A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours
later, shot up a classroom across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the
deadliest shooting rampage in U.S.
history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.
The massacre took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus,
beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed dormitory that houses 895 people, and
continuing at least two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building
about a half-mile away, authorities said.
Two people were killed in a dormitory room, and 31 others were killed in the
engineering building, including the gunman, police said.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the
shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman
had fled the campus.
Investigators offered no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not
immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.
The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus. Witnesses reporting
students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire.
SWAT team members with helmets, flak
jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. Students and
faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for
ambulances to arrive.
Students complained that there were no public-address announcements or
other warnings on campus after the first burst of gunfire. They said the first
word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into
the rampage - around the time the gunman struck again.
Steger defended the university's handling of the tragedy, saying: "We can
only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don't have
hours to reflect on it."
Steger said the university decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic
means of notifying members of the university, but with 11,000 people driving
onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out. He
said that before the e-mail went out, the university began telephoning resident
advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to spread
the word.
At least 26 people were being treated at three area hospitals for gunshot
wounds and other injuries, authorities said. Their exact conditions were not
disclosed, but at least one was sent to a trauma center and six were in surgery,
authorities said.
Up until Monday, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen,
Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby's
Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
（Agencies）
Vocabulary:
shooting rampage:
亂槍掃射
coed dormitory:
男女合住的宿舍
flak jacket：防彈衣
