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American Morning
Warning Signs at Virginia Tech; Frantic Moments for Parents, Students
Aired April 18, 2007 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry.
There's a lot more information coming out this morning, as well, about the mental state of the suspect based on his writings, notes that police were able to find in his dorm room, and also recounting stories from people that attended classes, that lived with him. In fact, we're going to be talking with some of his suite mates coming up in a little bit here in our last hour of AMERICAN MORNING.
But the picture painted is a very disturbed individual who many of these students and even teachers feared.
ROBERTS: Yes. We've been hearing from professors who tried to help him out, professors who've said, get him out of my class or I'm going to quit. And we've also been hearing from students who say, you know, we knew this guy was strange from the word go. So, you know, you wonder how many of these pieces of the puzzle were adding up to this and how many were missed that could have put the whole thing together.
CHETRY: And, of course, the impact on the people involved in the days, weeks and even years to come that is going to continue.
But we have been able to talk to some of the families and, really, they have heartbreaking stories to tell about the loss of their loved ones. A little bit later we're going to talk to Omar Samaha, whose sister Reema...
ROBERTS: A tragic story.
CHETRY: ... was one of the people killed in Norris Hall, and his concerns for his family and the future, and also the future of the school.
ROBERTS: So why don't we tell people what we right now, bring everybody up to speed.
CHETRY: Well, right now we are talking more about the portrait of that gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, or as he called himself, Seung-Cho. His roommates, his classmates and his teachers all telling that story.
Investigators as well looking through notes that were found in Cho's dorm room. One of them apparently a bomb threat -- contained a bomb threat. We also expect an update from campus and state police in just an hour. They told us earlier on AMERICAN MORNING they didn't know of that threat before Monday's shooting.
And we're also learning more names and seeing more faces of the 32 innocent lives that were lost. The medical examiner, though, says it will be days before all of the victims are positively identified.
And there are 14 people still in the hospital, one in critical condition, one in serious, the others all at this point considered stable.
A little bit later we're also going to be speaking more with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the emotional and mental impact of the massacre.
ROBERTS: So, let's fill in some of the blanks and get more of a sense of a portrait of this fellow.
Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING we spoke with Cho's one-time poetry professor who asked that he be taken out of the class because he was scaring other students.
Listen to what Nikki Giovanni told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Ms. Giovanni, you said that he was intimidating. Did you ever think that he represented any kind of physical threat to his fellow students? Not necessarily on the scale that he did on Monday morning, but did you ever think that he represented any kind of physical threat?
NIKKI GIOVANNI, PROFESSOR, VIRGINIA TECH: No, I didn't.
ROBERTS: Never?
CHETRY: What about in the early morning hours when we were first learning of a shooting that had taken place here at Virginia Tech? In the back of your mind, did you think, could it be Cho?
GIOVANNI: In the front of my mind, I knew it was. I had no doubt.
ROBERTS: Really?
CHETRY: Did you call anyone? Did you call anyone at that point?
GIOVANNI: I was on a flight. No. I mean, I was -- I was in San Francisco coming back. So when I heard about the shooting, they were over.
When we landed, I got into Blacksburg I think -- or to Roanoke, excuse me, about 12:30 because the winds, as you'll recall, we were stuck in Charlotte. I took the red eye at 10:44 US air, and we got into Charlotte, and then we couldn't get out of Charlotte until almost 11:30. And by then, of course, everything was already over. But there was no question in my mind, you know, when they said there was a shooting. I was, OK. And then when they said a young Asian, I said, for sure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Poetry professor Nikki Giovanni, who actually was so worried about Cho Seung-Hui that she threatened to quit if he wasn't taken out of her class.
We also spoke this morning with Professor Lucinda Roy, who tutored Cho one on one after taking him out of Giovanni's class. I asked her whether she thought that Cho was capable of something like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUCINDA ROY, TUTORED CHO: I really felt very strongly that he was suicidal, that he was so depressed, that he had a negativity about him. It was really like talking to a hole sometimes, as though the person wasn't really there.
And there was such an absence in the room when he entered that everything emptied out and just seemed very dark. And so, there were times when I thought he could probably do harm to himself because he was so depressed. Of course, we never imagined, necessarily, these kind of things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Roy said that she contacted school higher-ups and Virginia Tech police about her concerns. They had offered some protection both to her and to the students, but no one thought it would have been appropriate to do that.
CHETRY: In the meantime, Cho's writing raising all kinds of questions, as well. Sara Stevens was in a playwriting class with him. Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING she told us what he was like in the classroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA STEVENS, CLASSMATE OF GUNMAN: They were graphic and vulgar. And, you know, the language was just so violent that it was worrying, because, you know, I -- we had no indication as to what his personality or mental state was like before this. You know, he was quiet and perhaps troubled, but, until now, I had no idea, you know, or until then I had no idea what it was like.
CHETRY: And so what was done, Sara?
