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Virginia Tech Remembers Shooting Victims

Aired April 17, 2007 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL KING, REP. FOR CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY: ... unifies and to reject the seductive temptation to hate.
We gather to share our hurts and our hopes, our petitions and our prayers. We gather also to drink deeply of the religious streams which have refreshed parched peoples for many generations.

We gather together, weeping. Yes, we weep with an agony too deep for words, and sighs that are inexpressible, but, also, we gather, affirming the sovereignty of life over death.

At a time such as this, the darkness of evil seems powerful indeed. It casts a pall over our simple joys, joys as simple as playing Frisbee on the drill field. We struggle to imagine a future beyond this agony.

If we ever harbored any illusions that our campus is an idyllic refuge from the violence of the rest of the world, they are gone forever. And, yet, we come to this place to testify that the light of love cannot be defeated.

Amid all our pain, we confess that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. We cannot do everything, but we can do something. We cannot banish all darkness, but we can, by joining together, push it back.

We cannot undo yesterday's tragic events, but we can sit in patient silence with those who mourn as they seek for a way forward.

As we share light, one with another, we reclaim our campus. Let us deny death's power to rob us of all that we have loved about Virginia Tech, this, our community. Let us cast our lot with hope, in defiance of despair.

I invite you to observe a moment of silence.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Brief interruption in the convocation here. You can see that someone collapsed on the floor, had to be helped to their feet.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Paramedics are helping remove a few family members of that person, as well. Clearly, emotions are running high. And I bet you there's a heck of a lot of people there that didn't get much sleep either. Coupled with grief, it can be exhausting.

ROBERTS: Yes.

Sleep has been a rare commodity in these last couple of days. But the person helped to their feet. This is a moment of silence here at Virginia Tech. So, we will get out of that and let it proceed.

(MUSIC)

AUDIENCE: Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You may be seated.

Please, join me in thanking the members of the Highty-Tighties, who have provides the musical -- who provided the musical selections for us this afternoon, and the members of the Corps of Cadets, the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, who have participated in the ceremony.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At this time, I would like to invite the university provost, Mark McNamee, to come forward.

(APPLAUSE)

MARK MCNAMEE, VIRGINIA TECH PROVOST: Universities do many things, including research, outreach, student programs and athletics.

However, the heart and soul of the university resolves around the academic programs. Our core mission is to educate our future leaders in a partnership of learning involving our faculty and our students.

We have wonderfully dedicated faculty and the best and brightest students. Nowhere is the special relationship between faculty and students more visibly fulfilled than in the classroom, a place of open inquiry and trust, a sanctuary, as President Bush has stated.

Our classrooms, where French, German, computer science, and engineering were being taught yesterday, were violated. And both faculty and students were wounded or died together trying to help one another.

We will honor their memory by celebrating the special privilege faculty and students share in the classroom every day. And we will move forward to be an even stronger bastion of learning.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As Virginia Tech begins the long and difficult task of dealing with this tragedy, I have asked two members of my student affairs team to provide an overview of the support services that are available to the campus community.

So, at this time, I would like to invite Tom Brown, our senior associate dean of students, and Christopher Flynn, director of the Cook Counseling Center.

(APPLAUSE)

TOM BROWN, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN OF STUDENTS, VIRGINIA TECH: One primary role of the Dean of Students Office is to be an advocate for all students and to lend support to all students and their families in times of crisis.

We will try very hard to make this large institution feel as small to you as we possibly can. For each of the families that have been directly affected by this, as soon as we have clearance from law enforcement, we will be assigning a student affairs faculty member to each one of your families. And that person will be in touch with you just as soon as possible.

That person will serve as your liaison to the university. We will help with your questions. We will give you guidance, when needed and requested, and we will be the university contact for you as long as you need or want that.

You can also think of the Dean of Students Office as a first line of response. We often bill ourselves as the place to start when you really don't know where else to start. So, keep that in mind, all students.

Students, we know that you have questions and concerns about your academics. You know now that there are no classes until Monday. Don't be concerned right now about how your academic situations will all play out. We will make some plans in the next couple of days, and we will get notice to all of you to let you know how you will be supported upon return to class on Monday, and how to work with faculty members to get back on track academically.

