Backlash from many Including Parents of how VA Tech Shootings Were Handled

It was becoming apparent early in the VA Tech shooting massacre that questions would abound as to how the VA Tech Administration and police handed this matter. The first shots were fired at 7:15 AM at West Ambler Johnston Hall. Two people were killed, the Hall was locked down, and a gunman was on the loose. Then at 9:15 AM the carnage truly began as a gunman opened fire in Norris Hall and killed 31 people including himself. Why did campus police allow classes to continue with an unaccounted for gunman on the loose. There was no way of knowing where he could be or what was going through his mind. My not error on the side of caution, wasn’t that our biggest learning lesson from 9–11?

There was no way any one could have known that our countries worst mass shooting would ever have occurred in such a peaceful college setting. However, that is why we are supposed to have policies in procedures in place.

The following are the text of the e-mails that were sent out by Virginia Tech to students and staff following the initial shooting at 7:15AM. Which begs the questions by many, why the delay? Informing the public of danger is a great tool. It would appear that many campuses will have to work on this line of security.

Times according to the time stamps on the e-mails.

- E-mail sent at 9:26 a.m.:

Subject: Shooting on campus.

“A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.

“The university community is urged to be cautious and are asked to contact Virginia Tech Police if you observe anything suspicious or with information on the case. Contact Virginia Tech Police at 231-6411 (read more …)

The tragic carnage appears to have started as a lover’s tiff and escalated into the worse mass shooting murder spree in US history. However, many are scratching their heads as to how this was handed. Why were classes allowed to continue when police knew that there were two students murdered and a killer on the loose? Why the delay in notifying the students as to what originally happened?

Many parents of Virginia Tech students are out raged and are calling for the firing of VA Tech President, Charles Steger and the Police Chief. Every one had to know that it was only a matter of time before this occurred. The Q&A from the press conferences today left much to be desired. The cold hard fact is that 31 innocent people are dead at VA Tech and someone(s) is going to have to be accountable. It is also a matter of time before the law suits reign down upon VA Tech as well.

John and Jennifer Shourds of Lovettsville, Va. demanded the immediate firings of University President Charles Steger and Virginia Tech Campus Police Chief W.R. Flinchum who he said “screwed up” the handling of separate shooting incidents that left 33 students dead, including the shooter.

“My God, if someone shoots somebody there should be an immediate lockdown of the campus,” said John Shourds. “They totally blew it. The president blew it, campus police blew it.”

The Shourds said they received a phone call from their daughter, Alexandra, a freshman at the college in Blacksburg, who was unsure of how to handle a vague university e-mail received around 9:20 a.m. regarding the first shooting incident that happened at the West Ambler Johnston Hall around 7:15 a.m. Later, it was learned that a lone gunman entered that hall, two buildings away from Alexandra’s dorm, and opened fire, killing two people. (Fox News)

 UPDATE I: The Gunman was a VA Tech Student

Virginia Tech’s president said Tuesday that a student was the gunman in at least the second of the two campus attacks that claimed 33 lives to become the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

The University president continued to defend its actions in notifying students and faculty of the earlier shooting; however, it is evident that many had no idea what had transpired earlier that day.

Steger said the university was trying to notify students who were already on-campus, not those who were commuting in.

“We warned the students that we thought were immediately impacted,” he told CNN. “We felt that confining them to the classroom was how to keep them safest.”

He said investigators did not know there was a shooter loose on campus in the interval between the two shootings because the first could have been a murder-suicide.

Two students told NBC’s “Today” show they were unaware of the dorm shooting when they reported to a German class where the gunman later opened fire.

Derek O’Dell, his arm in a cast after being shot, described a shooter who fired away in “eerily silence” with “no specific target — just taking out anybody he could.” (Yahoo News)