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American Morning

Warning Signs for Virginia Tech; Gunman's Roommates Speak Out

Aired April 18, 2007 - 07:00   ET

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

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning once again here from Blacksburg, Virginia, and the campus of Virginia Tech. It is Wednesday, April 18th. And we are here, once again, with a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
I'm Kiran Chetry.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts.

The campus really sort of emptying out. A lot of students are going home because classes have been canceled for the rest of the week. Parents coming down saying, "I just want to take my children home for a little while. Some students that we talked to saying, "Right now the only place I want to be is at home."

CHETRY: Yes. And I think a lot of the shock is dissipating and, you know, the exhaustion is setting in for many people.

We're going to talk much more about the emotional toll today. But also, it's interesting to note that we're finding out a lot more information about this suspected killer, including two notes that police in law enforcement found left in his dorm room. Some rantings, as they describe them, three pages each, where he blames many people and really has a -- has a lot of vicious things to say about a lot of people.

ROBERTS: Some investigators have said that he had what is kind of known around investigator circles as rich kid syndrome, that he was very jealous of rich kids and perhaps that might have somehow played in to what happened, because there are a very affluent people who go to this school.

CHETRY: That's right. So we're going to talk much more about that, the investigation, and also what's going on around here on campus today. And we're happy we have Sanjay Gupta with us, who we're going to talk to in a couple of moments as well, not only about the update on the medical conditions, but also the emotional and psychological impact here.

But we're going to begin with a new and troubling report, some information about the shooter, 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui. One of his poetry professors just talked with us. She taught him and says that students and her class and even fellow teachers feared him. Feared him so much, in fact, that she talked about resigning if he was forced to stay in her classroom.

Here's part of our conversation with acclaimed poet and professor here at Virginia Tech, Nikki Giovanni.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: 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: Our conversation earlier today with Professor Nikki Giovanni. She took her concerns to the head of the English Department. Lucinda Roy is her name.

CNN's Jim Acosta talked with her yesterday.

And Jim, what was Lucinda Roy's level of concern with Cho Seung- Hui?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, yes, after Nikki Giovanni went to Lucinda Roy to talk about these concerns, Lucinda Roy told us that she went to the university and talked to various officials and also campus police about what could be done about this young man. And she was essentially told that because he was expressing himself creatively and he could do this, and there was nothing explicit in his writing saying that violence was imminent, that essentially nothing could be done.

So she took it upon herself to pull this young man out of his class and started teaching him one on one in a workshop, she called it, that took basically the entire semester. And during that time she encouraged this young man to seek counseling and open up. But she says throughout -- throughout that workshop the young man just did not open up to her.

ROBERTS: Well, we have heard so much, Jim, about this young fellow's state of mind and whether or not he represented just a threat of intimidation to some of these other students or whether he represented an actual physical threat. But it seemed as though officials from Virginia Tech were potentially worried about a physical threat that he might represent. Lucinda Roy, in a different interview, said that she had been approached by campus officials asking if she wanted protection from this fellow.

ACOSTA: That's right. And when we talked to her yesterday, there was an implication there that, yes, there was talk of security and providing her security. And I have to say, it's not entirely clear as to what exactly happened with that.

But, you know, it's interesting. You talked to Nikki Giovanni and you asked her, you know, "Did you think he posed some kind of physical danger or a threat?" And yet she said no. But Lucinda Roy, when she went to the university officials, obviously there was a concern about a threat and a physical threat, or otherwise Lucinda Roy would not have told us that she was explained that there was nothing explicit in the writings.

I mean, clearly here, the professors, the faculty, the students, the were worried about this young man, and they thought just by what he was saying in his writings and the fact that he wasn't saying very much verbally, that there was a concern as to what was going on inside this guy's head and what he potentially he might do.

ROBERTS: Well, let's take a second, Jim, and listen to just a little bit of what Lucinda Roy told you yesterday about her concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCINDA ROY, PROFESSOR, VIRGINIA TECH: The threats seemed to be underneath the surface. They were not explicit. And that was the difficulty that the police had.