But, please, please take care of yourselves first. You cannot get your mind back on academics without spending some time taking care of yourselves. Go to where you need to go, where you have the most love and the best support. And I often say, where can you get the best hugs?

If that's -- you all know where that is. You go where that is in the next few days, and you find that kind of support.

For all parents, we're also the point of contact for you. The very simplest way to be in touch with us is through e-mail. And the address that you use is simply vtparent@vt.edu -- vtparent@vt.edu.

In the short run, we have a toll-free number set up for anyone to call seeking information. That toll-free number is on the university Web site.

Put simply, our staff will help you, as best we can, in the coming days and weeks and months. The easiest way for you to find the contact information for the Dean of Students Office is simply to go to the university Web site, and you will find the Dean of Students Office, or go directly to our site, dos.vt.edu. Again, that's D-O-S -- for dean of students -- vt.edu. We will help you as best we can.

Dr. Hikes (ph).

I'm sorry.

Dr. Flynn.

(APPLAUSE)

CHRISTOPHER FLYNN, DIRECTOR, COOK COUNSELING CENTER: I am Dr. Christopher Flynn. I'm director of the Cook counseling center.

And I'm here to offer my condolences to all of you, to the family, to the friends,, to all of our Virginia Tech students and the entire Virginia Tech community.

We have all suffered a grievous loss. We have been traumatized directly through the loss of our family and our friends. Those of us who were not present in those buildings have been traumatized vicariously. We have watched what happened to our loved ones. And we are sad.

And we know that we are sad, and our sadness will continue as we mourn the losses and we continue to mourn them. But we will survive. We will survive to honor the memories of each of those students and faculty who have died.

As a psychologist, we know that the best predictor of recovery from a traumatic event is an intact social support system. We need to reach out to each other during this period.

But, to help each other, we need to take care of ourselves. So, to each of your students, please be careful as you go through this next week. Take care of yourself, and take care, so that you can be healthy to reach out and care for one another.

We all need to be healthy to give the Virginia Tech community our best self in the coming months and year. We need to love and care for one another, and to present ourselves in love and care to each other.

We know that trauma doesn't always show up in the first week or the second week. Sometimes, memories will trigger it long after the initial event has passed. I want you to know that the Cook Counseling Center will be available for students and as a point of contact for all mental health resources for the Virginia Tech community.

We are a group of licensed mental health professionals, supplemented by hundreds of volunteers who have already called in, wanting to be of service to us and to our community.

The Cook Counseling Center has extended our hours from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. One of us is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We will meet with you individually. We will meet with you in groups. We will meet with you in Squires. We will meet with you in Ambler. We will be wherever you need us to.

We have been flooded with offers from help from private practitioners in the community, from community resources. And we will post those on our Web site. We are available at ucc.vt.edu.

Know, as well, that services -- support services for faculty and staff are available through human resources. They are presently meeting in Squires in Brush Mountain A.

The university will assign a person to work with each family to help them coordinate anything that we can do to aid their recovery from this difficult time.

Our support for students will be ongoing and continuous. We will have a help line. And one of us will be on call at any time. Please let us know if there's anything we can do to help each of you. And please let us take care of one another.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ladies and gentlemen, Virginia Tech University distinguished professor of English and celebrated author Nikki Giovanni will deliver closing remarks.

(APPLAUSE)

NIKKI GIOVANNI, POET: We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on. We are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly. We are brave enough to bend to cry, and sad enough to know we must laugh again. We are Virginia Tech. We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it. But neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS. Neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army.

Neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory. Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water. Neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands, being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized.

No one deserves a tragedy. We are Virginia Tech. The Hokie nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hand to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.

We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail. We will prevail. We will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boy, did we need that.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you will remain standing, I...

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... I would like to invite the corps to come forward to retire the colors.

Please be seated while the postlude is played and the president and platform party exit.

(MUSIC)

CHETRY: All right. Well, we're seeing them file out of Cassell Coliseum, after a very moving ceremony, with many different speakers, four different religious leaders featured prominently, as well as the president, the vice president -- I'm sorry -- the president and the first lady.