STEVENS: I mean, I -- we discussed the plays in class and, clearly, a lot of us were concerned or troubled. But up until this point, I know, you know, several students had talked to their teachers about it. I know it wasn't -- it didn't go unnoticed, to say the least. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And it's mind-boggling to think of this. Stevens says that she had classes with Cho for three years and that she never heard him speak. She never heard what his voice sounded like. She also says that she asked to be referred to as "question mark". And that's what the kids called him, as well.
ROBERTS: And Gary Tuchman spoke with a couple of his former roommates from last year last night on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," and they said they didn't hear him speak for the better part of a year as well. So very -- very keep to himself sort of guy. Very mysterious.
But we're trying to peel back the layers of the onion here to give you a better idea of who he was and how this happened.
The campus here at Virginia Tech is slowly emptying out. Parents coming in, as you can imagine, incredibly concerned to take their kids home for the rest of the week because classes had been canceled.
We found a mother-daughter team. They're a professor and a student who shared just how difficult it was to find each other that awful morning. As you can imagine, everybody was trying to call in here, and you get that "Circuits are busy, try again later." And as a parent, you just don't want to hear that.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Sean Callebs joins us now with their incredible journey.
And Sean, this is a story that has been thousands of times over here at Virginia Tech, as all those concerned parents tried to get in touch with their children.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, John.
We're here at the drill field, and really in many ways the heart of this campus. And it speaks volumes that it is so empty.
Around me now, the buildings where thousands of students and faculty, including that mother and daughter pair that we talked about, cowered and waited for the nightmare to end. And we're finding out just how important this device was during that tragedy. Not only did it capture some of the most poignant, most important pictures of the event, but it was also a lifeline to so many people trying to reach out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MADISON VAN DUYNE, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: It's such a friendly campus, and it's just such a sad scene right now.
CALLEBS (voice over): Draped in crime tape and stained with tears, the horror consumed Virginia Tech professor Kathryn Beard and her daughter Madison Van Duyne, a Tech student. Put yourself in their shoes -- shots fired, friend and colleagues dead and dying. Mother and daughter separated by a short distance, made much longer with worry. Madison, in this building, trying desperately trying to call loved ones.
VAN DUYNE: Basically, most of my conversations were in whisper. I was trying to be very quiet because we were all under desks.
I didn't have much time to talk because my I knew my phone was going to probably cut off. So it was just a whisper saying, "I'm OK, I'm locked down in class, I will call you as soon as I can."
CALLEBS: To make matters worse, because of the lockdown Kathryn couldn't even make it her own classroom, a short walk from where Madison was trapped. So Kathryn tried again and again to reach Madison by phone before finally getting through.
KATHRYN BEARD, VIRGINIA TECH PROFESSOR: From her voice, I could tell how shaken and scared she was. So, I really wanted to be just there to hug her, but couldn't.
CALLEBS: Madison was petrified, making as many calls and sending and receiving as many text messages as possible, like this one from a friend that asked, "I just wanted to make sure you that you and your mom are OK." But that did little to help.
Madison and others were able to stream webcasts on computers and watched with horror as the death toll mounted.
VAN DUYNE: I was receiving text messages from my roommate and other various friends on campus saying, "Active shooter." You know, "Stay in class."
CALLEBS: It was police who finally said the nightmare had ended.
Cell phones were the source for so many parents and students, finally reunited.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: And John, it's interesting that Kathryn Beard, a professor here, learned a valuable lesson on that day. She knew how to make a call, obviously, but she didn't know that a text message would go through when she couldn't get a phone signal to work -- John.
ROBERTS: There's a lot of parents who discovered a lot of things about technology that day. You know, necessity is the mother of all inventions, Sean.
Thanks very much. Great report.
CHETRY: And the other one is the Facebooks, or those online sites where people had their own diaries and you got information about who they knew also.
ROBERTS: Yes. Instant messaging as well. I talked with a mother and her daughter who kept in touch with each other via instant messaging.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: And that's how she -- she couldn't get through on the cell phone because all the circuits were busy, and so she IM'd with her and stayed in touch through the entire thing, through the entire lockdown.
CHETRY: And that's interesting part, the hours, the agony. I mean, you know as a parent even if you can't find your little kid for a second that fear.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, jeez.
CHETRY: So even for the people who it ended up being a happy reunion, are there lasting effects from that type of trauma and fear that you went through until you knew?
GUPTA: Yes. It sounds like there is.
This is from the psychologists that we talked to about this. By the way, there are psychologists and Red Cross volunteers on campus to talk to people, but you can get beyond it though. That's the other message we heard. It lasts, but you can get beyond it as well.
The hard thing I think, and the thing that sort of struck me as being the most nonintuitive, is that there is no single way that someone is going to react. They're not going to necessarily be morose. Some people may be giddy, and they may actually laugh. And some of those can be absolutely appropriate responses.
Some people may become withdrawn, they may just want to stay with their pet for a while. It's hard to say for sure how people are going to react. But there's no absolute single way.
ROBERTS: So, what is the level of trauma for the parents involved? I mean, I come at this from a parental perspective, that you can't find your child for a little while and you want them back home. And these parents are saying, we want these kids back home for the rest of the week.
Yes, they're going to come back. What are the parents going to go through when they send their kids back to school next week?
