Probably all I'm going to say about it
Below is a link to a Greenville News article in which I was quoted. The quotes were taken from an email I wrote to the reporter, which is given below. As usual writing made me feel better, but words are unsatisfying and unfulfilling tools with which to describe or reflect on something of this magnitude. All of us here are living through a nightmare right now.
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/NEWS01/704170366
Preliminarily:
>>>what it was like up there this morning.
The biggest excitement when I woke up around 8 AM was that it was flurrying snow. I was doing homework in my room when the first email sent at 9:26 AM arrived. It said:
"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.
The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411
Stay attuned to the www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information. "
I Instant Messaged several friends to discuss, but I really wasn't concerned and still planned to go to class. I figured that if anything serious were going on they would have sent a more urgent email. A few minutes later I heard from sirens. More sirens picked up over the next 10-15 minutes.
At 9:50 AM a university-wide email was sent out that said:
"A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows " [sic]. The subject line was "PLease stay put" and there was no period at the end of the last sentence. It wasn't signed or addressed. In other words, it was obviously a message in extreme haste and urgency. That's when I turned the TV on and my friends and I in the dorm started congregating and discussing. At that time the report was 1 person dead in West AJ and maybe one or two other harmed. The class cancellation announcement for today went out about this time. At around 10:30 AM I emailed my parents to let them know that I was fine. An announcement started going out on an Emergency PA system set up around campus telling everyone to stay inside. All during this time police and ambulance sirens could be heard.
It was a little after 11:15 AM later that I heard that there was a shooting at Norris Hall, and soon thereafter I heard from a friend that the body count had jumped to 20. That's when I went numb, shortly followed by very angry and full of disbelief.
>>>Could you hear the shots?
I couldn't hear the shots. My dorm is separated from West AJ by several hundred yards and several building, but is far from Norris.
>>>What was going through your mind?
After I heard the body count jumped to 20, I went to check on my girlfriend and commune with other friends in my dorm. Several students set up an impromptu prayer group. Since the campus was on lockdown we organized a pot luck lunch in the dining room adjacent to our dorm. What was going through my mind, after a bout of anger, was simple disbelief and deep sadness for everyone who lost someone. I recalled the WH Auden poem "Stop All the Clocks," a poem of grief, whose last line is "For nothing now can ever come to any good." and I was deeply sad for all the family and friends who would be feeling that soon.
>>>Have you been able to account for your friends? What's the mood on campus now?
Thankfully I do not know of any of my friends who have been victims. The mood on campus was fear, anger, and disbelief. The disbelief has been replaced by sadness. The anger is still very much there, especially as more details emerge about how the shooter carried out what he did. A friend of mine had class on the 2nd floor of Norris. His class heard raucous in the hallway; a girl went to look, then slammed the door quickly and told people there was a guy with a gun in the hallway. After about a minute or so of hiding under the desks, my friend said he suggested they barricade the door, and someone slid the teacher's desk hard against it. About 20 seconds after that the shooter tried to open it, couldn't get it open, shot through the door twice (to no effect), and went across the hall. They hadn't barricaded their door, and he heard the shooter start unloading into that room. The word was he chained the exits before starting the rampage. Weapon was a semi-automatic pistol; my friend said spent clips and shell casings were on the ground, as well as the remains of the carnage. All told it was ~20 minutes between the first shot and his being evacuated by the police. He had only good things to say about the way the police handled everything.
Specifically, I am very upset at the idea that the first shooting happened at 7:15 AM, yet we weren't notified until 9:26 AM and the message did not contain any urgency. I have great faith in the administration and police here, but if their negligence resulted in the deaths of these students, then my anger and sense of betrayal will be directed at them as well.
I will try to call you back after 6 PM. I'm going to leave my dorm for the first time today and head to a dining hall to get some dinner. My dorm was supposed to have a fancy joint dinner with another dorm this evening, but that has of course been cancelled. Instead we're trying to organize a group of them and us to go get dinner together at the dining hall.
