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Nancy Grace
Virginia Tech Shooter Identified
Aired April 17, 2007 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight -- 33 dead, 29 injured, massacre at Virginia Tech, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. What more do we know tonight about the shooter? Tonight, we are live at Virginia Tech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been able to confirm the identity of the gunman at Norris Hall. That person is Cho Seung-Hui. He was a 23-year-old South Korean here in the U.S. as a resident alien. Cho was enrolled as an undergraduate student in his senior year as an English major at Virginia Tech.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What went on during that incident certainly caused tremendous chaos and panic.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just heard gunshots down the hall, and we didn`t really make anything of it because there`s a lot of construction on campus. We thought it was, like, hammering on the wall or something. But then it became very apparent that there was a shooter right when he entered our classroom. And he shot somebody almost instantly.
He was very methodical. I mean, he just seemed trained to kill. He was kind of going up to people and then shooting them in the head, pretty point-blank range, I mean, just horrible images that you never want to see again in your mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a long, rectangular-shaped table that me and another one of my classmates had on the other side of the door. So we were directly in front of the door, and we were standing off to the side but we were just trying to hold that table against that door. And thankfully, we weren`t in front of it when he did shoot through it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your quick thinking may have saved so many lives. What do you say when people are calling you a hero today?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m just glad I can be here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening, everyone. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. We are live here on the campus of Virginia Tech, the location of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, 33 dead, 29 wounded, 15 still in the hospital tonight. As I was walking here to see you, I passed a lady being accompanied by a state policeman, who broke down, sobbing about losing her only child. That is the atmosphere here on campus tonight.
Straight out to Tim Martin with WFIR talk radio. What can you tell us?
TIM MARTIN, WFIR TALK RADIO: Well, we learned a lot of information today about the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui. He`s South Korean. He`s 23 years old -- was 23 -- an English major here at Virginia Tech. He lived in Harper Hall. And he was quite possibly going to graduate this spring, before he went on this shooting rampage.
GRACE: You know, it`s my understanding that police have uncovered quite a bit of material -- back out to you, Tim Martin -- including a very bitter and hateful letter in his dorm room. I also understand that it was signed Ishmael (ph), which was also written allegedly in red ink on the inside of his arm. And I don`t know if you`re familiar with the character Ishmael, but Ishmael stands for outlaw, exile or orphan. What can you tell me about this letter found in his dorm room?
MARTIN: Well, it`s all very disturbing. What we understand -- and a lot of reports coming in from law enforcement agents, but they`re not actually coming from Virginia Tech itself. There are reports that the letters say, You made me do this. The question, when you see, You made me do this, is, Who is he talking about? Is he talking about a girlfriend? Is he talking about a professor? Those are questions, hopefully, we`re going to get the answers to. There`s other indications that he`s talking about rich kids.
And when you see writings like that in letters, that indicates a motive that he was out to get somebody. But why was he out to get these people? There`s 32 parents out there that want to know why this guy did this.
GRACE: Yes. And I saw one of them in the hallway tonight, who broke down on her knees, sobbing, in a dormitory about losing her only child here on Virginia Tech campus. I want to find out more about the shooter. It`s my understanding that he came here at age 8 from South Korea. What else can you tell me, Tim?
MARTIN: He came here on a student visa, and I`m sure the FBI is looking into that right now. He lived near the D.C. area, and he`s obviously been here at Virginia Tech.
But right now, we in the media have a lot of questions from Virginia Tech, from the Blacksburg police, and it seems like most of the answers we`re getting are coming from law enforcement agents that are not telling those answers through Virginia Tech. There`s a lot of confusion, and the confusion started really yesterday as to who this guy was. There was a little more information today.
But what we need right now is for Virginia Tech to come out and just lay it down piece by piece, and so far, they haven`t done that. There`s not a lot of details to piece together right now about this guy.
GRACE: Well, I know this much, Mike Brooks. Allegedly, the weapons were a Glock, as well as a .22, a Walther .22. And it`s also my understanding that serial numbers had been filed off of both guns. It is also my understanding that found in the dorm room of this young man is something like a dentist`s tool, which many people are speculating he used to scratch off the serial numbers on the guns. What can you tell me, Mike Brooks?
MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: You`re absolutely right, Nancy. Sources close to the investigation yesterday confirmed with me that he did use two weapons. Both of them were a semi-automatic handgun. One was a Glock 19 that he purchased 36 days ago in Roanoke, Virginia. He used three forms of ID, purchased them legally. The gun shop owner said there was nothing that -- you know, that was out -- stood out in this mind, that this guy -- there was anything wrong with this kid. It was a totally legal purchase.
He also apparently legally purchased the .22, was a Walther P22, .22- caliber. It`s a .22 long rifle round (ph). You know, nothing really significant about these two weapons. The Glock 19, Nancy, is one that is used by law enforcement, by just sportsmen. They use a -- I had one when I was on the Metropolitan Police Department. It is -- it has a magazine capacity of 15 rounds and one in the chamber. So the gun, as we saw it there, is capable of holding 16 rounds.
Now, the Walther has a magazine capacity of 10 rounds and one in the chamber, so that`s 11. Now, when you buy a new gun -- when he bought the Glock 19, it usually comes with two magazines. So that`s -- you know, that`s 15 and 15, 16, you know, with a total of 32 rounds. I`m telling you, you know, he also bought a box of 50 rounds of 9-millimeter ammunition. So we know that there were a lot more rounds than that fired. Where did he buy the other ammunition? Where did he go about getting this? That remains to be seen.
GRACE: Everyone, we are live here at Virginia Tech campus. And across the camera, I can see -- you can`t see it -- is a string of police convoys escorting a large bus with its emergency lights on. I can only speculate or presume that these are -- this bus is full of family of the victims. Tonight, those victims` families -- those victims` bodies still at the coroner`s office. They have not been claimed, to my understanding, by the parents yet.
Take a listen to what police had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been able to confirm the identity of the gunman at Norris Hall. That person is Cho Seung-Hui. He was a 23-year-old South Korean here in the U.S. as a resident alien. Cho was enrolled as an undergraduate student in his senior year as an English major at Virginia Tech. Cho was in the U.S. with a residence established in Centerville, Virginia, and was living on campus in Harper Hall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was kind of going up to people and then shooting them in the head, pretty point-blank range, I mean, just horrible images that you never want to see again in your mind.
He was very methodical. I mean, he just seemed trained to kill almost. He had no, like, anger in him at all. He just was very calm and sort of very determined to kill everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve lost a brother, you know. I had two, now I just have one. And I lost a friend. I lost part of my heart. (INAUDIBLE) was an angel, someone that would have been great to this world. You know, all he wanted to do was help children and help other people. So they just had -- they just lost someone who was really, really caring and really genuine all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are here live at the campus of Virginia Tech, the now scene of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. It is a stunned silence here. Students are wandering around, seemingly aimlessly. Parents are here. They are crying and grieving. There`s a lot of police here. It seems as if every parent is being escorted by a police officer, that I have seen. There are detectives and police everywhere here at Virginia Tech tonight.
Let`s go out to the lines. Bill in Illinois. Hi, Bill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Hi. Nancy, I`ve got a question. There`s been some stuff brought up about this gentleman being mentally disturbed or being seen by a doctor for depression and other, you know, psychological problems. Who takes responsibility to say, Well, this man seems so dangerous that maybe, you know, someone should institutionalize him? Or is there a way to -- you know, what form of, you know, communication can there be to say that this gentleman is sick and they inform the school or the...
GRACE: Exactly. But guess what, Bill...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... to purchase a gun.
GRACE: Bill in Illinois, you are dead on. Out to Jane Velez- Mitchell, investigative reporter. Jane, reports are that one of his teachers -- he was majoring in English, I believe, English literature. One of his teachers got so disturbed at some of his writings, which were very bitter and angry and full of violence, that she spoke to him about seeing a therapist, according to reports.
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Absolutely.