GUPTA: You know, imagine -- and again, from talking to psychologists, it's very difficult. Next Monday, which, you know, to some people that seems really close, to some people it seems a long ways away, it's hard to say.
The one thing that the parents have a little bit of a disadvantage of is that they didn't go through this with their students, with their kids. And some of the most useful people in a situation like this are other people that have actually gone through this, which is why the vigil images were so powerful yesterday, because people were literally leaning on one another, they were literally just asking for support because they had all just gone through this together.
Parents are sort of advised to not talk about specifics as much as ask open-ended questions. And let the students talk about this.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: That's a good point. You don't really know what you're supposed to say to somebody. Do you want them to dwell in it, or do you -- but you can't pretend nothing happened. So, it's a fine line.
GUPTA: You can't ignore it, but you want to let the student sort of drive the conversation, your kid drive the conversation here. That seems to be what works best.
There is no magic formula here. There's nothing you can measure. There's nothing you can say absolutely that somebody has gotten beyond it.
There are different stages of grief and recognition. Anger is part of that at some point. So they may have anger as a result of what happened here.
Finally, the final stage is acceptance. That's a difficult stage to get to sometimes, but that's what parents are going to have to sort of drive that with their kids.
CHETRY: Sanjay, thanks so much.
Coming up, we're going to be talking with one of the students who lived with the shooter. More about what he was like and what it was like having to live with him.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning on this special edition here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Hey, we just want to bring you what looks like a developing situation here on the campus of Virginia Tech. Let's show you some pictures here.
This is in front of Burruss Hall, which is where we have a live location. It's a live location on the drill field that we've been going to from time to time.
Burruss Hall is right beside Norris Hall, which is where the shooting took place on Monday. Police are engaging in some sort of activity there.
You can see them putting on -- he's putting on a bulletproof vest. And we don't know yet what is going on there. Only to say that there is some sort of activity.
Jim Acosta was down reporting on the drill field a little earlier on for us.
Jim, what do you know of what might be going on there? They look like they have got an assault vehicle pulled out front. What's up?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, we just pulled up in front of Burruss Hall, right across from the drill field, and we are seeing that armored truck that you're seeing. But beyond that, there are maybe six to 12 officers wearing flak jackets, bulletproof vests with guns drawn at this point.
No idea exactly what they're doing. They seem to be keeping an eye on Burruss Hall. Some of them looking high up on the building.
Not sure at this point what exactly they're looking at, what they're concerned about, but there is a huge security presence surrounding this building at this point. You mentioned the armored truck. That's out in front of the building, and there are more officers with flak jackets and weapons getting out of the back of that truck, and I guess adding to the -- adding to the surrounding presence here.
ROBERTS: Yes. Jim, we just saw one of those officers from the state police who were not involved in the original counterassault on Norris Hall on Monday getting out with what looked like an M4 assault rifle there to go on inside.
We see some police officers in their -- in their bulletproof vests and flak jackets running across the area there. No clear idea of what's going on.
Tell you what, here's a little bit of tape from just a little while ago. You can see that those are the state police there, the troopers wearing the hats, armed to the teeth there.
And again, we have no information on what's going on, but Burruss Hall is right beside Norris Hall, which is where everything happened two days ago. Right in front of the drill field, where we've got our live position there, and where the memorial was held last night, the candlelight vigil where memorials had been set up for students to come and leave messages, leave flowers in remembrance of the 32 who died on Monday. And now we have this other developing situation.
We're going to keep coming back to this. We'll keep it just on the edge of our peripheral vision here and see how this plays out, try to get some more information from the campus police.
We had the commandant of the campus police here just a little while ago, and we'll try to get some more information. But right now, let's try to paint more of a picture for you of Cho Seung-Hui.
People are calling him a troubled loner, a person who had imaginary friends, who stalked his classmates.
Joining us live right now is Karan Grewal. He's one of Cho's former suite mates. The way that these residences are set up, there's a group of rooms and then there's a common area.
Karan, we have heard so much about him being a very quiet person. We talked with roommates that he had last year. They said he basically didn't say two words to them the entire year.
Did you have an similar experience with him?
KARAN GREWAL, CHO'S FORMER SUITE MATE: Yes, I did. When I first moved into the suite in August, I tried to introduce myself to him, but at that point I just thought he was just really shy because he didn't reply -- reply to me, look me in the eye. He just looked outside the window or, you know, something in his lap.
ROBERTS: We heard so much from people who were in poetry class with him, English class, drama class with him, that he was always evoking disturbing images in his writings. You say that he wasn't very communicative -- with him. But did you ever get a sense of this fellow with this incredible dark side?
GREWAL: Not really. Most times when I saw him he was either sitting -- typing away on his laptop -- and in the beginning I really thought -- you know, I was surprised to know he was an English major, because when he didn't talk at all I assumed he was a foreign exchange student who did not know a lot of English, did not know how to converse. So that's why I left him alone.
ROBERTS: Yes. He's from Centreville, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C.
GREWAL: That was totally surprising to me.