I hope all this has been helpful and not too much information. Please let me know if you want further specifics on something.
Regards,
Ryan Luck
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070417/NEWS01/704170366
Preliminarily:
>>>what it was like up there this morning.
The biggest excitement when I woke up around 8 AM was that it was flurrying snow. I was doing homework in my room when the first email sent at 9:26 AM arrived. It said:
"A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.
The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411
Stay attuned to the www.vt.edu. We will post as soon as we have more information. "
I Instant Messaged several friends to discuss, but I really wasn't concerned and still planned to go to class. I figured that if anything serious were going on they would have sent a more urgent email. A few minutes later I heard from sirens. More sirens picked up over the next 10-15 minutes.
At 9:50 AM a university-wide email was sent out that said:
"A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows " [sic]. The subject line was "PLease stay put" and there was no period at the end of the last sentence. It wasn't signed or addressed. In other words, it was obviously a message in extreme haste and urgency. That's when I turned the TV on and my friends and I in the dorm started congregating and discussing. At that time the report was 1 person dead in West AJ and maybe one or two other harmed. The class cancellation announcement for today went out about this time. At around 10:30 AM I emailed my parents to let them know that I was fine. An announcement started going out on an Emergency PA system set up around campus telling everyone to stay inside. All during this time police and ambulance sirens could be heard.
It was a little after 11:15 AM later that I heard that there was a shooting at Norris Hall, and soon thereafter I heard from a friend that the body count had jumped to 20. That's when I went numb, shortly followed by very angry and full of disbelief.
>>>Could you hear the shots?
I couldn't hear the shots. My dorm is separated from West AJ by several hundred yards and several building, but is far from Norris.
>>>What was going through your mind?
After I heard the body count jumped to 20, I went to check on my girlfriend and commune with other friends in my dorm. Several students set up an impromptu prayer group. Since the campus was on lockdown we organized a pot luck lunch in the dining room adjacent to our dorm. What was going through my mind, after a bout of anger, was simple disbelief and deep sadness for everyone who lost someone. I recalled the WH Auden poem "Stop All the Clocks," a poem of grief, whose last line is "For nothing now can ever come to any good." and I was deeply sad for all the family and friends who would be feeling that soon.
>>>Have you been able to account for your friends? What's the mood on campus now?
Thankfully I do not know of any of my friends who have been victims. The mood on campus was fear, anger, and disbelief. The disbelief has been replaced by sadness. The anger is still very much there, especially as more details emerge about how the shooter carried out what he did. A friend of mine had class on the 2nd floor of Norris. His class heard raucous in the hallway; a girl went to look, then slammed the door quickly and told people there was a guy with a gun in the hallway. After about a minute or so of hiding under the desks, my friend said he suggested they barricade the door, and someone slid the teacher's desk hard against it. About 20 seconds after that the shooter tried to open it, couldn't get it open, shot through the door twice (to no effect), and went across the hall. They hadn't barricaded their door, and he heard the shooter start unloading into that room. The word was he chained the exits before starting the rampage. Weapon was a semi-automatic pistol; my friend said spent clips and shell casings were on the ground, as well as the remains of the carnage. All told it was ~20 minutes between the first shot and his being evacuated by the police. He had only good things to say about the way the police handled everything.
Specifically, I am very upset at the idea that the first shooting happened at 7:15 AM, yet we weren't notified until 9:26 AM and the message did not contain any urgency. I have great faith in the administration and police here, but if their negligence resulted in the deaths of these students, then my anger and sense of betrayal will be directed at them as well.
I will try to call you back after 6 PM. I'm going to leave my dorm for the first time today and head to a dining hall to get some dinner. My dorm was supposed to have a fancy joint dinner with another dorm this evening, but that has of course been cancelled. Instead we're trying to organize a group of them and us to go get dinner together at the dining hall.
I hope all this has been helpful and not too much information. Please let me know if you want further specifics on something.
Regards,
Ryan Luck