Seung-Hui Cho: Difference between revisions

Cho also used hollow point bullets, which is why there were so many deaths. The Virginia Tech shooting is currently ranked the deadliest school shooting in American history, and the third-deadliest [[Mass Shooting|mass shooting]] in modern American history overall.

Cho was born in Asan, a city in the South Korean province of South Chungcheong, and lived in a basement apartment with his family. His father ran his own bookstore but didn't make much money from it. In September 1992, when Cho was eight years old, the family moved to the United States, eventually settling in Centreville, Virginia, a town in Northern Virginia, which had a large Korean community. There, the family became avid Christians. A quiet boy, he never socialized much with his family, causing relatives to believe he was selectively mute or had some sort of mental illness. In high school, Cho was teased and sometimes bullied for his usually-silent nature. When he did speak, he was mocked because of it, with one student saying "Go back to China", though he was from South Korea. On April 20, 1999, while Cho was in the eighth grade, two bullied students attending Columbine High School, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, committed a deadly massacre at the school, killing 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide, an incident that made national news. Cho became "transfixed" by the news, and when he voiced a need to "repeat Columbine", he was immediately sent to a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him as having selective mutism.

Graduating from high school in 2003, Cho was enrolled at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, a.k.a. "Virginia Tech", as an undergraduate major in business information technology, but later changed his major to English for reasons never specified. During his entire stay, Cho began referring to himself as "Question Mark" and even putting a question mark for his name on a sign-in sheet. A few weeks after the semester began, Cho's poetry professor made a request for him to be removed from her class when he began photographing female students' legs and writing violent poetry. However, the school officials turned down the request, believing these actions to not be threatening enough. Cho also began stalking two female students, to which he received verbal commands from campus police to stop. When Cho told a roommate that he "might as well kill himself", he was sent to a mental health facility. However, treatment was recommended for him as an outpatient. But because he wasn't involuntarily committed as an inpatient, it was still legal for Cho to purchase firearms. Two months prior to the shootings, Cho successfully purchased his weapons; he also took pictures, made videos, and wrote documents voicing his emotions and opinions and put them into a package.

{{Quote|I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you fucked;, [sic] I did it for them... When the time came, I did it. I had to...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.}}Finally, on April 16, 2007, Cho arrived at Virginia Tech's West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed residence hall, at about 6:45 a.m. Easily accessing the hall due to the fact that his student mailbox was located there, he entered room 4040, on the fourth floor. There, he shot and injured freshman Emily Hilscher, who would die from her gunshot wounds three hours later. He then killed a male resident assistant named Ryan Clark, who heard the gunshots and attempted to aid Hilscher. For reasons unknown, he concluded his shooting at the hall and left for his room. It was assumed that he specifically targeted Hilscher because she rejected romantic advances from him sometime prior, enraging him, but this was inconclusive. At about 7:30 a.m., police arrived and classified Hilscher's boyfriend, Karl Thornhill, who was an avid gun user, as a person of interest. At around 8:00 a.m., West Ambler Johnston Hall was locked down, and about 25 minutes later, Thornhill was found by police and detained for questioning; he would later be cleared of any suspicion. During the following two hours, Cho returned to his room to change his clothes, log on to his computer to delete his email, remove a hard-drive, rearm himself, and retrieve the aforementioned media package, which he mailed off to NBC News at a nearby post office at around 9:01 a.m. Wearing a bulletproof vest, Cho then walked to Norris Hall, which houses the Engineering Science and Mechanics program, at around 9:05 a.m. He used chains he brought along to lock down the hall's main three entrances to prevent initial escape.

After looking into several classrooms, Cho, at about 9:40 a.m., began his shooting spree at room 206, first shooting and killing the professor, Gobichettipalayam Vasudevan "G.V." Loganathan, and then shooting eleven of the thirteen students in the room, nine of them fatally. He then went across the hall to room 207, killing the instructor, Jamie Bishop, and two students as well as injuring an additional six. At this point, several other classrooms, hearing the gunfire, began to barricade the doors. Going to room 204, whose door was barricaded, Cho was forced to shoot through the door, killing the professor, Liviu Librescu, who was an Israeli Holocaust survivor, but at that point, all but one of the students in Librescu's class were able to jump out of the windows and escape. The remaining student was also shot and killed. Cho then proceeded to room 211, whose door was also barricaded, but this time, he was able to force his way inside after killing the instructor, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, and a student, Henry Lee, both of whom were blocking the door. He then murdered ten other students and injured an additional six. Reloading, he then revisited rooms 207 and 206, wounding two students at the former room and killing another two at the latter room. He then attempted to force his way into room 205, but the door was blocked by a large desk and Cho was unable to enter; no one in that classroom was shot. Cho then fatally shot a professor, Kevin Granata, when he ventured out of his classroom from the upper floor to investigate the gunfire. Reentering room 211, Cho then committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, ending the nine-minute-long mass shooting.

In the aftermath of the massacre, Virginia Tech canceled classes for the following week in favor of an assembly and candlelight vigil, while Norris Hall was closed for the rest of the semester. There was also a response from the government, with then-President George W. Bush and his wife Laura attending the assembly and then-Virginia Governor Tim Kaineconducting a review of every aspect of the massacre. The school also came under a great deal of criticism for delaying in warning the students and professors of the danger and putting the campus under lockdown after the West Ambler Johnston Hall shootings. The gun politics debate was also put back under the spotlight under the citation of Cho being able to purchase firearms despite his mental health history. Additionally, Cho's family has also expressed shock at his actions, with Cho's older sister Sun-Kyung stating, "I don't feel that I know him."

{{Quote|Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon on a cross? And left to bleed to death for your amusement?|Seung-Hui Cho}}

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