Apr 16 2007
VA Tech Attack A Premeditated Act Or Jealous Act Of Rage?
Addendum: I have one point to make about the jealous rage angle: why leave the AJ Dorm with 900 people basically asleep in their beds and easy prey and go to Norris Hall 2 hours later? There are some reasons I can think of – guilt, fear, facing the unavoidable fate of a murderer – but he was in a dorm full of people and he did nothing at that time. Food for thought.
It seems the Massacre at VA Tech (where I went to school briefly) was premeditated. The reasons are clear in the latest reports. First off the man took a gun to confront his girlfriend, who was more than likely trying to get out of sufficating relationship (I have seen this pattern before, but with less violent results). When he did not get what he wanted and an RA came to deal with the commotion the man pulled his gun and killed the girlfriend and RA. This means the man planned the confrontation and brought the gun with him.
The second act was also premeditated since the man came with guns and clips and the ability to chain the doors (when I was there there were no chains even wrapped on the doors to close them). Finally there is reporting that the bomb threats in the prior weeks were tests of the response time of the authorities. Combined with the news the man was a 24 year old from China shows a combination of military training (not OUR military lefties) and planning.
What really worries me is if this was a test for other attacks. If the man was testing College responses then the key would be to make this look like anything BUT a terrorist attack. I am not making the claim here this was terrorist related, but the man did not seem to be looking for his girlfriend’s lover, he seemed to be out trying to kill anyone he ran across. A perfect diversion for a test run would be a lover’s quarrel. And ending it in a ‘suicide’ negates the ability to get to the bottom of his motives. Of course violent jealousy is not uncommon, and more so in male dominated societies like those in Asia and the ME. In those places killing women is like throwing away property. But something is not right here. For someone who was in the emotional throws of jealousy, the attack shows signs of careful planning and cold execution. The two characteristics do not mix. Careful planning and cool execution implies a lot of self control and discipline, things which are in complete opposition to an out of control act of rage.
Update: It seems I am not the only one who thinks this was a well planned out massacre (H/T Flopping Aces):
From law enforcement source, speaking under strict condition of anonymity:
“I can tell you that there was only one shooter. Following the initial shooting at ‘West A.J.’ early this morning, police believed the suspect left the campus, and that the suspect was not a resident of the campus. It was during that investigation that the suspect returned to the campus prepared to kill as many people as possible. This was a premeditated act of mass murder, planned well in advance.”
If it was well planned in advance then it could be anything, including more than just a killing spree from a jaded lover.
Update: My previous post on this matter is here, and I again have to address people who cannot fathom a father’s concern for his kids and his neighbors’ kids in VA schools. My daughter is at a college in VA and we are grateful our neighbor’s son across the street and at VTech is OK. But the possibility of this being a terrorist attack is real and reasonable. After 9-11 we do not wait for the second plane to hit to start being concerned. We look for indications that would tell us if we need to call our kids or our family or our friends and pass the word for the kids to be careful, stay home. After bloody attacks on innocent people across the globe for over decades it is not unreasonable to be concerned and on the watch for something more than a lone attacker. People who do not have loved ones at risk may not get it, but I do not care whether they get it. We have over 30 dead people at a school in our community. We have a right to ask questions and point out issues. Terrorism is real, denial of that fact is what is dangerous.
Addendum: Some more thoughts before I turn in. So the man goes to his supposed girlfriend’s and has an altercation killing her and an RA who tries to intervene. He supposedly leaves the campus. Is armed with the vest and loads of ammo for his .22 and 9mm? Seems not. Did he go back to his house or just his car? Did he drive around away from the AJ Dorm and wait until police were all focused on the older quad dorms and then head to Randpolph and Norris Halls? Was the morning killing a diversion? AJ has 900 students in it – why not rampage there? Why stop at Randolph first but not shoot – was there something there?
Folks at Tech know there are a series of underground passageways which criss-cross the campus and connect up to many of the building like Burras and Norris, etc. They are service passageways and once in you can get anywhere on campus unseen. I know – I was in them in the fall of 1978. Hopefully they are more closed off, but back then you could access them through man-hole covers in bushes on the grounds. I would not be surprised if the killer possibly used them to get to Randolph or to hide his weapons. Who knows. But it could explain how he moved unnoticed and without detection. It still seems damn convenient all the police were distracted when he went on his rampage at Norris, when he had time to do the same damage at AJ. This is definitely a question to be answered on what happended. Was it premeditated? Well, he had to buy the guns and ammo for one.
