The gunman behind the massacre at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia has been identified as Korean-American student Cho Seung-hui, police said. A permanent legal resident, Cho was a senior majoring in English and lived in Centerville, Virginia. Cho took 33 lives as well as his own and injured 15 people. The Korean Foreign Ministry has received the personal information of the shooter from the U.S. and held a contingency meeting Tuesday.
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A picture of Cho Seung-hui, who killed over 30 people in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, is headlined ¡®Face of a Killer¡¯ on the ABC News webpage.
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The shootings have horrified the U.S. The death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are in critical condition. Korean student Park Chang-min, who is in the civil engineering doctorate program, was slightly injured in the hand and waist, head of the university¡¯s Korean student association Lee Seung-woo said. Park is not in serious condition. Some 450 Korean students study at Virginia Tech - 150 in the master and doctorate program and 300 in the undergraduate school.
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Students embrace during a memorial service at the football stadium on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va. on Tuesday. The school held a service for those slain by a gunman on Monday./AP
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At 7:15 a.m. Monday, Cho shot dead two students in a school dormitory. It was not until two hours later that he fired a gun killing 30 people in an engineering lecture hall 800 m from the site of the first shooting. School authorities faced heavy criticism for failing to warn students that there was a gunman on campus and only sent out warning e-mails to students two hours after the tragedy. It was the worst campus massacre in U.S. history. A shooting at the University of Texas in 1966 killed 16 and injured 31.
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U.S. President George W. Bush walks off after speaking at a convocation event in honor of the 32 people killed on Monday by a gunman at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Tuesday./REUTERS
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U.S. President George W. Bush in a statement said, ¡°Schools should be places of safety, and sanctuary, and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community.¡± Bush attended a convocation ceremony at Virginia Tech Tuesday. Led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House of Representatives offered a silent prayer to victims, and Americans lowered the flag to half mast across the country.
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Tulips are in bloom near the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, as the flags are flown at half staff in honor of the Virginia Tech school shootings./AP
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President Roh Moo-hyun sent a message of condolence to the bereaved families, Bush and the entire U.S. after learning that the killer was Korean, according to Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Yoon Seung-yong. Yoon quoted the president as saying he was ¡°inexpressibly shocked.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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