ROBERTS: Right. You know, he obviously had these weapons in his dorm room. That's where he went back to after the -- if he was involved in the first killings in West AJ, that's where police say he went back, rearmed, contemplated what he was going to do next.
Did you see him Monday morning?
GREWAL: I just saw him Monday morning at 5:00. I was up all night finishing an assignment for Monday class, and I went to the bathroom at 5:00 to freshen myself up, and while walking out he walked right back -- right in while I was walking out.
I saw his face. He didn't look me in the eye. Same old thing. I left him alone. You know, I did throughout the semester because he didn't speak at all.
ROBERTS: There was no indication, even from his body language on Monday morning, that something was up?
GREWAL: No. I saw him throughout the week. I saw him on Saturday go to the gym. On Sunday morning, no indication.
It was the same plain look on his face. No smile, no frown, no anger.
ROBERTS: And you never saw any weapons?
GREWAL: No.
ROBERTS: Because he had them there, according to the police.
GREWAL: No. I talked to Joseph who lived in the same room as him, and he was really surprised. He was actually shocked to learn that there could be something in the room that he was doing.
The only thing we learned when the police were there, that he a battery-powered drill or screwdriver that he recently bought which was in his room.
ROBERTS: A battery-powered drill, screwdriver. Was it a dremel?
GREWAL: I heard them say that it was used to do something with the serial numbers.
ROBERTS: Right, because the serial numbers had been erased off of the guns, and in one of the searches -- and I don't know if it was his home in Centreville -- maybe the information you're giving me runs counter to that -- or the search in his room that one of the items that was taken was a dremel. And that's one of those small devices that could be used for grinding things.
GREWAL: Exactly.
ROBERTS: It can also be used for etching, as well.
GREWAL: Well, the police questioned us about a box that was in our suite area, in the common area. A lot of times people leave trash before they take it out. And they asked me if I had seen that before, and I hadn't seen that piece of box there before Thursday.
ROBERTS: Did you ever get a sense that this guy could be violent?
GREWAL: No. Throughout the -- I never saw him see any violent shows or do anything violent.
He wasn't a big person in any way. He recently started going to the gym. I saw him there twice a week, at least. But he was pretty small and didn't seem like anybody who would pick a fight. He was just shy.
ROBERTS: When did you hear that it was him that was responsible?
GREWAL: Well, even when the police got there and they started questioning us about everybody in our suite separately, you know, it didn't cross my mind, you know, that much that it could be him, even when I heard it was an Asian male.
ROBERTS: And when you heard that it was your suite mate, what went through your mind?
GREWAL: It was just -- it was really shocking. You know, scenarios go through my head, because I saw him that morning, and I thought, what if I would have said something to him throughout the semester that would have made him angry at me.
ROBERTS: Wow.
GREWAL: And, you know, we never lock our doors in our suites. It's always open for anybody to come in. And even when I went back to the room, I was up until 6:30 in the morning, finishing my assignment, and the door was wide open.
ROBERTS: Incredible. A murderer -- a mass murderer living right next door.
GREWAL: It was totally surprising to me.
ROBERTS: Karan Grewal, thanks very much.
GREWAL: No problem.
ROBERTS: Really appreciate it.
As we said, we're watching some police activity here on campus, not too far away. Actually, just on the other side of the building behind me.
We're going to keep on watching that for you. We'll bring it to you live.
State police, Virginia Tech police entering a building. We're still getting information on exactly what's going on for you.
Plus, a brother's emotional memories. He lost his sister in this tragedy. He talked with Kiran. You're going to want to hear his story.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Looking at a live shot outside of Burruss Hall, which is right beside Norris Hall, which is where all the carnage was on Monday. That is right in front of the drill field where so many people ran for their lives on Monday morning. Also where the candlelight vigil was held last night.
It looks like they're wrapping up whatever activity it was there, but a few minutes ago we saw police with armored vests on, assault weapons in hand, going into Burruss Hall.
Kiran, what's in Burruss Hall?
CHETRY: Well, we talked to some of the former and current students who say that Burruss Hall houses the president's office, as well as admissions, a large lecture hall, among other things. And some of the theories that were just being bandied about here by -- by some of the students, could it possibly -- could this police activity there have anything to do with some of the prior bomb threats, which, of course, two bomb threats brought to the attention of campus authorities earlier in the week. ROBERTS: And there are reports that there was a bomb threat that was found beside Cho Seung-Hui's body in Norris Hall, and now there is speculation that, was he responsible for these bomb threats as well? And were those bomb threats being used to test the emergency response of the campus?
Perhaps he was trying -- and this is all just, you know, sort of speculation, people talking about things. Was he using that as a way to sort of formulate his plan for what would happen on Monday?
CHETRY: Either way, it's the last thing anyone wants to see around here with frayed nerves and a lot of high emotions.
ROBERTS: It's another bizarre incident here on the campus of Virginia Tech, two days after that horrible incident. And there's Norris Hall there as we're just panning by the top of the steps. It's just set back just a little bit.
CHETRY: You can see the police -- the yellow police tape around. And we're still seeing the officers here, even though they said it was wrapping up.