Addendum: There are some bits of news out today which add to the picture of who the gunman is. The first item illustrates the depth of his coldness:
“This man was brutal,” said Dr. Joseph Cacioppo, an emergency room physician at Montgomery Regional Hospital, in a broadcast interview today. “There wasn’t a shooting victim that didn’t have less than three bullet wounds.”
That says a lot about the killer, and the amount of ammunition he was carrying. The second item is more disturbing because the killer lived on campus where guns and ammo are not allowed:
“We do know that he was an Asian male — this is (in) the second incident — an Asian man who was a resident in one of our dormitories,” Va. Tech President Charles Steger told CNN.
All the dorms I recall on campus where two person dorms – at a minimum. So it is not hard to figure out who that person of interest might be. It probably is this guy’s roommate and he will have to explain the guns and ammo somehow. It is hard to hide things on campus with out your roommate willing to keep quiet. If he is a young freshman (18-19), then I would say the odds of this being an act of rage is more likely than if he is in is mid 20’s. Some witnesses believe he was much younger than the 24 years in earlier reports. Needles to say it is a sad day here in the Commonwealth.
Update: Now there are indications this may have been a coordinated effort between two people, one being a student on campus:
“It appears that the second shooter was a resident in our dormitory… it appears he was an on-campus resident,” the president of Virginia Tech University Charles Steger said in an interview on ABC television.
There goes the jealous rage scenario I would say. And to those lefties who cringe at the speculation this may be a terrorist driven attack versus mass murderer one has to ask why is it off limits to discuss either option? It’s not like there are not both terrorists (Bin Laden) and mass murderers (Geoffry Dahmer). One has to wonder what is so disturbing to the left that discussions this might be a terrorist act creates anger and fear in them? What is driving their denial of the reality of our world today? I find it amazing there is something ‘better’ about discussing mass murder as a motive over ‘terrorism’. But then again, the liberal mind is a very strange place.
AJ
I don’t have any real grasp on the issues of this situation because of my skepticism to initial reporting.
Having said that , I would have to believe there are few cases of jilted lovers who took out the object of their affections and then after a time of separation rather than as a continuous rampage took out many more innocent victims to archive whatever their point was.
One would most likely expect to see gal and new lover killed and jilted lover offed himself, but to take out dozens of non involved third parties is to say the least rare.
At Times Like These…
When the public knows so little about what occurred at Virginia Tech today, what is the upside of blogging speculation that it could be terrorist-related?……
Some other weird things happened, he chained doors shut. Why would a killer on the rampage do that? His second stop was clear across campus. An after thought? He came with 2 guns and plenty of amo—-not one shooting. They need to trace his past, find out what he has been up to who he has been associated with. This is much bigger then meets the eye I’m thinking.
He also went into two buildings (first Randolph and then Norris). Not sure why and what happened in Randolph
AJ, what terrifies me is that you might well be right.
Mike M,
I would be grateful to be wrong….
In any event to me what is missing here is not the finer points of the discussion of motivation or thematic possibilities of how this all evolved.
I did not post on this for hours after it occurred because I was sitting back because of the shear size of the victimization and reflecting on all the collateral damage caused by this senseless and brutal destruction.
My thought and indeed my prayers are offered freely and with hope of support for all those who have been lost and all those who will be touched by it is such a vile and abrupt way.
That is what is important here, the mechanics of how it happened and how it evolved are a weak secondary interest.
The utter destruction of offspring, lovers , and whatever other linkages exist far outweighs other considerations.
May the blessings of the Spirit of the Lord console all those who need it at this most horrendous time.
What worries me is that if someone wanted to do this sort of random mass killing, a preparatory murder would be a good diversion.
I spent five years at Virginia Tech (aka McMurdo North Base), so I have a vested interest….unfortunately.
As for the planning, this relationship could have been on the rocks for some time. He could have planned all of this over the past couple of weeks and decided to give her “one more chance” to take him back else she and the whole world will be sorry. It is very easy to make a mistake when looking for a rational explanation of the behavior of an irrational person. I know this from direct personal life experience.
