The shooting today at Virginia Tech is dreadful news. I have fond memories of the time I spent at Tech and of the fine folks there. Blacksburg is (was?) one of the most idyllic college towns in the nation. .
I want to extend my condolences to the families and friends of the people shot today.
I just finished speaking to someone in that area who has been following the local news and breaking story all day. I don’t know how much coverage it has received on the national news yet, but it sounds like the response by the university and the local police to the first round of shootings raises some grave questions.
As a VT Engineering Science and Mechancis graduate where I walked the corridors for 3 years and eventually defended a PhD thesis, I take this mayhem personally. I hate to hear that one of the great professors of ESM has been a victim.
It is simply an unbelievable act that forever alters my memories of the great 3.5 years I had at Tech.
Hope Tech recovers…….
I just wanted to offer my condolences to everyone affected today. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved.
Tech has great students & great profs and I am sure it will recover.
This is the second mass shooting at VT within the last year or so.
Some personnel changes are long overdue.
Hey Jim, didnt realize the connection, so sorry for you and old memories. Man, thats tough
Steve – thanks.
The great memories are still great, despite the tragedy.
Once a Hokie, always a Hokie (even if I didn’t graduate).
For universities, public facilities, and every other venue, our society has come time and again to this faceless, mindless mayhem and madness. It can’t be explained, yet why do we accept it? With rehearsed dismissal we seem to have done so. Internal terrorism, both personally and nationally, as a cold scalpel, has cut out the heart of peace . We accept it as violence in movies and TV, as misplaced anger abounds. Families of the deceased bear the heaviest grief and might they somehow feel the support of those of us whose hearts ache alike.
Jim, here are some links you might find of interest starting with a statement from Jim Lark:
http://www.lp.org/fp/article_483.shtml
A strange photo gallery from Roanoke Times where they show the cops occupied with detaining an asian guy instead of looking for the gunman:
http://www.roanoke.com/photography/slideshows/galleries/vaTechShootings041607/gallery.html
An ongoing timeline of news:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/breaking/wb/113294
Lastly, an old article about VT banning guns on campus:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/xp-21770
I guess the gunman didn’t hear about that.
Hmmm, I just looked at the gallery page again and notice they have removed the pictures of the cops arresting the asian guy. I wonder what’s up with that?
Maybe privacy concerns for the poor guy who is most likely completely innocent?
There are pictures of the asian guy getting arrested here:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1260892,00.html
Tom – Thanks for the links and the comments.
On the Jim Lark statement – Jim, who is now a professor of engineering at the Univ. of Virginia, did his undergrad studies in engineering at VT and probably took a heap of classes at Norris Hall.
I recall the Columbine shootings back in ’99 – with each passing day, the police response to the shooters looked more damning.
…What an utter nightmare, every aspect of it. My condolences; for they’re worth, to all involved.