And there you see President Bush shaking some hands of well-wishers on his way out there.

ROBERTS: Boy, they really loved Nikki Giovanni, the -- the famous poet, who is a professor here at Virginia Tech, didn't they?

CHETRY: Some cheers as she said, you know, we will get through this. We are Hokies.

And, then, at the end, they said, boy, we really needed that.

It was also interesting to hear from the director of the counselors there, who said, don't worry about your academics. What you need to worry about right now is yourselves, and doing what you need to do to get through this.

He said, we will take care of you. And we don't want you to have to worry. We know your mind can't be in your academics right now.

And they also -- I believe they did make a change, because he said that it looks like the campus, or at least classes, are adjourned until Monday.

ROBERTS: Right. I mean, there's just no surprise that they wouldn't have classes until next week.

And we have also learned today that Norris Hall is going to be closed for the remainder of the school year. And, if you take Columbine as any lesson, and the library there, I don't know if they will ever reopen Norris Hall, or at least portions of it, again.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: We have a shot right there of some emotional students leaving there.

And you did see -- and there were many -- it was packed. And there were some that were sitting right there on the floor of the coliseum. And you saw many tears and many people with their head in their hands or their head on the shoulder of somebody next to them, just really overcome with emotion at the unbelievable series of events that have taken place over the last 36 hours.

ROBERTS: It's really impossible not to get caught up in this, because you think that the victims of this heinous tragedy are young students, who come here from not only across the country, but around the world, to get a top-flight education.

And then they are subjected to something like this. And you know how traumatic it is -- and you will learn this as your baby grows up -- how traumatic it is and how emotional it is for a parent to be separated from their child when the child goes to college. And to have something like this happen, and to not know immediately where your child is, is just the most traumatic thing that you could imagine.

That's why I myself was almost moved to tears about an hour ago, recounting that story of the emergency workers. As they were removing the bodies from Norris Hall, the cell phones they had with them were going off, as their parents tried to get in touch with them.

CHETRY: Of course.

ROBERTS: I mean, just a nightmare.

CHETRY: It is a nightmare.

And, you know, even -- I am certainly no college student, graduated years ago. And I know many of us, our parents were worried about us coming out here: Are you going to be OK?

And I think it's a universal feeling that, you know, when you entrust the safety and well-being of your child when they go away, they're at an institution. And the campus police and everybody here in positions of authority really had the best intentions and tried to do everything possible to ensure this is a safe environment.

And you just have to ask yourself, who ever would have thought that this would be something we would have to talk about today, that somebody would go on a murderous rampage in this way, and really snuff out the lives of 32 innocent, hardworking and wonderful people?

ROBERTS: Now that President Bush has left the Cassell Coliseum, and we're -- we're in the postlude here being given by the Highty-Tighties, which is the cadet band from Virginia Tech, founded -- I believe 1883 was the year.

Let's just take a listen to this -- this music here, as it carries us out through the end of this convocation.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you for coming.

CHETRY: So, here's a thank you for coming heard inside.

And here's a shot from the outside, as many file away from Cassell Coliseum. I think that they hopefully got what they came there for, which was a sense of community, a little bit of reassurance as well.

And our Heidi Collins is standing by outside there now with more on that ceremony.

Hi, Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Kiran. That's right.

We are standing right outside. You see just this mass of sea of orange and maroon, as the people who are inside of Cassell Coliseum begin to file out. We actually have been watching this similar scene for many minutes now.

Unfortunately, there's a bit of an audio problem, had a tough time hearing inside. At least that's what we're being told by nearly everyone who is coming out.

But you know what? It really didn't seem to matter. Most of them stayed for the duration. They wanted to be together. It seemed critically important to them. I had a chance to speak with many of the students before going into the coliseum, as we were all lining up and waiting for the president to get in place.

And they told me that, you know, this was 32 daughters, 32 sons, 32 students. It could have easily been any one of them. And that seemed to be sort of the collective feeling in that crowd before this convocation began.

