Tuesday, April 17
The day after the massacre
Less than 24 hours after the mass slaughter of 32 students and instructors at Virginia Tech university in Blacksburg, more details surface about Seung-hui Cho, the 23-year-old man who went on a rampage in two separate shooting incidents before killing himself. He used a .22 caliber Walther and a Glock 9mm, CNN reports. The Smoking Gun.com publishes a violent play written by Cho that caused him to be removed from class. Officials do not release the names of victims, but The Washington Post begins profiling the dead.
 Students mourn together outside Norris Hall on the Virginia Tech campus. Cho ravaged four classrooms with two handguns; he reportedly never spoke and shot each victim at least three times. |
Hoos mourn Hokies
A vigil brings a candle-bearing crowd to UVA’s amphitheater. President John T. Casteen, III addresses concerns about safety on campus. Beta Bridge is painted in Virginia Tech colors, and UVA students post thousands of messages and pictures on Facebook.com and other social networking sites to show their support.
Wednesday, April 18
When students snap
Dr. Russ Federman, UVA’s director of counseling and psychological services, speaks to NPR about how campuses can deal with mentally ill students, after reports that Cho was referred to counseling and hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation in 2005.
Shooter speaks
 Seung-hui Cho, the gunman who killed 32 before committing suicide at Virginia Tech, was “quiet and reserved,” said his sister. “We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.” |
NBC News coins a new phrase: multimedia manifesto. That’s what it calls the package of photos, video clips and printed materials the network receives from the Virginia Tech gunman today. The gunman mailed the materials in between the first and second shootings. In them he rails against the wealthy and calls Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold “martyrs.”
The lessons of Columbine
Columbine survivor Brooks Brown tells NPR the best advice he received for overcoming that tragedy: “This has never happened to anyone before. So however you handle it is probably right.”
Thursday, April 19
Facebook chastises media
As students’ use of the Web for memorializing victims gets wide press, a spokesperson for social networking site Facebook.com issues a statement saying the media’s use of photos and quotes taken from the site is a “violation of user privacy.” The company also scolds journalists for using its site to solicit comments from friends of the victims.
Gun laws and mental illness
The media frenzy continues today over whether Cho’s purchase of weapons used in the shootings was legal in light of his having been involuntarily detained for mental illness in December 2005. Newsweek says a federal background check should have “stopped him cold,” but Donna Tate, manager of the Firearms Transaction Center of the Virginia State Police, says the temporary detainment did not create a barrier to Cho’s purchases under state gun laws.
Friday, April 20
Day of mourning
As declared by Governor Tim Kaine, today is a statewide day of mourning in Virginia. Meanwhile, UVA declares today “Orange and Maroon Day” after Virginia Tech’s school colors.
Day of remembering
 Local artists integrate the tragedy into a mural on the free speech wall at the Downtown Mall’s east end. Friday marked the wall’s first anniversary as well as the eighth anniversary of the Columbine massacre |
Today marks a couple of anniversaries: It’s been eight years since the Columbine school shooting that killed 12. And it’s one year since Charlottesville’s free speech monument was dedicated at the east end of the Downtown Mall. That milestone is marked by special chalk drawings by local artists like Greg Kelley and Pete O’Shea, the monument’s designer. The latter inserted the Tech flag into his reproduction of Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People,” saying, “It’s an opportunity to show solidarity.”
Saturday, April 21
The family speaks
An apology from Cho’s family is posted on CNN.com. Cho’s sister, Sun-Kyung, said, “My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.” The family emigrated from South Korea in 1992. Relatives from Seoul speak in a Sunday New York Times piece: Cho “didn’t say much, didn’t mix with other children,” an uncle said.
Sunday, April 22
Radical reactions
Newt Gingrich blames the Virginia Tech shooting on violent videogames and “liberalism” in an appearance on ABC News “This Week,” echoing sentiments he made after Columbine: “I want to say to the elite of this country—the elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you…of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made.” Earlier this week, members of Fred Phelps’ radical Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas vowed they would protest victims’ funerals with “God Hates Virginia Tech” signs.
Monday, April 23
Back to class
Classes resume at Virginia Tech today, a week after the shooting that left 27 students and five instructors dead. Students have the option to return to class, or take a grade for course work turned in so far. The school holds a moment of silence at 9:45am and 32 white balloons are released into the sky.