GRACE: She also told police -- told school administration about it. And nothing was done.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: That`s right. In fact, I`m holding in my hand Nancy, two plays that the deceased killer wrote. And I`ve had a chance to review them. They are extremely disturbing. They are dripping with hate, with anger, with death, with discussion of weapons and with profanity.
And students and teachers were alarmed by these writings. And one teacher went to the administration and said, Hey, we have to do something about this kid, not once but several times. And she says that she was told by the administration, There`s nothing you can do about his writings. That is freedom of speech.
She got so exasperated that she actually tutored him herself, one on one. This is more than a year ago, she says. And she was trying to get him to open up, but he was totally shut down -- one-word answers, hardly answering, just completely depressed and lacking affect. And ironically, that`s exactly how people who saw him face to face when he was doing his killing spree describe him, as completely lack of affect.
GRACE: You know, not only that, there are so many reports swirling about this young man, not only that one teacher took interest in him and tried to get him into counseling, but that he was on some kind of anti- depressant, which would suggest he had gone to counseling to get that prescription. But not only that, other students in the class prior to the shooting had discussed, according to reports, that this guy`s going to turn out to be, like, a mass shooter. Oh, how right they were.
We`re going out to the lines. Amy in Pennsylvania. Hi, Amy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi. My question is, are the campus police in charge of the investigation? And if so, why? As of 7:30 last night, I hadn`t heard of any other law enforcement really being involved, and the campus police were doing all of the press conferences.
GRACE: Let`s go back out to Tim Martin with WFIR talk radio. Apparently, there are multiple organizations involved. Who is on the case, Tim?
MARTIN: Exactly right. What we`re getting the most information from is from Blacksburg police and campus police. They seem to be where the information is coming from. But there are multiple police teams. There`s the state police is here, police organizations from all over the state. The FBI is here. There are a lot of organizations helping out with Blacksburg and Virginia Tech. But right now, they`re assisting the investigation, and right now, it`s in the hands of Blacksburg.
GRACE: Joining us here tonight at Virginia Tech campus are two very important guests, in my mind. They are Matt and Matt. It is Matt Green and Matt Lewis, both of them first responders on the scene, and I don`t believe there could be any braver people.
First to you, Matt Lewis. When you went to the scene, did you realize you were responding to a shooting?
MATT LEWIS, FIRST RESPONDER FOR VIRGINIA TECH RESCUE SQUAD: No, not at first. Our first team unit got out there, and they realized that there were two patients with gunshot wounds. Then they dispatched a second team unit, which I was on, and we responded to the scene. By the time we got there, the first team already had the first patient backboarded and being brought to the ambulance to be brought to Montgomery Regional Hospital. Within a matter of minutes from then, we had the second patient and we had her on the ambulance and bringing her to Montgomery Regional Hospital also
GRACE: So there are two scenes -- the first scene, two hours later the second scene. You were at the second scene?
LEWIS: I was at the first scene.
GRACE: The first scene. And what happened when you got there?
LEWIS: When I got there, I`d seen a patient with a gunshot wound, you know, first on the scene, treated the wound, treated the patient, make sure that the patient`s OK. We treated the wound very carefully. We backboarded the patient and we put her on the cart. We brought her to the ambulance. We had medics on the ambulance. And we went to Montgomery Regional Hospital.
GRACE: In all of your history, did anything prepare you for this?
LEWIS: We do a lot of training around the station for especially things that we don`t get often, like gunshots, drownings, bombs going off, things like that. So our training definitely played a huge role in this event. Without that training, I don`t think anybody would have been able to take care of the patients as well as we did.
GRACE: Also with us tonight, another first responder. And let me tell you, these are typically the first witnesses called at a trial, very often there before police, before the fire department. With me tonight, Matt Green and Matt Lewis.
To you, Matt Green. What did you observe? Let`s just take it from the very beginning. When did you get the call?
MATT GREEN, FIRST RESPONDER FOR VIRGINIA TECH RESCUE SQUAD: Well, I arrived for the second call. We were dispatched at 9:30 to the Norris Hall area. From what...
GRACE: Did you know about the first call?