ROBERTS: People are asking themselves, what is going on here?
CHETRY: Right. And, you know, it most likely is tied to what happened two days ago. And we are going to, of course, update you as soon as we find out more. But again, the police officers carrying rifles and wearing flak jackets and protective gear, surrounding Burruss Hall, right next to Norris Hall, where all of the carnage happened on Monday.
Well, the victims of the shootings were more than just students. Sisters, brothers, daughters and sons. Yesterday I spoke with Omar Samaha. His little sister Reema was killed while sitting in French class. She was just 18 years old.
Omar explained what Reema had meant to him and what her death has done to his family.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR SAMAHA, SISTER KILLED IN SHOOTING: She was an amazing dancer. She was an amazing person. High morals, high standards, high values. And I really respected her and I looked up to her for that.
CHETRY: When did you find out that your sister was one of the people that was shot and killed?
SAMAHA: We couldn't find anything out all morning, all early afternoon yesterday, so we called all her friends. One of her best friends got back to me and told me that she actually had a class in that building. And I immediately shut my cell phone and threw it, and I couldn't get -- I couldn't get my bearings, because I didn't want to believe that she was in there.
CHETRY: So, your parents had to come down, as well. And you told me that you're very worried about them.
SAMAHA: Yes, I am. The worst part is that my sister died, but I'm really worried about my family, too, right now.
CHETRY: You said your mom has been crying. What do you say to her? What does she say?
SAMAHA: I can't say anything to her. I just try -- I try to get her to stop crying, but I can't. And I know that.
The only thing I can do is I cry with her. This is just a tragedy to us.
CHETRY: How do you want people to remember your sister?
SAMAHA: I want people to remember how she always gave it what she had, and even more than what she had. How she always excelled in everything.
She was so smart and bright. Whatever she put her mind to, she could do. And I want people to remember her moral values, her ethics, her standards, because, I mean, the values that she had were something that -- something that I strived to do. I strived to have those values.
I just remember how she always -- she always, you know, had a good time, and she always made us laugh. She'd light up a room. That's what she did.
From what I've learned in my life with losing past friends, you never know when someone might die. So, I always make it a point before I leave to say good-bye, because you never know when it's going it be the last time.
When I saw her Sunday, after her dance show, I couldn't say good- bye because she was getting ready and changing for her next dance. And I had to hurry off to a soccer game. So, I just left because I figured I'd call her later or I'd come back next weekend.
CHETRY: So, if you had your chance again to say good-bye to her, what would you have said?
SAMAHA: That "I love you. I'm so proud of you. And I'm happy about everything you've done." And that "I look up to you," even though she's my little sister.
CHETRY: Do you think she knows that? She probably knows that.
SAMAHA: She does now, at least.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Over the past half hour we've been monitoring a developing situation outside of Burruss Hall and inside Burruss Hall, which is right beside Norris Hall, where all of the carnage was on Monday. Police officers from the state police, the campus police, some of them dressed in riot gear with flak jackets and assault rifles, going inside Burruss Hall.
Sean Callebs is down there. He's been talking to some law enforcement officers who are in the area.
Sean, what have you learned about what is going on there? It's so incredibly bizarre that two days after what happened on Monday at Norris Hall we see this happening all over again with these heavily armed police officers going into the hall.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it is just hard to, you know, fathom. We were standing here and across the field, here at the drill field. You can see Burruss Hall right behind me. We can see a number of officers having rifles drawn and moving out on both sides of the building.
Basically there are some officers in front, some going around the left side, some around the right side. It was just hard to figure out exactly what was going on. It was simply surreal. We went across the way. A number of state police officers asked us to stay off the road in front of Burruss Hall, so we got behind the police cars. It didn't appear that the officers were overly agitated, but then what appeared to be a SWAT vehicle came racing up, and a number of officers dressed in riot gear, as you portrayed, jumped out. They began to go in.
I had a chance to speak with one individual who was asked to leave Burruss Hall. He came out. He had a Virginia Tech on. We asked him what happened. He didn't really want to talk. And given the events this week, that is no surprise. He's clearly flustered at this time. He was trying to meet a colleague inside when the state police said, simply, you have to get out of the building. We talked to him for just a minute, then got on his cell phone trying to reach his colleague.
But simply bizarre circumstance going on behind us here at Burruss Hall. It's hard to tell what is going on now, if there is still a concern, or what that concern is. But any time you see a number of police officers, rifles out, flak jackets on, walking around any kind of building, it will get a lot of attention, especially considering the events that have unfolded here this week -- John.
ROBERTS: So there's some idea that this might have been a bomb threat that was called in, Sean? Don't forget that in the past two weeks there were two bomb threats that required a similar response to this. We've heard reports that there was a bomb threat that was beside Cho Seung-Hui's body. Suggestions are that he might have authored that. Did this look like another bomb threat?
CALLEBS: It was playing out as it could have been. And that is the information we're getting from one of our producers on the site right now, that one individual who was asked to leave the building was told there is a bomb threat. And that could, in fact, explain why the officers were moving somewhat cautiously around the building, but certainly there wasn't that sense of panic, or sense of real imminent danger at the time.
