What Could Have Possessed Him?

S.Korean student blamed for U.S. shooting rampage
Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:55PM EDT
Andrea Hopkins and Patricia Zengerle

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - A student from South Korea was the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university, police said on Tuesday. They gave no motive for the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history.

Police identified the shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior who was a legal U.S. resident, and said one of two guns found was used in both shootings on Monday at the sprawling rural campus in southwestern Virginia.

Cho killed himself at Virginia Tech after opening fire on students and staff in four classrooms in an apparently premeditated massacre. Two people were shot to death two hours earlier at a dormitory.

Police said Cho was studying English literature.

"The evidence has not led us to say with all certainty that the same shooter was involved in both shootings," said Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. "It's certainly reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places."

Victims were found in at least four classrooms as well as a stairwell, he said.

"The gunman was discovered among several of the victims in one of the classrooms," Flaherty said. "He had taken his own life."

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