I heard someone else say, you know, this was the most beautiful day we have had in a long, long time. I can't believe this all just happened yesterday.

Something else to share with you, too -- I learned from some of the students that many of the kids ended up going home yesterday or early this morning. Their parents had been calling and, as you just mentioned, Kiran, very, very understandably worried about them and their mental state. So many of them did go home. But what you're looking at right now is the contingent that stayed and that felt it was imperative that they join together and be with each other throughout this tragedy and tried to bring things back together just one day after it all happened here.

Back out to you guys.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, an extraordinarily moving convocation, Heidi. Thanks very much for the perspective from out front of the Cassell Coliseum there.

And while this was all going on, we've got a whole lot of new information about the weapons that Cho Seung-Hui or Seung Cho, as he calls himself here. In Asia, the last name comes first. In America, many times when Asians move here, the last name then goes into place where you would expect it. So Cho Seung-Hui or Seung Cho, as he calls himself, used a couple of weapons. Drew Griffin is on the telephone with us now. He's making his way back to Blacksburg from Roanoke, which is about 40 miles away from here, where he's been doing some investigating, digging up some information.

What have you got for us, Drew?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, I actually talked with the owner of Roanoke Firearms and it was 36 days ago that Seung-Hui went to Roanoke Firearms in Roanoke and purchased a Glock 19, a very popular semiautomatic weapon, a handgun, with 50 rounds of ammunition. What the owner described as a routine purchase. A practice box. Almost chilling in its simplicity, John.

Seung-Hui went in with three forms of identification. His driver's license, a checkbook with his home address on it and his green card or his I.N.S. card, and did an instant background check for the state of Virginia. Nothing on his record and was instantly allowed to put down his credit card and pay $571 for the purchase of this handgun.

Now nothing at all stood out about that purchase, even after the shooting in the minds of John Markell (ph), the owner, until three ATF agents showed up at his door yesterday, John, with the receipt for that gun. A receipt that was found on the body of Seung-Hui, along with the gun, with its serial numbers. It's three serial numbers etched off.

He immediately took that receipt, went to his files and pulled the sales receipt and background check up and handed it over to the ATF. It was just that simple of a procedure. And again, he says there was just nothing, nothing that stood out about this young man who, like many young college men, come in and purchase handguns at his store.

ROBERTS: Just to add a little perspective to that, Drew. We should mention that agents for the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, managed to restore those serial numbers on those weapons even though Cho Seung-Hui had filed them off. I guess he was trying to make it close to impossible for investigators to be able to trace the origins of those guns. But they can do incredible forensics on these weapons.

They did that and very quickly restored those serial numbers and quickly traced it to that gun dealer in Roanoke. He said, Drew, as you passed along, that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the purchase. How does he personally feel? Did you ask him that, about the fact that these guns were used in this crime here at Virginia Tech?

GRIFFIN: Well, you know, I asked him if he had a gut check of reality, if whether or not he was rethinking his career or the purchase. And, I man, obviously, John, he was shaken. He was shocked. He was sickened. But this man believes that there was nothing he did that was wrong. And if it wasn't the gun that was bought there, the gun would have been purchased somewhere else.

And he said another interesting thing. He said that he actually teaches target shooting and self-defense shooting with a lot of teachers and students and professors from Virginia Tech. And he saw absolutely nothing wrong with selling this gun to this person. In fact, he denies sales to people all the time just because they're odd, he says, or because they might have a whiff of alcohol on them.

There was nothing about this kid that stood out. He followed the letter of the law. And although he feels nothing but regret for having a gun in this person's hand who killed so many people, he really did not (ph) say, look, I've had it with guns, I'm not doing this anymore, I've got to stop this. He doesn't (ph). He just believes that much in your right to carry a firearm.

In fact, John, this man carries a Glock 19. He showed it to me. He has a concealed weapons permit. He just pulled it out and showed it to me, showed me where those serial numbers are, the three serial numbers are on the bottom, on the barrel and on the side, and was perfectly comfortable with anybody legally owning that gun.

ROBERTS: Yes, well, not surprising that a gun shop owner would say that.