But considering what went on, you could just see it on the faces of the students who were crowded around there, as well.
And it is right in front of where the candlelight vigil was. There are just scores of candles out in front of that area, a number of signs written by students, friends, faculty, expressing their remorse, sympathy for what went on this week. So just the juxtaposition of the officers running around with their rifles right in front of students, the memorial, really hard to fathom. And it is the last thing anyone on this campus needs right now. So let's hope that this wraps up quickly.
ROBERTS: Absolutely. I mean, there are enough frayed nerves around here. And you've got to wonder, too, Sean, if someone knows that information, that that is where the memorial was last night. There is a memorial there, as you said, and maybe somebody just playing games. Certainly hope people wouldn't do something like that, but you just never know.
CHETRY: We're going to find out more details now. Ray Plaza works in Burruss Hall, and he evacuated when a colleague told him to leave because of a bomb threat. He joins us on the phone now.
Hi, Ray. Good morning.
RAY PLAZA, EVACUATED FROM BURRUSS HALL: Good morning.
CHETRY: Where are you now?
PLAZA: I'm right now on the drill field facing Burruss, where we had the vigil last night.
CHETRY: And tell us how you knew to get out of the building. What went on just a few moments ago?
PLAZA: I was on the phone -- actually, I was on the phone with CNN radio in Spanish trying to answer some questions when a colleague essentially came in and said, there is a bomb threat, we need to leave, and we're on the second floor on the opposite side of the president's office. Our office space is north. And then as we were walking down the hallway, you can see the police officers in front of the president's office, and then we walked down the stairs out the front of the building, where we saw the other police.
CHETRY: About how many people were in the building at the time?
PLAZA: I'm not sure since things have been slow administratively. I got in about 7:30 this morning. There were about four people in our office suite area on the second floor. But I'm not sure how many others were in the building. I know that the building has a student affairs officers and provost offices, university development, our budget office, our admission's office. So I'm not sure. And plus, there are housekeeping staff in the building.
CHETRY: In light of what happened on Monday, is this up to full staff, or were people not really at work today?
PLAZA: We weren't at full staff. I think some folks were going to come in later. I think we said the university would be open for administrative functions. Some folks, we were given the chance, if you don't want to come in, you don't is come in. But some of us were in just to try to begin to move forward on some things. We were trying to respond to some e-mails that we were getting. So we weren't at full staff.
CHETRY: All right. So Ray Plaza working in Burruss Hall evacuated, and was told that it was possibly due to a bomb threat. So we're still waiting to get any kind of confirmation on that. But again, a flurry of police activity, just few yards away from where we're sitting here on the Virginia Tech campus. We'll continue to monitor the situation. As soon as we know more details, we'll bring them to you.
ROBERTS: Yes, so all of this happens and you get the shock to the system just as everybody is trying to heal from what happened, or at least begin the healing process from what happened on Monday.
There's so much emotion, Sanjay Gupta, that is running around the this campus, to see this happen again, people have to be saying, my God, what kind of world are we suddenly living in?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's that saturation. You know, and you start to relive things just as you started to heal, which a small word but a very long journey. And we talked so much this morning about the physical injuries that people suffer, and obviously you want to take care of those first.
But how do you take care of the emotional ones? It can be a very long journey, and that's something people are going to be talking about here at Virginia Tech for a long time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can feel that I can move on with my life now, and I don't want to be afraid to go back to class.
GUPTA (voice-over): Classes are canceled at Virginia tech for the rest of the week, but many students are still on campus, looking for support. Some of them talked to Red Cross psychologists who are standing by.
SUSAN SILK, PSYCHOLOGIST: I think that there's tremendous value in being a presence that's willing to listen to their story; if they can understand that feeling this trauma over a period of weeks is a normal part of the recovery process.
GUPTA: Psychologists say the worst thing the students can do is avoid their pain. By facing the issues sooner, rather than later, they're more likely to heal.
SILK: Grief, or shock or trauma has many faces. It can be sad, it can be giddy, it can be solemn or it can be kind of spaced out, and it's very important for us to tell the students that there's not one right way to grieve.
GUPTA (on camera): This is the candlelight vigil. It's so powerful, and everyone tells us so important to share the pain and lean on each other. It's the first step in a very long healing process.
SILK: They need to be together. They need to come together. Probably mostly with one another, because they've all been through this together.
GUPTA: The emotional wounds will remain, but unifying behind a common goal, the university will heal, together.
CROWD: Let's go Hokies! Let's go Hokies!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: So much of this is very subjective. I mean, there are different stages of grief. There are different stages of healing. I'm a neurosurgeon. I like things very objective, very measurable. It's difficult here, and I think the thing that sort of struck me the most, is that people are going to act so differently. And it's hard to put a formula on it, and say they're clearly in the stage of acceptance, or they're clearly in the stage of bargaining. People will bargain and say, if I do this, can I try to reverse some of what just happened. Can I try and bring back my sister or loved one, or something like that. Obviously that's not going to happen. But this is what is going through people's minds, and that is natural, and that is part of the whole process.