GREEN: At the time, I did not. I was actually out of town, just doing some day-to-day stuff, and happened to see law enforcement agents heading toward the VTech campus. I then turned on my VTech rescue squad radio and heard the notification of the second incident at 9:30. I then quickly turned around and headed towards the scene.
GRACE: So were you actually on duty at that time?
GREEN: No, ma`am, I was not.
GRACE: So you`re a volunteer?
GREEN: Yes. We`re all volunteers. It`s a student-run organization. We have 40 members. But members from -- or agencies from all over the county and the area came out and helped out. They played a huge role in it. We were just a small part.
GRACE: So you`re driving along in your car and you hear this on your Tech radio and you head to the scene.
GREEN: Yes, ma`am.
GRACE: What happened when you got there?
GREEN: Well, like I say, we were dispatched at 9:30 to the Norris Hall area for multiple patients with injuries. The police departments immediately secured the perimeter and established an area deemed safe for us to...
GRACE: Now, wait, wait. The police immediately secured the perimeter. Translate.
GREEN: We don`t go anywhere until it`s declared safe by a law enforcement agency...
GRACE: For rescue to go in.
GREEN: Certainly. And we actually did not go inside the building. They gave us an area which they said was safe. We then established -- we follow our MCI (ph) protocol, which is (INAUDIBLE) Casualty Incident, meaning when there`s more patients than we can handle on our own, we have specific procedures and policies to follow when this does happen.
GRACE: Right. What did you observe when you got there?
GREEN: Well, when we got there, we set up our scene as planned. And immediately after, patients begun being transported out to our treatment area in a constant stream. We treated them as best we could and then got them on ambulances and shipped to the (INAUDIBLE) hospitals.
GRACE: What sort of treatments were you giving these people right on the scene?
GREEN: It ranges. Luckily, we have ALS, which is advanced life support, on staff with us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. So we have all the equipment we need to secure them as best as possible on scene to allow us time to get them...
GRACE: How many people did you actually treat?
GREEN: We don`t know the exact number.
GRACE: You, you yourself?
GREEN: Me personally? I don`t know. We`ve been trained to...
GRACE: Just one after the next?
GREEN: We just keep going. We`ve been trained to put the emotions aside and just focus on the task at hand, treat the patient, treat the injury, and then move on to the next.
GRACE: Have you thought back, Matt Lewis, on what happened?
LEWIS: Definitely, I`ve thought back on it. I am also a resident of Harper Hall, so it hit me a lot harder than a lot of other people did because knowing that he came from our dorm, knowing that we had to respond to things that he had done -- it`s kind of hard to think about it when you`re on scene, you know, helping the patients, because the first thing you want to do is treat the patient and get them to a medical facility. And then afterwards, you really deal with the emotional stuff with your friends, your family, everybody that knew them (ph). So it still really hasn`t kicked in since it only happened a day, a day-and-a-half ago. But it definitely will kick in pretty soon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve lost a brother, you know. I had two, now I just have one. And I lost a friend. I lost part of my heart. (INAUDIBLE) was an angel, someone that would have been great to this world. You know, all he wanted to do was help children and help other people. So they just had -- they just lost someone who was really, really caring and really genuine all the time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everyone. We are live here at the campus of Virginia Tech, where parents and students seem to be walking around in a state of shock, parents openly breaking down and crying in the halls over the deaths.
Joining us now, CNN correspondent Brianna Keilar. Brianna, thank you for being with us. What can you tell us?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest information that we have from state police, Nancy -- and I should mention also, there was a press conference this evening, and Virginia Tech police were not there. Of course, there are many questions we have for them, but we only heard from the state police and they could only tell us so much.
What they did tell us was that police executed a search warrant at the dorm of the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, and that most of the evidence that they recovered were actually documents. They say there was considerable writings that they recovered. Also hearing from state police that there was no suicide note. And we do understand, Nancy, that police have tentatively at this point notified all of the next of kin of the victims.
GRACE: Brianna, what can you tell us about his parents, about the shooter`s parents?
