as I hate to agree with Boots, he's right. There should have been a complete lockdown until everything was settled. Some people messed up. They shouldn't be crucified for it, because I'm sure they were doing the best they could, but that doesn't negate the fact that some errors were probably made.

 

[Pilot]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Again, why wasn't this school under lock down after the first shooting. We're talking about two hours here folks. Two hours.

Yeah, you've said that three times now. It appears the school was under some sort of lock down. People were told to remain indoors, away from windows, etc.

But you're talking about a giant campus and tens of thousands of people. It's not like a high school.

No ****. But the first order of business is to secure an area. It's apparent that didn't happen. That's disturbing.

They've got 26,000 students. Try communicating an urgent message to 26,000 students (plus faculty and staff) on a Monday morning at 7:30.

Mass e-mail? I work on a college campus. I might check my work e-mail Sunday afternoon/evening but certainly not an on average Monday morning before arriving to my office. Add in that students and faculty may go straight to class without checking e-mail to start the day ....

TV or radio? You think 26,000 students are watching TV/listening to the radio? (Consider how many people have an iPod).

Any other suggestions on getting the message out?

You're right, it'd be impossible to tell everyone, but word travels damn fast around a college campus too, especially now that everyone would have a cell phone. It shouldn't be very hard to tell everyone in a dorm, if you had the guy in charge of each floor go knocking on doors, and it wouldn't take very long to tell every greek house either, just one phone call. Beyond that, I don't know ... I'd imagine there are several big apartment sets that house mostly students and word could spread around pretty quickly there too. Maybe put cops at all the regular entry points for the campus and in the parking lots for those walking or driving. Again, you'd have thousands of students call each other to make sure everyone knew too.

I'm sure you couldn't get ahold of everyone, but I'd think within an hour, you could at least tell 60-75% of the people not to come, and have the rest turned away at parking lots or crosswalks.

But at this point, we have no idea what happened, so it seems a little silly to try and guess. Maybe they had reason to believe the first shooting was a one-time deal, just a plain old murder. That sounds stupid too though ... I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Killick]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Holy ****. Now I feel bad that my first reax was a Marcus Vick snicker. Prayers for the vics.

 

[Pilot]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Holy ****. Now I feel bad that my first reax was a Marcus Vick snicker. Prayers for the vics.

I made a similar stupid blunder when first told of an airplane flying into the World Trade Center. Of course the guy that relayed the story to me initially said "plane" not "huge friggen jet" so it pretty much was all his fault.

 

[93Devil]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

This school had a killer on it's campus earlier this year. What the red flag for me is how did this many people die?

You would think an emergency action plan of some sort should have gone into effect once this started. If these shooters were able to move from building to building then I will guarantee that someone's ass is on the line right now. Trust me, the "why the hell weren't we ready for this?" question will be asked to someone in the next few days and they better have a damn good answer.


Oh, do you think Nifong and Imus are glad they are off the front page?

 

[boots]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

I realize getting information to everyone at that time of day is difficult. However, especially in the wake of columbine and 911, lockdown procedures are supposed to be in effect. I wasn't there but it would appear there was a breakdown in communicating the information somewhere.

 

[Chi City 81]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Oh, do you think Nifong and Imus are glad they are off the front page?

I think there's bigger concerns right now than the news placement of Nifong and Imus. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

CNN anchors: We don't need you to say "I want you to" look and listen to this cell-phone video. Just play it. That's all the cue we need. We also don't need you to tell us how many hits it's had online so far, nor how amazing it is.

Just do your job, and please try to do it better and more respectfully.

 

[93Devil]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Oh, do you think Nifong and Imus are glad they are off the front page?

I think there's bigger concerns right now than the news placement of Nifong and Imus. But maybe that's just me.

True, but it is the way this industry works. Did you ever wonder what happened to Chandra Levy? Sept. 11th happened. Sorry. I think like a journalist sometimes too much. Not defending that. I'm just saying that.

Trust me when I say that I know a lot about public education, and that I am very interested to see how these shooters or shooter were able to move around the campus. 21 dead. Lord. Do you know how many rounds are needed to kill 21 people? The best shots in the world could not do it in under 50 unless they were all within 10 feet of the people when it happened.

 

[Sxysprtswrtr]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Holy cow. There's a special place in hell for the shooter. I hope he's skewered and BBQed for forever.

Wow. Thoughts and prayers aplenty.

----

As an aside, I'm really disappointed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch online presentation. I mean, 22 students KILLED and their web site still has a banner across the top touting Mother's Day and Performing Arts, etc. What the heck? What other bigger news story is going to happen in that area? This should be BLOWN out like nothing else. The Virginia Pilot online at least has given it the play it deserves.

 

[Leo Mazzone]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Any news on motive?

Just heard about this for the first time on Dan Patrick a few minutes ago. Said the guy was hunting down his ex-girlfriend or something. Not sure where he got it from. I haven't read the news reports yet.

 

[Ace]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Only good thing is that shooter is dead.

The shooters always die. Usually by their own hand. Cowards.

 

[Dangerous_K]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

Says prayer to self. "God please don't let it be a black man - amen"

WTF?! 22 people are murdered and that's your prayer?

 

[Mitch21]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

the shooter was using 2 9mm handguns

 

[DrewWilson]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

abcnews.com is now saying 25 dead, number expected to rise

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

The bigger issue here is that emergency communications in this country are still the cluster**** that they were before 9-11. You have police on one radio frequency, campus police on another frequency, EMS on another frequency, and here come the State Troopers on a digital frequency and, oh by the way, could someone please call th University president's office and let them know what the hell's going on?

 

[Mitch21]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

I went on a message board...and got this from a VT student....

"i am so outraged right now i cant even believe it. none of us in the building thought it was going to get this escalated. i am just so mad. the university could have ended this all except for the first killing.

i got an email at 9:22 am saying there was a shooter who killed someone in the dorm in the morning. they should have cancelled classes then, instead they let kids go to class, and now over 20 are dead. they refuse to cancel classes until its too late."

 

[Dangerous_K]

Re: Another shooting at Va. Tech

the shooter was using 2 9mm handguns

I hate to bring politics into this, but this seems like the quintessential example of why people don't need handguns readily available. You're not going to hunt deer with a 9mm.