ROBERTS: We would also like to talk to you as the day's progress here, too, about survivor's guilt, because a lot of students who were in those classrooms who came out alive are going to be feeling that.
GUPTA: Yes, you know, and I was very struck the interview yesterday. You asked the gentleman at the end of that, Kiran, did he feel like a hero? And what he was displaying there was classic survivor's guilt. What he was having inside was, I lived when so many others died, and it is so hard to measure that and so hard to figure out exactly what to do about that, but that's what he had, I'm sure of it.
CHETRY: Also different from something like a car crash; these people had to fight to survive, and so that must also play in there. I mean, they fought with this gunman.
GUPTA: Yes, fought.
ROBERTS: I just want to bring to your attention a little bit of information that just came over my BlackBerry here, on what's happening at Burruss, how University public relations office said law enforcement responded to a, quote, "suspicious event," that this type of event is, quote, "not uncommon during a crisis." Nothing more on the suspicious event. We should tell you, thought, there was going to be a press conference at Virginia Tech coming up at 9:00. We hope to learn a little bit more about what happened at Burruss Hall during that press conference. Of course we'll carry it live here on CNN.
We're trying to piece together just who the young man was who decided to go on a killing spree on Monday before taking his own life.
Coming up, we'll talk to a woman who went to high school with Cho Seung-Hui, and who graduated from Virginia Tech. Hear what she has to say about the shooter and the victims that she was friends with.
This is a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING, live from Virginia Tech. We'll return in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Live picture of the memorials. Flowers and messages of encouragement left right there out front of Norris Hall in the fields here on the campus of Virginia Tech. We've been hearing from people who knew this shooter. Sara Stevens was in a play writing class with Cho Seung-Hui, and earlier on AMERICAN MORNING she told us what he was like in that class.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARA STEVENS, CLASSMATE OF GUNMAN: Absolutely. I mean, I've had classes with him for three years and I've never heard him speak. I've never heard what his voice sound like. So when I say never heard him speak, I literally have never heard him speak.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And Jummy Olabamji joins me now. She went to high school with the gunman. She's a graduate of Virginia Tech, and she knew two of the victims of the rampage. You're a former CNN employee as well, and a former -- cur rent reporter with WCAV, and that's Charlottesville, Virginia.
Thanks for joining us this morning, Julie.
JUMMY OLABAMJI, ATTENDED H.S. WITH GUNMAN: Thank you.
CHETRY: You went to high school, was it, with Cho. Did you know him?
OLABAMJI: I knew he was by face. I was on the yearbook staff, so I got to know a lot of faces around the school, but he wasn't a very open person, always quiet. So I never made friends with him, because I make friends with people who seem like they want to have friends.
CHETRY: So this was a person who did not want to have friends.
OLABAMJI: From what I could tell it didn't look like he did. Every time I'd walk by him in the halls or things like that, he was always by himself. He would make eye contact with you when you'd walk by him. So That, to me, he kind of indicated that he wanted to be left alone. CHETRY: Right. And that's really a familiar description that a lot of people who knew him are talking about today. And it got us wondering, Virginia Tech is quite a difficult school to get into, isn't it? I mean, don't you have to show you're well-rounded and you're involved in events.
OLABAMJI: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: So how would he get in if he seemed to be someone who never talked, and never did anything, and separated himself and wanted to be alone?
OLABAMJI: My guess is maybe he had good grades and, you know, SAT scores or something like that, so maybe his academics just kind of allowed him to get admitted here. You know, because I can't remember whether he was involved in any clubs, but he wasn't involved in things like SGA and other things that really showed school spirit in, you know, high school, where you would always be at events, and pep rallies and that type of stuff. He wasn't involved in that type of stuff, so there's really no telling.
CHETRY: You also knew Omar, who we saw his touching story, and you knew his sister, as well. What has it been like for those who lost loved ones? And I know that you as well lost friends in this.
OLABAMJI: You know, it's been hard, and I know that especially with Omar, he's just such a great guy, and of course his other sister, Alanda (ph), and their family, they live not too far from my parents' house, and Reema (ph) was the type of girl in the summertime you'd drive through the neighborhood and she'd be doing cartwheels and stuff with her friends in the front of the yard. And even though she was a few years younger than me and I didn't know her as well as Omar, just knowing her as Omar's little sister, I know that she was a good girl, came from a good family. She loved to dance. She was on the dance team. And for her to die like this, it's so wrong.
CHETRY: It is, and that's what a lot of people are saying on the campus today.
Thanks for your perspective, I appreciate it.
Jummy Olabamji, thanks for being with us.
We're going to take a quick break. When we come up -- come back from break, we're going to talk about what it's been like to cover this story. We've gathered some of CNN's best reporters, and they are going to give us a roundtable discussion of what it's been like here. We want to share that with you, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's been almost 48 hours since tragedy struck here at Virginia Tech, and struck the nation, as well. I'm joined now by two CNN correspondents who have been working tirelessly on this story, Jeanne Meserve, our national security correspondent, and Brianna Keilar, who was the first CNN correspondent here. Welcome to all of you.