All right, Drew, thanks very much for that. Good reporting. We're going to hear more about that as the day progresses.

He saw nothing, Kiran, unusual about this fellow, but certainly there are a lot of people on campus who are starting to say, there were some very unusual things about Seung Cho or Cho Seung-Hui.

CHETRY: You're absolutely right. And the other interesting thing about what he was just saying is that, this is when you ask yourself, could stricter gun laws have made a difference? He had no criminal background. There was nothing to raise a red flag when he went to go buy it. He passed and sailed through any of the background checks. And even if it was a waiting period, 36 days ago is when he bought it.

ROBERTS: And here's another thing too. Not a personal opinion or anything, simply merely an observation. That if he couldn't get a handgun -- if he wanted to go out and kill people and he couldn't get a handgun, he could go to virtually any sporting goods store in the state of Virginia and buy a shotgun or a rifle and do the same thing.

CHETRY: Right.

Well, we're going to talk more about that right now with Mike Brooks. He's our CNN security analyst in Atlanta. Also a former D.C. metropolitan police officer and weapons expert.

Did you get to hear a little bit about what Drew was saying when it came to the gun? The one thing that really seemed to strike a lot of people is just how much damage, how many victims we're talking about here and it leads us to ask, you know, just how much damage can these guns do and how many rounds can they carry?

MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know, Kiran, I was very surprised. Early on yesterday, the first thing I thought of was a weapon with a large magazine capacity. And that's what some of the other talking heads were talking about. But now we find out that it's a Glock Model 19 and a Walther P22.

Now the P22 is a .22-caliber. It actually is a .22-caliber long rifle. We see the Glock 19 here. Now we see the P22.

Now the P22, it has a magazine capacity of 10 rounds. So that's 10 rounds and one in the chamber, so 11 rounds, as you see it right there.

Now the Glock 19, it has a capability of having 15 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber for a total of 16. Now when you buy a new Glock Model 19, it usually comes with two magazines. So, you know, either this person -- either he bought more magazines or he had, after the first shooting, he went back -- went somewhere and reloaded and then he went on his rampage in Norris Hall.

But, you know, the first thing I thought about, Kiran, was a high capacity magazine. But if you look at these two weapons, they're very easily concealable. And that's why he kind of blended in with all the other students, because he knew the grounds, knew the campus extremely well because he's a senior there and was able to conceal this and kind of blend in with everyone.

CHETRY: You know, when you do a little bit of quick multiplication. Let's say, I mean, there are 32 people killed and there were 15 others at least that were in the hospital. The ER doctors that we spoke with said there was a minimum of two to three, even more gunshot wounds on each person. That's about 130 to 150 actual individual bullets we're talking about here.

So the time that he was able to stop and reload and stop and reload, if you're saying they could only hold 10 in a magazine, is really mind-boggling.

BROOKS: It really is. And, you know, we heard the interview that you had did this morning, that interview with that heroic student who was inside of that classroom and he said that he could hear the clip, as he called it, the magazine hit the floor and as he reloaded and then shot through the door again. So either he had a number of rounds, he was able to reload somehow or he had -- or he had more magazines.

But, you know, when he went into Norris Hall, Kiran, he barricaded the door from the inside with chains. This is not something that he did on the spur of the moment. This is something that he had planned. And he had planned it for quite some time. We know at least a number of days.

CHETRY: Just heartbreaking as more of these details come out. And we just see how premeditated it seems as well.

Mike Brooks, thanks so much.

BROOKS: Thank you, Kiran.

ROBERTS: We should also mention to you that -- we should also mention to you that during the convocation there was a fellow from the university who was walking around handing out these little ribbons -- they're in the Virginia Tech colors -- to remember the victims and show your support for the folks here who have just so much to get through. And, again, quite a moving service this afternoon.

CHETRY: It surely was.

ROBERTS: Helping them to do that.

CHETRY: And there were many more stories to be told. Many people that we're going to be speaking with as well. We're going to be right back here tomorrow for another special edition of "American Morning" starting at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. And we'll hope you'll join us again. Once again, we'll do everything to keep you up to date on this situation and also hear more of the stories of survival and hope in this very, very trying tragedy.