So I would go to the police and to the counselors and to student affairs and everywhere else, but they would say, but there is nothing explicit here. He's not actually saying he is going to kill someone. And my argument was he seemed so disturbed anyway that we needed to do something about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So, Jim, she's saying that something need to be done, but there wasn't enough of a threat there to really take any kind of significant action. So what were they left to do? ACOSTA: Well, essentially, at that point, Lucinda Roy took it upon herself to pull this man out of that class that was disturbing the students and the faculty and start teaching this young man one on one. And she said told us yesterday that she thinks if there's anything that could be -- that could be changed in all of this, if something positive could come from all this, she feels like something should be changed in university policies, or in the loss of these troubled kids when they -- when their troubles surface with professors, teachers, whether it's universities or on high school campuses, that teachers and faculty have some more -- some more power in terms of dealing with these young kids, and at least pulling them out of classing, getting them counseling, doing something where, you know, these kids can be pulled aside and say, hey, wait a minute, this -- you know, you can't do this.

And she felt like her hands were tied, that because he was just expressing himself creatively, that there was nothing that could be done. But she feels like, you know, things could be changed here to make this better -- John.

ROBERTS: All right.

Jim Acosta, thanks very much.

Jim from the drill field there.

We're also going to be talking a little bit later on this hour with Lucinda Roy. So make sure you stay around for that.

We're hearing from Cho's former roommates as well. They called him a troubled loner with imaginary friends, a person who stalked his classmates. They talked with CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN, CHO'S FORMER ROOMMATE: I keep running it through my head a lot. Since I found out it was an Asian in his 20s, I thought it could be Seung.

I've been thinking about it ever since. And I just can't come to a good idea about what we could have done other than what we did do.

We called the police. We told our RAs. We thought we were doing the right thing, it was being taken care of.

And I'm not saying, you know, the police or Virginia Tech didn't do their job. No way am I saying that. But I just feel, you know, everything that could have been done was done at the time.

And maybe if we had tried harder to get him kicked out or something like that, maybe that might have helped. I don't know.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Were you ever afraid for your own safety at any time with this kid?

JOHN: It was a little weird, you know, after you know he had been stalking girls and looking at their Facebooks and knowing everything about them. Sometimes at night when I would go to sleep I'd be a little nervous.

But I could always say he could go into a pretty deep sleep because he would lay in bed, and he would always moan and he would always be really restless sleeper and move around. So I always went to bed after he did. And he woke up about two hours before I did.

TUCHMAN: What about you?

ANDY: There's a couple of instances where he would like -- you would leave your door open in the dorm and he'd be standing there in the doorway and I'd turn around and he'd be there.

And there was one time he was taking a picture of me. And the only reason I noticed him was that the camera flashed. And I know there was a couple other instances of that with people. But I was more weirded out than scared.

But looking back on it all now, you know, he could have been back there doing anything, and I would have never seen it coming.

TUCHMAN: But he was taking a picture of you?

ANDY: Yes.

TUCHMAN: What did you say to him?

ANDY: Well, there was another instance that -- at the beginning of the year when we were inviting him to dinner, he took us -- we went downstairs in the lounge and were eating.

He had the camera again and took a picture of the girls next to us. And it was kind of embarrassing because he put the camera down real quick. And the girls think, you know, that a guy full of tables is taking pictures of them.

And I didn't say -- I never said anything to him. I wish I had, because that was the thing he did. He took pictures of everyone, I guess.

TUCHMAN: Why do you think he was taking a picture of you in your dorm room?

ANDY: He was a strange kid, so you expect strange things.

TUCHMAN: How do you feel now, sitting here, knowing what happened on your campus, John?

JOHN: I feel terrible. I keep thinking about it, and thinking about the victims and their families and what they're going through. If maybe there was something I could have done to stop that or prevent that. Not a good feeling at all.

TUCHMAN: What about you, Andy, can you believe this? ANDY: No. Seeing the families today really brought it home, because you know they're missing someone now, and they didn't even get to say goodbye.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: It's unbelievable to hear these accounts. And these guys had to live with him. So what do the accounts of the gunman say about his mental state? And, of course, the big question today, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us to talk more about it as our chief medical correspondent.