So, Brianna, what are your reflections in the last couple days since you were the first correspondent on the ground here?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think it's just that you can't be here without being very connected to this story. I mean, we can't even begin to imagine what these people here are going through because they're so much more connected to the story. But I think that when you see people going through this, you just have such a human response to it.
Yesterday I was watching that convocation that President Bush was at. It was just playing on CNN upstairs here in this conference center, and it was mostly media that were watching, but there was this young man who was standing there, obviously a Virginia Tech student, and he was crying as he watched this, and you just -- your heart just went out to him. I went over and gave him some tissues and I just rubbed his back a little, and he started to lose it, and I started to lose it. You can't separate yourself from what has gone on here.
ROBERTS: That's one of the things that have I found here, Jeanne is, the students are so willing to talk to you because they want to talk to you.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I think that's part of the whole process of getting over this. It's expressing exactly how you feel about it. But it's interesting the different reactions they have. There are some, like the ones Brianna mentioned, are weeping. There are others who appear quite stoic. I talked to one member of the University committee last night who'd been, we thought, handling it all quite well, and he was at the convocation yesterday, and something triggered it for him yesterday, seeing one of the family members of one of the kids who died, and he said he lost it and just couldn't hold it together, realized he brought it home, realized his kids are feeling the effect of this, too. It's really having a very broad effect.
ROBERTS: One of the things that really struck me, and more so than anything else here was this idea John King reported yesterday after talking with the funeral home director, that the cell phones were ringing on the bodies of a lot of these students as they were carrying the bodies out of Norris Hall. I come at it from a parental perspective.
Brianna, you're a little closer to the student perspective than I was. But that's what it was for me that, as a parent -- and there were so many parents across this country that are reaching out that instant trying to get in touch with their children. But, as well, there were other students across the country who were trying to get in touch with those people, as well.
KEILAR: And a lot of it was students. I was upstairs here during the first few hours, or really several hours, after this first happened, and students had come here to gather to this conference center because they knew that this was sort of the meeting point, and they were all there with the same story. They'd been calling their friend. They hadn't been able to reach them. And they were hoping that as people scrambled from the campus that maybe they just weren't able to touch base with them, or also that so many people on their cell phones that service was spotty and sporadic. You couldn't always get through. So they were up there hoping for the best, but clearly preparing for the worst, and that became very obvious as the hours went on.
ROBERTS: We look back to Columbine and other school shootings as well -- this is the worst mass shooting in American history -- does anything come out of this, Jeanne, to try to prevent it in the future?
MESERVE: There actually were some efforts beforehand to prevent it. The university president here, President Steger, I'm told, was involved in a group here in Virginia that was looking at security questions, and he had raised the question long before this happened, how do we keep a campus safe? What steps can we take? And in fact some homeland security money had come to this campus to take some measures.
But how do you secure a college campus? Look at how vast this is, 26,000 students coming in. And as the police said that morning, they didn't know exactly how they could possibly stop the flow of people into the campus, even after that first episode had occurred. It's a really complex situation, but you want it to be open, you want it to be relaxed, you want there to be easy access, and yet something like this happens.
ROBERTS: It's a university. You can't control it like a high school. So many questions, and it raises so many issues that are going to be taken on and something we'll keep following.
MESERVE: Thanks very much. We appreciate you being with us.
We'll be back in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With a smile on his face, Ryan Clark was always eager to help. He was among the first to encounter the gunman at the site of the first shooting, Ambler Johnston hall. The R.A. was also among the first to die, leaving his twin brother devastated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A great person, giving individual, always willing to do for others.
CHO: The Virginia Tech senior, who friends called Stack, was studying biology and English, and hoped for a ph.d. in psychology. His friend say he loved making T-shirts, but his real passion -- playing baritone horn in the Marching Virginians band.
STACEY BRANCH, FMR. TEACHER: Young man with a bright future, very driven in anything he chose to do. CHO: He volunteered, too. Ryan, just 22, worked at the local food bank and spent every summer working with the mentally disabled.
NADIA CLARK, SISTER: He lived a full life. He was happy. He was doing what he wanted to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: All right. And that was Alina Cho reporting Ryan Clark's story. And as we said, one of many to be told about these young lives with so much promise cut short because of this madman.
ROBERTS: Hey, I just got a little bit more information coming in -- Virginia Tech officials are saying that the situation at Burruss Hall was not apparently a bomb threat, even though we had a fellow who was inside and was told to get out because of a bomb threat. Their saying it wasn't, so hopefully we'll learn more about that very soon, because there is a press conference coming up at 9:00.
CHETRY: And that does it for us here at AMERICAN MORNING. We're so glad that you could join us for our special edition today.
I'm Chetry.
ROBERTS: I'm John Roberts. Thanks very much for joining us.
You going to be here again tomorrow? Do you know yet?
CHETRY: We're not sure. We'll figure that out as we go along. But meanwhile, we're going to hand over coverage to the very capable hands of our own Heidi Collins.
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