KEILAR: You know, at this point, we don`t know that much. We know at this point they are sort of holed up. They`re not, obviously, out in the media spotlight. And we understand from various reports that they kind of keep to themselves. That`s obviously something we understand about the gunman, as well, authorities describing Cho as a loner.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a long, rectangular-shaped table that me and another one of my classmates had on the other side of the door. So we were directly in front of the door, and we were standing off to the side so the cinderblocks were protecting us, as much as we could. And you know, we just tried to hold that -- hold that table against that door. And thankfully, we weren`t in front of it when he did shoot through it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Welcome back, everyone. We are live here at the campus of Virginia Tech, the now scene of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. There is a stunned silence over the entire campus. At this moment, a vigil is being held, a candlelight vigil is being held in memory of all the students and professors who lost their lives. There is a live shot of the vigil right now.
Out to CNN`s Brianna Keilar. Brianna, what can you tell me about the parents?
KEILAR: Well, what we understand from the parents, we don`t know too much about them. My colleagues` reporting indicates that they stay pretty low-key. Obviously, their son identified by authorities as a loner. Apparently, the parents keep to themselves. At this point, they are holed up. They`re not talking with the media, Nancy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just heard gunshots down the hall. We didn`t really make anything of it, because there`s a lot of construction on campus, but we thought it was hammering on the wall or something. But then it became very apparent there was a shooter, right in our classroom, and shot somebody almost instantly as soon as he entered. At that point he started shooting multiple people, a lot of them in the front row. And then lots of us panicked and ran over to our desks and tried to take cover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So how were you shot?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually hadn`t realized I had been shot until after the killer, the shooter left our room. So after he left our room, I looked down and my arm was bleeding pretty profusely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You didn`t even feel the bullet at the time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it just felt like a tingling sensation in my arm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are live here at the campus of Virginia Tech, now the scene of the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. There was a stunned silence throughout the campus. We have seen parents, students, police, detectives, all walking by. Here with me, parked outside are two of the first responders. And I want to tell you, if you didn`t know already, these two young men, Matt Green and Matt Lewis are students as well. One of them picking up on his student walkie-talkie while he was off-hours, responding to the scene to help save the lives of others. Out to the lines. Trish in Nevada, hi, Trish.
CALLER: How are you?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. How are you? What`s your question?
CALLER: Great. My question is, what else do we know about his family, other than they just have kept to themselves, that could possibly shed some light on this disturbed man?
GRACE: You know, Trish in Nevada, I was wondering the same thing. I`m like you, I`m trying to find answers to what was in this guy`s mind. Back out to you Jane Velez-Mitchell, investigative reporter, what do his parents do for a living? What were they all about? Why did they come here? What was he studying?
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Apparently they are a very upwardly mobile family. According to the "Chicago Tribune," ran a dry cleaning business. They lived in Centreville, Virginia. They have a daughter, according to the "Tribune." She, one of these daughters went to Princeton. So this is a very educated family that was obviously striving to achieve the American dream. And now this nightmare has also descended on them through no fault of their own. They are simply related to this dead killer. Now they`ve had to leave their home in Centreville and flee because of the media was descending.
GRACE: Out to Susan Lipkins, Dr. Lipkins, psychologist and author. Dr. Lipkins, I`m sure that you have studied his writings and what we know of this bitter note left behind in his dorm, along with apparently a dentist`s tool used to -- allegedly used to take the serial markings off of those guns. Apparently inside of his arm he had written the name Ishmaelax, Ishmaelax. I know you`ve studied this. What`s your profile?
SUSAN LIPKINS, PSYCHOLOGIST: I think that this boy was probably schizophrenic. He was clearly psychotic. We had many warning signs that his connection to reality was very loose. And that sometimes you have a paranoid schizophrenic who believes that he`s hearing voices and being told to carry out certain missions. And I think that, something like that was probably happening in this case.
GRACE: But he railed in his writings against quote rich kids, charlatans, debauchery and we know for a fact he was studying English and literature. And commonly Ishmael or Ishmael represents someone that is an outlaw, an orphan or an exile.