ROBERTS: That's going to do it for us from here at Virginia Tech. "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer is going to be coming up in just a few minutes. Wolf has just arrived here on location. We're going to be going back to Atlanta. Don Lemon and Betty Nguyen right after the break.

Thanks very much for joining us. Stay with CNN. We're going to continue our coverage of this tragedy all throughout the day, all throughout the night for the rest of this week. This is the place to be for the latest on the Virginia Tech shooting. Stay with us. We'll see you soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.

Our coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre and the memorial service, the convocation that ensued after that continues here on CNN, including new information about the gunman and also about the two guns that he purchased. We learned just moments ago about that.

But in the meantime, we want to talk about the victims in all of this. They are at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg. And that's where we find CNN's John Zarrella with the very latest from there.

John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.

Well, you know, for all morning and late yesterday afternoon into the evening, friends, family members were coming, bringing flowers and in one case we saw someone carrying a stuffed animal in. But during that convocation center, it was very quiet here. It was as if everyone was -- who was not at the convocation itself was huddled around television sets absorbing what was going on over there. But now, the activity, of course, has picked up again. Friends and family and students coming again to see their friends.

And we expect that sometime shortly after the top of the hour, we will be given another update on the condition of the victims who are here. There are nine in all that are here at this hospital. Three others at a sister hospital. And they are all, at last report, in stable condition.

We are expecting to hear from the hospital's CEO, as well as a couple of doctors, perhaps surgeons, who treated the injured, the victims. We know from what we heard earlier today that many of the victims here suffered multiple gunshot wounds. Two, three gunshot wounds in each of them.

One couple we talked to was coming to see a friend. Said that their friend had been shot twice in the leg, once in the arm. Another couple who had come, said their friend was one of the victims who had jumped out of the window to escape the hail of bullets in the classroom. Another one we've talked to said their friend was shot in the wrist.

So we hope to hear a lot this afternoon about how these people are doing now. The recovery process. Certainly the rehabilitation process, both physical and emotional, that these people will have to go through.

Don.

LEMON: And, John, they're taken to a number of hospitals. And so many victims here. I just want to clarify that I think that Montgomery Regional Hospital is level three trauma center. And there were several people, right, who were taken to a level one trauma center in the area because they had much more severe injuries.

ZARRELLA: That's correct.

LEMON: They are improving, is that what we're hearing?

ZARRELLA: Well, that's the word we are hearing, but we hope to, again, get an update on their conditions as well. But there's the two principal hospitals, Montgomery and the sister hospital are the two principal hospitals that they will be able to talk to and to the victims that are in these two hospitals. That's what we are expecting to hear today. But all indications are at this point, at least these two hospitals, they are in stable condition. And hopefully even better news than that when we get this next update right after the top of the hour we're told.

Don.

LEMON: Absolutely. John Zarrella.

And we want to, as John mentioned, we want to remind the viewers, a press conference will be happening at Montgomery Regional Hospital at 4:00 p.m. Our very own Wolf Blitzer is on the ground now. You heard John Roberts say he just arrived there. He's going to carry that for you in "The Situation Room," so you're not going to miss anything here.

John Zarrella, thank you so much.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: But in the meantime, we are trying to learn just as much as we can about the shooter and his background. And for that, many members of the media have centered on Centreville, Virginia, because that is the site of his family's home. Our Bob Franken is there as well. And we're learning just a little bit more about this family, Bob, as you speak with the neighbors.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are talking to the neighbors. We know that this is where he grew up or at least he spent his formative years. It's a townhouse community here called Sulley Station (ph) in Centreville, Virginia. Suburban Washington. It's actually not far from Dulles Airport.

This is an area that is, as I said, a townhouse community. It's normally a very, very quiet place. But last night it was crawling with policemen after the shooter's identity was made known.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARSHALL MAIN, NEIGHBOR: Well, all these police cars arriving last night about 6:00. About four of them, four or five were unmarked and then the two were the regular police cruisers. And so some men got out of some of them, ran around in back and then the others went in the front and it was all quiet. No action, really. But I -- so I just put that together with this news this morning. And so I said, well, that must be it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: It's the kind of comment you hear so many times when you confront a tragedy like this is the one where people will say, they pretty much kept to themselves. And that would describe the Cho family here, according to neighbors. Probably the one who had seen them the most and had talked to them the most was the postman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me what you can tell me about them.

