A day unlike any other at Virginia Tech
By: Amrita Raja
(April 16) "April is the cruelest month," wrote T.S. Eliot. He might have been right, I recall thinking, as I watched snow land on flashing police lights this morning.
There must have been a reason I flopped back onto my bed after turning off my alarm this morning. As a compulsive email checker, I opened my mailbox at least every other minute as I balanced a bowl of Honey Bunches of Oats in my lap. I checked the weather, checked Blackboard and grabbed a shower.
Yet in retrospect, even my morning rituals seemed a bit off - and that might have been because I was pulling on a jacket and scarf mid-April.
I had a 9 a.m. class today. Like usual, I left my dorm at 8:50 a.m. to walk to Smythe, only a five-minute walk since it's on the residential side of campus. During class we heard sirens wailing around the Drillfield in between the wind's howling, but I chalked it up to another day on a college campus.
I lingered to talk to my professor, ignoring the fact that I might be late to my 10:10 a.m. class, all the way across campus. As we stepped outside, the sirens got louder. I smiled at the student walking beside me.
"This campus is going crazy," I said. "And I don't think it's just the weather."
He grinned and shook his head.
Approaching the Drillfield, I couldn't help but note the absurdity of the scene that presented itself. There was the calm, with large flakes floating to the ground, and there, too, was the fear - students running in herds toward the residence halls, backpacks flapping.
"There's a guy with a gun on the other side of campus," someone said. "He was in AJ this morning."
That was the first I'd heard of it.
I needed to get to GBJ, I was meeting a friend there to pick up notes. My cellphone had only a few minutes left to its battery, and I gave him a call.
"I don't think I'm going to make it to that side of campus. The cops are yelling at us to get back to our dorms," I rushed to tell him the news. "Let me know if you hear anything."
When I got back to my room, my inbox was full - 12 new messages, several from listservs and the university, a few from concerned friends and professors.
For the past three hours, I've been watching the TV screen, scouring the Tech Web site and waiting on phone calls. I found out a friend of mine had been injured, shot in the leg. I sighed relief as a dormmate made it back across campus, having been held up in Randolph.
There have been several mixed messages throughout the day from the media. Faculty are being evacuated, I'm told. Someone heard that students will all have to leave as well. I'm not leaving campus, not until I get an email from President Steger and a cop knocking at my door telling me to get out.
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Original Source: <a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?Title=A%20day%20unlike%20any%20other%20at%20Virginia%20Tech&ID=188> Big Lick U - April 16, 2007</a>
Amrita Raja
2007-06-26
Sara Hood
Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>
eng
Tech in 'riot' mode
<i>Shootings stun campus</i>
By: Michael Hippchen
(11:50 a.m., April 16) While this morning's shootings on Virginia Tech's campus may have come to an end, with one shooter apparently have been captured, things are far from returning to normal on campus.
Classes have been cancelled for the remainder of the day and students were told to remain in their dorms with the doors locked.
I was walking to my class at 10:10 and I heard six shots fired from the Norris area, which was about 200 yards away.
While standing in the middle of the Drillfield, I heard students screaming then running out of the academic buildings across the Drillfield, as well as cops running toward Norris Hall.
During the evacuation, the campus was in full-blown riot mode. I did not feel safe at any time that I was out on the Drillfield, as well as when I was walking back to my dorm.
My friend, Jordan Littauer, said he didn't know what was going on.
"I was sitting in my Econ class, and a girl next to me got an Instant Message saying that cops questioned her roommate about a shooting that happened on her hall," said sophomore Jordan Littauer.
"I didn't know shooting was going off at all. I heard students running and screaming all over campus."
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Original Source: <a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?Title=Tech%20in%20'riot'%20mode&ID=184> Big Lick U - April 16, 2007 </a>
Michael Hippchen
2007-06-26
Sara Hood
Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>
eng
In lockdown in Shanks Hall
By: Shamus Williams
(April 16 -- 11:55 a.m.) I am on campus as we speak and am under lockdown in Shanks Hall, which is located on the opposite side of campus from the shootings. But it is still too close for comfort.
I was in class, working on a paper, when I got an e-mail saying that a shooting had occurred on campus. It was about 20 to 25 minutes later when we received word that the gunman was loose and we were on lockdown. It is a pretty scary thing, because of the recent bomb threats and the whole William Morva thing that happened earlier in the year.
The students in my class have been pretty calm. Everybody is trying to reach friends and family and let them know that we are OK and that nothing has happened on this side of campus. We have all been sending instant messages trying to find information, and there are plenty of rumors swirling. We are all trying to figure out what is real and what is not.
There are plenty of different emotions flying around the room. Some people are trying to make jokes to lighten the mood. Others are trying to scour the Web for information (I would fall into that category). Somehow, others are still trying to get their paper done. I'm definitely not trying to do anything associated with schoolwork with this thing going down.
I really think that it will be a long time before we are let off campus, and the longer they keep us in here, the more worried we are all becoming.
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Original Source: <a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?Title=In%20lockdown%20in%20Shanks%20Hall&ID=185> Big Lick U - April 16, 2007</a>
Shamus Williams
2007-06-26
Sara Hood
Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>
eng
Released from lockdown
By: Shamus Williams
(April 16) Well, I'm back safe and sound in my off-campus apartment. It has been a very scary and hectic past couple of hours to say the least.
We were released at noon, but it was not an assisted evacuation as we were hearing that it would be. I was a little apprehensive that we were not assisted in leaving the campus, and I was constantly looking over my shoulder.
I have never seen so many police officers in my life. There were police cars, ambulances, SWAT vehicles and other emergency vehicles lining every street possible that I could see. There were students running to their cars and it seemed every person was on their cell phone trying to call friends and family.
It is definitely a scary time on campus. I am usually not one to worry about these things, but this has surpassed anything that the mind can even fathom. This is probably the most scared I have ever been in my life. The police made things seem somewhat safe, but I'm not sure all the police in the world could have made things seem perfectly safe.
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Original Source: <a href=http://www.biglicku.com/blu/Stories/StoryDisplayPage.aspx?Title=Released%20from%20lockdown&ID=186>Big Lick U - April 16, 2007</a>
Shamus Williams
2007-06-26
Sara Hood
Chris Winston <Chris.Winston@biglicku.com>
eng