LIPKINS: I`m sure that that`s how he felt, that he was totally isolated. He was not connected to anybody. He probably felt humiliated, rejected, dejected and a loner. However I read some of his plays as well and there was something that we call clanging. He was rhyming words. Things didn`t make sense. I don`t know that the content is as important as the degree of violence and the lack of reality testing, especially to be writing this kind of thing and reading it in an English class. The students knew it. They said, you know, this guy is a shooter. And I think that his English professor also knew it. The question is, how come this university didn`t protect -- they protected the rights of the individual by not going and getting him help. They didn`t protect the individual himself or the rest of the students appropriately.
GRACE: Back out to Brianna Keilar with CNN. Brianna, what can you tell me about a holocaust survivor professor Liviu Librescu who actually lost his life during the ordeal?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I understand from authorities this was one of those heroic (INAUDIBLE) that we have heard so much about by these professors and these students, that he died among his students. Yes, he was a holocaust survivor. What makes this even more poignant and really very sad, Nancy, is that it appears he died on holocaust remembrance day. So it`s certainly something that`s very touching, someone who escaped such a horrible fate, only to meet another one here on this campus at Virginia Tech, which normally is a very peaceful campus and community.
GRACE: And apparently this professor, Liviu Librescu, after surviving the holocaust, tried to block the door while students were trying to escape. He tried to save them and lost his own life. Out to the lines. Bernadette in California. Hi, Bernadette.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy. I have a question about the first two victims. They say that the girl was his girlfriend, so why are we not hearing more about her?
GRACE: OK. I couldn`t quite hear your question. You`re talking about Emily and Ryan. What was your question?
CALLER: About the first two victims? They say that the girl was his girlfriend, so why are we not hearing more about her?
GRACE: What about that, Jane Velez-Mitchell? What can you tell me about any romantic connection?
VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, we`ve heard that bandied about, but we have not heard that from the officials. This young lady, who was one of the two who died at the dormitory. is majoring in animal and poultry sciences. She was a resident of the dormitory and there`s absolutely no confirmation that she had no relationship whatsoever with the dead shooter. But I can tell you that CNN actually has exclusively interviewed two former roommates of the shooter and they say that he harassed women and that police were actually called to his dorm room because he stalked and harassed women. So he was obviously very, very troubled on many fronts, including his relationship with the opposite sex.
GRACE: And back to you, Brianna Keilar. Brianna, there are also reports that not only had he harassed several women -- we`ve lost our satellite with Brianna everyone. Please bear with us. We are live at Virginia Tech campus. I`ll throw this to Tim Martin with WFIR talk radio. There are many reports that this young man had stalked other women on campus, and actually set a fire in his dorm room. Is there any truth to that? And if so, why was he still on campus?
TIM MARTIN, WFIR: Well, there`s certainly rumors about that. That`s what we keep hearing everyone say, we keep seeing these signs of something`s going wrong with this guy and that nothing`s being done. I think we`re still waiting to get all the answers from Virginia Tech. But another thing, what I`m learning is or some other rumors that are being told is that in his dorm they took a computer and these days with technology, they get on facebook. They get on myspace, it`s very popular in college and they talk about what they`re doing, what they`re planning, and I`ve heard that on his space book he talked about multiple girlfriends, and how he was going to punish them all.
GRACE: What`s amazing is that he was still here on campus. I want to go back to two of the first responders to the scene. Joining me here is Matt Green and Matt Lewis, both of them full-time students as well as volunteers on the first responder student team. I want to ask, to you, Matt Lewis, were you afraid at all when you went?
MATT LEWIS, VA TECH STUDENT: No, I definitely wasn`t afraid when we responded.
GRACE: When did you learn that the two patients that you had worked with tried to save, one of them anyway, had passed away?