This person might have decided long ago (by long I mean several days or weeks) to go on this rampage but possible either wanted to give the girlfriend one more chance or wanted her to know exactly what he was planning to do before he killed her. It is quite possible that the killer was punishing a world that had done him wrong in his mind and by golly they would be sorry they did. It is hard to tell, AJ but to project our current experiences with terrorism onto this event might not be in our best interest. Sure, it is terrorism, but not the organized terrorism for political/religious ends that we generally associate with the term.
I think this was an individual that was a couple of nuggets short of a happy meal and he went off. It happens. The kids at Columbine would have killed more if they could have. These kids just got very, very unlucky.
But this event also shows us how to prevent a repeat in the future. If you are ever in a group of people that is trapped with no way to escape and someone begins firing, rush the shooter. Had all those kids in that classroom rushed the shooter, knocked him down, stood on the weapon, stomped his fingers and wrist while gouging his eyes out and breaking his ribs with punches … maybe some would have died but the toll would have been a lot less.
It is time we change the instructions we give to people in these situations … DO NOT do as you are told.
There have been many cases of obsessive and spurned lovers killing not only the people who left them, but several other people as well. Quite often these kinds of crimes are very well planned out. The fact that he killed himself is not unusual. After all, after he killed the girl and her friend, what were the chances he was going to end up anywhere but prison for life.
This way he gets to blame her. He probably died thinking it was all her fault.
BTW, a guy could hide a lot in a back pack. Chains, guns…all kinds of things.
The Bath School disaster was worse than this. 45 children were killed when a pissed of member of the school board blew the school up. No terrrorism, just evil.
If the guy was a student from China, his reason for going back to the campus makes sense too. It would have been about the only place he knew. Maybe he didn’t know who the new boyfriend was but knew she had met him in one of her classes that was in that building, or maybe that was just an easy building to hit. I don’t think it is part of any organized terrorism scheme, I think it is someone who went off their rocker and started killing people.
I am with Terrye on this one.
I know in this day and age we are always looking for the motive and the first thing that comes to mind is terrorism. But this case is not much different (except in the casualties) than the University of Texas sniper case.
Charles Whitman killed his wife and mother and then loaded his vehicle with firepower, drove to the University of Texas, climbed the tower stairs and proceeded to shoot 45 people killing 15.
Here is the major difference; while Whitman had a vantage point from the tower, he still had to expose himself to fire. Normal citizens pulled their deer rifles from their trucks and started firing at him every time he stuck his head up. This gave the police, and one private citizen, the time to cross the mall, climb the tower stairs and take him out.
Was Whitman a terrorist? In my book, yes. He terrorized a whole city and destroyed the innocence of a small, sleepy Texas college town.
It will take years for people to recover from this. And all we can do is pray for the families of those who have been harmed by this event. The university will never be the same.
And while I am reluctant to agree with Crosspatch, yes, we need to teach our children to fight back.
Retire:
A rookie cop killed that man if I remember correctly and no one really knew what happened to make his snap. He had a brain tumor but that might or might not have been the cause.
Terrye, one of the police officers was a rookie. And one police officer was killed trying to get Whitman. One of the APD wound up with post tramaic stress syndrome and became a drunk and a bum. He finally got help through the VA.
Yes, Whitman suffered from a brain tumor.
Massacre at VA Tech…
Just got in, and this is awful:
“April 16, 2007— At least 29 people are dead in what may be the biggest mass shooting in modern American history — and the death toll may rise.Police at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va., said that the shooting…
It is hard to believe how long ago that has been. And think of how many people there would have been on the scene who had military training. That was the time of the draft.
Behold the face of the first named soul murdered today. What a beautiful kid. Now it begins to hit home:
http://www.wjbf.com/midatlantic/jbf/news_index.apx.-content-articles-JBF-2007-04-16-0021.html
The shooter apparently bought the weapons legally at a local gun store. He also gives indication that whatever his plan was, at some point he had planned on surviving because he reportedly took the trouble to file the serial numbers off the weapons. That means he was trying to prevent the weapons being traced back to him. If he had intended to kill himself all along, he wouldn’t need to do that.
My instincts say he wanted to kill the girl but somehow his plan got screwed up or he lost his cool and shot her in the dorm. There were apparently witnesses, he could not hide his identity at that point. I would guess that he then decided “what the hell” and went on that rampage knowing he was as good as dead anyway.