Updates on Virginia Tech

 

He calls the Columbine gunmen “martyrs” in the text, Brian Williams says. Mr. Cho’s speech in one video is muffled and angry. MSNBC.com transcribed one quote: “You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.” A series of photos shows him posing with with the guns and a hammer. Essay included in package was 1,800 words. The information was compiled in the past six days. The return address used the name “A. Ishmael.” He is reported to have written “Ismail Ax” on his arm. The postal worker in Virginia says only one package was sent by Mr. Cho on Monday. Cho’s “Multimedia Manifesto” | 5:41 PM ET Cho Seung-Cho’s “multimedia manifesto” was received by NBC News today, and it may have been sent between the first and second shootings. The package, which contained video, images and text, was called “rambling” and “disturbing” by the network.  Steve Capus said Cho talks to the camera in the videos. In one instance, he makes a vague reference to the massacre, Capus said. The network immediately turned it over to authorities, and the F.B.I. is currently analyzing it, said Virginia’s top law enforcement official. NBC Nightly News plans on reporting on it tonight, and The Times’s updating report is here.        

Professor Librescu Hero of the Hokies | 12:19 PM ET President Bush has anointed the first hero of the Virginia Tech massacre. Liviu Librescu threw his body in front of the door to his classroom while his student escaped through the windows. Cho Seung-Hui was on the other side, trying to make another stop in his shooting spree at Norris Hall that left 30 dead. Mr. Librescu was apparently hit by a bullet that pierced the classroom door, USAToday wrote. “We take strength from his example,” the president said today at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. The location was fitting because Professor Librescu, who was 76, survived the Holocaust, only to be killed on Yom Hashoah, the international day that commemorates Holocaust victims,” The Times story on the victims said. Across the Web, many others have paid tribute to the professor. One report was recommended by almost 3,000 users at Digg, a social news site. While his life included important achievements on aeronautical engineering, his role in two moments in history called out for a connection, which a blogger at Powerline made with grace: More than sixty years after his liberation, the rescued became the rescuer. University News Briefing | 10:43 AM ET Virginia Tech’s Police Chief, W.R. Flinchum: In November 2005, a female student complained to campus police after what she termed “annoying” contact via phone and in person with Mr. Cho. She declined to press charges and the matter was referred to the university’s disciplinary system. No threats were made, he said. On December 13, 2005, another female student alerted campus police to disturbing instant messages from Mr. Cho. The police asked him to stay away from her. Later that day, an acquaintence of Mr. Cho reported that he seemed suicidal. A voluntary counseling session led to a temporary detention order, and that led to his transport to a mental health facility. Neither woman was shot on Monday. For entrie story: link