LEWIS: At that time I was (INAUDIBLE) in the second situation. So really, we had no room for (INAUDIBLE)
GRACE: To you, the other Matt, I know you two want to thank several people. And I want to do that for you. Here`s two heroes who want to thank other people. Blacksburg volunteer, Christiansburg volunteer, Shawsville (ph) volunteer, Long Shot McCoy, Newport volunteer, Roanoke City EMS, Vinton first aid, Corillian (ph) patient, Radford EMS, Giles rescue, lifeline and Salem rescue. So even now, as we are here at the vigil, two heroes wanting to thank other people.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
RICHELLE CAREY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Richelle Carey with your headline prime newsbreak. You`re looking at pictures of a candlelight vigil being held on the Virginia Tech campus at this moment. The community is gathered to mourn the victims of yesterday`s shooting rampage. Thirty three people died including the gunman who committed suicide. And there will be an investigation into the university`s response to the shootings. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine says an independent panel is being appointed at the request of Virginia Tech. Police tonight say the gunman, Cho Seung- Hui, was a South Korean with a green card living here as a legal permanent resident. He left a rambling message in his dorm room. Police say it`s not a suicide note. They describe it as anti-woman and anti-rich kid. The note reportedly said you caused me to do this. Authorities also found a written bomb threat at the scene of the 30 killings in Norris Hall. They believe it`s likely connected to the shootings. Stay with us for the latest on this tragic rampage. I`m Richelle Carey, keep it here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cho Seung-Hui. He was a 23-year-old South Korean here in the U.S. as a resident alien. Cho was enrolled as an undergraduate student in his senior year as an English major at Virginia Tech. Cho was in the U.S. with a residence established in Centreville, Virginia and was living on campus in Harper Hall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As many have been saying, your quick thinking may have saved so many lives. What do you say when people are calling you a hero today? It`s tough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m just glad I could be here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The shooting that has made headlines all across the country. We are here at Virginia Tech campus, the scene of now the deadliest shooting in U.S. history, 33 dead and 29 wounded, 15 still in the hospital tonight. Back out to Brianna Keilar with CNN. Brianna, I`m still wondering about all the victims. I know that they are still at the coroner`s office. What do we know? Do we have any idea when they`ll be released and why they`re being held so long?
KEILAR: Well, at this point we understand, as of this morning, there were still a handful of students who had not necessarily been identified. Whether that has changed, we don`t know. We didn`t actually get to ask Virginia Tech police that. But at this point, we understand it`s going to take a few days at least before they release those names, Nancy.
GRACE: And to you, Mike Brooks, why would that be? Why are the wounds so important if the killer has already committed suicide?
MIKE BROOKS: Well, Nancy, you know, on the identifying of the victims, it`s very important that their next of kin be notified. And many times, especially in instances like this, a mass casualty incident, this plane crash, other incidents similar to this, you have to get the forensic evidence, dentistry forms, those kind of things and records to the medical examiner so they can make a positive ID.
GRACE: Joining us tonight, Michael Mazzarello and Randy Kessler. To you, Michael Mazzarello, what responsibility, if any, does the school bear?
MICHAEL MAZZARELLO, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, Nancy, the school, apparently the teacher knew about it, brought it to the administration`s attention, and failed to act on it. So I`m sure it`s going to be an investigation. A commission is going to be formed and they`ll get to the bottom of it.
GRACE: Randy, agree or disagree?
RANDY KESSLER, DEFENSE ATTORNEY & FAMILY ATTORNEY: I agree. I think this is a time where lawyers can play a pivotal role. We all want answers. We all want some kind of closure. We can`t prosecute the shooter because he`s gone. But lawyers need to tell these families when they`re approached about suing somebody, suing the school, to restrain themselves. That`s not the way you get answers. You do it the way we`re doing it. We look for answers through the investigation, through the mental health experts. Was he sick, was he mentally ill? Why did he do this? Let`s get the answers and let`s urge restraint on everybody. Lawsuits should be the last thing we think about.
GRACE: Back to you, Michael. There`s no way that the parents in any way, in my legal understanding, can be joined into any suit seeking responsibility against them. It`s not going to happen.