ROD WELLS, POSTMAN FOR SUSPECT'S FAMILY: Well, there's not much I can tell you. I've been their mailman since they've lived there. And every time I deliver packages to them, they're always nice and smiling. They're not home that much because I guess they both work. But I didn't meet any -- I never met any of the kids. So I wasn't sure how many there even was. But I know the family is sweethearts. They're always smiling. Always seem very polite. It's just breaking my heart. I can't believe -- no parent deserves that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Now one of the things we've learned about the shooter is he went to Westfield High School in nearby Chantilly. Very tragic irony. Last year a young man by the name of Michael Kennedy was involved and accused of shooting and killing two policemen at a police sub station not far from here. He went to that same high school in Fairfax County. Officials are now saying that there's going to be an added police presence at the school at least for the next couple of days. Betty.

NGUYEN: Well, besides that connection, have you learned anything else about the shooter? I mean we're getting information in that describes some of his writings at school being very disturbing. And we'll talk about that in a little bit. But with those folks on the ground who live near the family home, have they mentioned anything else about Cho?

FRANKEN: They pretty much describe him in very vague terms because they said he was somebody who kept to himself for the most part. And that would be consistent with the descriptions we're getting from some of his classmates in college. That he was somebody, you could describe him as keeping to himself or they have described him, of course, as a loner.

NGUYEN: All right. CNN's Bob Franken joining us from Centreville, Virginia.

Bob, we appreciate it.

LEMON: We're going to continue to cover this. Of course, we watched that memorial service. The president of the United States speaking today. And if we can go to break on this quote. The president said, "people who have never met you are praying for you. They're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured." The CNN NEWSROOM continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Laura and I have come to Blacksburg today with hearts full of sorrow. This is a day of mourning for the Virginia Tech community. And it is a day of sadness for our entire nation. We've come to express our sympathy. In this time of anguish, I hope you know that people all over this country are thinking about you and asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And that's the president speaking today at a memorial service. Several thousand people attending. Family members, friends and also students.

NGUYEN: A very emotional memorial service at that. You saw people in tears. You also saw one person who appeared to have collapsed there for a minute and had to be escorted out by emergency personnel.

LEMON: And you can only imagine. I mean these . . .

NGUYEN: Oh, just the emotions that are going through them.

LEMON: Absolutely. They have been through so much. It's surprising they're still standing.

We're learning some information, more information about the shooter, about the gun. And it's all happening very quickly coming in here now. Let's talk to CNN's Jim Acosta. He joins us now by telephone.

Jim, what do you have for us?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just, just a few moments ago, spoke with the former director of the English department here at Virginia Tech, Lucinda Roy. She had a few dealings with this student in the fall of 2005. She says that while she was the head of the English department here at Virginia Tech, another professor in a creative writing class who had this young man as one of his students came to her and said, I have some very disturbing writings coming from this young man. We need to do something about it. Apparently Lucinda Roy, the former chair of the English department, went to the university -- this is what she tells us in an interview -- went to the university and reported this problem to the university, to which she was told (INAUDIBLE) continue in classes in the English department.

So this woman, the former chair of the English department, took it upon herself to tutor this student one on one. Here is some of what she had to tell us earlier this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Can you describe that?

LUCINDA ROY, FORMER CHAIR, VIRGINIA TECH ENGLISH DEPARTMENT: There was several of us in English who became concerned when we had him in class for various reasons. And so I contacted some people to try to get some help for him because I was deeply concerned myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And we did ask a follow-up question. Several follow-up questions about what she just told us about whether or not in these writings he talked about killing people. She said, no, but they were just such a disturbing nature that she felt it was appropriate to talk to the university officials about this.

We'll have more on this interview with Lucinda Roy later today on CNN.

Back to you.