MAZZARELLO: Absolutely not, not in my opinion whatsoever. And I agree with my colleague there, in that this is a time to heal, get to the facts. The governor called for a commission. I`m more interested in how this guy gets a gun, walks into a shop. He`s a resident alien, Nancy. The police showed up. There was no background check, no investigation. I think the governor of Virginia needs to answer these questions about a, you know, about how this man got a gun as quick as he did.
GRACE: Out to Ramzi Samaha, a very special guest joining me here tonight, along with Floyd Miller. Ramsey is the uncle of a victim in this case, Reema Samaha. Floyd is a very dear friend of victim Ryan Clark. To you, Ramzi. Thank you to both of you for being with us. When did you learn this news?
RAMZI SAMAHA, UNCLE OF REEMA SAMAHA: We learned it yesterday. We were -- I was at work and I heard that the university was attacked and we were very worried we had not heard from Reema and we were panicking. Her father had to show up here and learn last night that she had passed away and she was shot.
GRACE: When you first heard the news, Ramzi and I want to thank you for being with us, so many people across the country have questions. When you first heard the news, did you tell yourself, no way, out of all the students, and here is video of this beautiful girl, Reema Samaha, do you tell yourself, there are so many students there, she`s probably OK?
SAMAHA: The initial thought was that we could not get in contact with her because there were so many people that could not talk to their students or their children. And when we finally heard the word from her father that she was passed away, we were shocked. We couldn`t believe it was somebody from our family out of the millions, thousands of people in the world, that our own had fallen.
GRACE: We`re showing you video of this beautiful girl, a student here at Virginia Tech, one of the 33 now dead. Her uncle is with us. Also with me tonight, Floyd Miller, a very dear friend of victim Ryan Clark. Floyd, thank you for being with us, dear.
FLOYD MILLER, FRIEND OF SHOOTING VICTIM: Thank you.
GRACE: When did you hear the news about Ryan?
MILLER: I was actually in a friend`s room. He had a project that he had to save a long time for and we were exactly two floors above the incident when it happened. He believed it to just be regular old banging. You hear banging at night where people are getting out of bed, or in the early mornings getting ready for class and they jump out of bed and you hear beds bang and you just brush it off. And I went back to sleep a few times and he woke up a couple minutes later after he found out about what had happened. And said, buddy, get up. Ryan`s been shot. And basically told me that they were just awaiting to find out. We knew that one was injured and one was dead and we were just waiting to hear from the news which one was ...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Out to you, Floyd. What do you make of the fact that the two full hours passed before an alarm went out and the alarm was an e-mail?
MILLER: I knew initially in our dorm, the RAs got phone calls and received e-mails and we were all told, don`t leave your rooms, lock your doors, don`t go to class, just stay in there for the time being. We didn`t know exactly what was going on. I guess later a lot of us had hopes, maybe there was a lockdown, that somebody had put us in the dorm. They would have at least told us (INAUDIBLE) the incident that there was a shooting, maybe more people would have not gone to class on campus (INAUDIBLE) around.
GRACE: Exactly.
MILLER: And for security reasons, they probably figured that it was a closed situation, maybe murder-suicide (INAUDIBLE) But I thought maybe a little more warning should have been given as soon as...
GRACE: And what about it Ramzi, do you agree? Do you agree?
SAMAHA: I do agree. I think there should have been more notice given out earlier, let people know (INAUDIBLE) going to happening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: We are live here at Virginia Tech, now the scene of the deadliest massacre, the deadliest shooting in U.S. history. But tonight the questions, who, what, where and why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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 to avoid being captured by a rude (ph) 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 arms and hands 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 are Virginia Tech.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Tonight, like every night, we will not forget to honor an American hero. Tonight we remember Army Specialist Clifford Allen Spohn, just 21, Albuquerque, New Mexico, killed Iraq, a paratrooper who enlisted straight from high school. He loved music and believed it was his calling to serve his country. Leaving behind a large family, grieving widow, Amanda, four-year-old daughter and parents, Clifford and Sandy. American - - Adam Spohn, American hero. Thank you to our guests. But most of all to you for being with us. But most of all, our prayers along with those of the country, here at Virginia Tech. Good night, friend.
END