LEMON: And, Jim, don't go anywhere, because Betty Nguyen and I here have been looking at some of the writings that we've been receiving from the classrooms. And students at the newspaper on their website have been writing about their experiences with this young man in class and the type of writing.

NGUYEN: And they're so twisted. If you listen to what they're saying. One of the students, Ian McFarland (ph), who is now an AOL employee. He's no longer at the school. But he does remember Cho in class and some of these plays that they were asked to write in that class. And he says that the play that Cho had written was very twisted. These were his words, just "really twisted, macabre violence." He went on to say that he had weapons in this play that he wouldn't have even thought of.

LEMON: Yes.

NGUYEN: It was just very odd to the class.

LEMON: And he said before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other and he said, "with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."

And, Betty, we were reading some of the other accounts here. One young lady said, you know, they had these very strange interactions with him in class, but he was also very quite and cold.

NGUYEN: He was very quiet. He kept to himself. He really didn't show any kind of emotion either way. And, in fact, the Virginia Tech campus newspaper, the "Collegiate Times," we're learning today in one of the articles that was written by a student who was also in Cho's class, that writing class. Her name is Stephanie Durry (ph). I just want to read to you a little bit of what she said was in the plays that Cho had written. And I'm quoting here.

"His writing, the plays, were really morbid and grotesque. I remember one of them very well. It was about a son who hated his stepfather. In the play, this boy threw a chainsaw around and hammers at him. But the play ended with the boy violently suffocating the father with a Rice Crispy treat."

She goes on to say he even wrote one play about students being stalked by a teacher and says, "I mean, this kind of writing was pretty peculiar, but when we asked him if he had comments after we reviewed his work" -- apparently the class reviewed all of the different student's work -- "well he would just shrug and say nothing." And so apparently the classmates kind of made jokes about it thinking, you know, this is really weird but hopefully nothing happens of it because she said, I mean, who talks about throwing around chainsaws.

LEMON: Absolutely. And then this is from the very same person that you're talking about. She says, "when I got the call that it was Cho and he had done this, I started crying and I started balling." So that sort of tells all.

And we're just beginning to learn, Betty, about the 32 victims of yesterday's shooting. Nine have been identified so far. Ryan Clark was a senior from Georgia and a resident assistant at the dorm where the first shoots took place. A Georgia coroner (ph) says Clark had several majors and a 4.0 grade point average. The dorm resident who also died, well she is Emily Jane Hilscher, an animal and poultry science major.

The other seven confirmed victims all died in the engineering building. Matthew La Porte (ph). He was a freshman. He was from Dumont, New Jersey. And G.V. Loganathan was an Indian-born professor of civil and environmental engineering. And Ross Alamedine was a student from Saugus, Massachusetts. He was reportedly gunned down in a French class. And Liviu Librescu was a professor of engineering, science and math and mechanics. Now the "Jerusalem Post" reports the holocaust survivor threw himself in front of the shooter saving the lives of his students.

NGUYEN: Also Erin Peterson (ph), a freshman from Virginia, is one of the latest victims to be identified. This is just so heart-wrenching. Her father had been waiting all night for information and he learned the worst today. Also among the dead, Reema Joseph Samaha (ph), a student, and Daniel Alahandro Perez Quiva (ph) from Woodbridge, Virginia.

And so when you listen to those names, it really puts a human behind the numbers that we've been bringing to you.

LEMON: Absolutely. And we're going to throw it over to Wolf Blitzer in "The Situation Room." He's going to continue our conversation from the campus of Virginia Tech.

Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, guys.

Happening now, very disturbing new insights into the man behind the Virginia Tech massacre. Now that police have named the gunman, were there early clues he was capable of such carnage? I'll ask a woman who knew him.

Plus, a campus and a nation in mourning. President Bush tries to comfort a community pierced in the heart by the nation's deadliest shooting spree. We expect to hear from the Virginia governor, Tim Kaine, soon.

And the victims gunned down on the campus where they lived and worked and dreamed of their futures. I'll talk to a father whose daughter was lost to a killer's bullets.

And we're standing by for a news conference from the hospital here where the injured are being treated.

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