Were all of these warnings signs taken together, the things we hear now enough to do anything to prevent it?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's going to be a question I think that's going to haunt a lot of people for a long time. I mean, what are some of those things? The fact that he talked about suicide, the fact that he was recommended for depression, the fact that he scared one of his professors so much that she says that she actually got protection from the campus police.

Yes. I mean, you would think that in an aggregate these things would actually point to something specific. But what does it really mean from a mental health standpoint?

I was also very interested in this whole idea that when someone has rage, they usually act out all of their rage at once. But in this case it sounded like there was a time period, a gap. What was happening during that time period?

Was he contemplating? Was he reflective? Was he -- was he upset about what he had just done? Was there some actual thinking about it?

We don't know, and we will never know the answers to some of those questions. But I think psychiatrists and psychologists are going to analyze that for a long time.

ROBERTS: It's just -- it's extraordinary to think that there were little warning signs along the track, but maybe they did not add up to enough for anybody to take really concrete action. But now in hindsight, you can say there were the steps along this path.

GUPTA: You know, and I think, John, it's so interesting, because I don't know. Like, I was thinking about this a lot yesterday as I was talking to lots of doctors and psychologists about this. What would -- how could you change a system to make somebody like this actually be considered a threat and have some actionable -- something actionable actually be done about it?

I don't know if that can actually still change after this.

CHETRY: And can rage...

ROBERTS: And you've got to wonder, would civil liberties groups suddenly get involved and say, wait a minute, you can't do things like that?

CHETRY: Right. I mean, just the whole stalker mentality. You can't put someone in jail for intent, unfortunately, in many cases, and then after the fact you say, I knew, you know, that there was something strange.

But can rage and premeditation go hand in hand? Because you say rage acted out all at once.

GUPTA: Right, it can. You can have premeditation, but then when you get to the point, almost like you start acting on it, it usually all happens at once. You can have some separated incidents like you've seen here. But usually it's all at once.

And, you know, it's interesting. You know, you and I -- we have just been talking on the breaks about people who we have known in our lives who maybe are a little strange. You've known people, I've known people. I'm sure everybody has.

What do you do about them? You know, how do you -- now in retrospect, could that person that we knew when we were in college or something also have been someone like Cho Seung-Hui? I don't know.

ROBERTS: And is there any way along the line to prevent somebody like that from getting a gun? Of course that's a debate that's going to raging on Capitol Hill and across the country as well...

GUPTA: For a long time.

CHETRY: And they don't do interviews with people, you know, that know you or you deal with on a daily basis before you...

(CROSSTALK)

ROBERTS: You don't go through a psych profile. There's an instant check, but no psych profile and how could you ever do something like that.

GUPTA: Right. And we can't even figure it out honestly as a medical community. How can you expect other people to sort of say, well, he fits a certain psych profile? Very difficult.

ROBERTS: Yes. So many questions. So many questions.

Coming up, much more from the English teacher who tutored Cho Seung-Hui one on one. She knew about many of his dark fantasies. She was also very worried about him. She wanted him to get counseling. She's going to be joining us live.

Also, we'll ask two top cops whether police and the university acted fast enough on Monday.

You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING, live from the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: We've been hearing from roommates, as well as teachers and classmates. All of them saying that the suspected gunman was a walking time bomb because of his behavior, some of his violent writings in his classes, and also his lack of friends, or even reaching out at all to anybody.

Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING we talked with Cho's poetry professor who says that fellow students were actually afraid to come to class with him.

Here's part of our interview with Professor Nikki Giovanni.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI GIOVANNI, PROFESSOR, VIRGINIA TECH: He was very intimidating student to my other students. And Lucinda Roy was the department head at that time. And I finally wrote a letter. I didn't -- I thought that we needed to have a bit of a record going.

So I finally wrote a letter to Lucinda requesting that she take him out of my class, that she talk to the provost, get him out of my class, which, ultimately, she said she did, and it needs to be done. I was not -- I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Joining us now, Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum. Also, Colonel Steven Flaherty. He's the superintendent of the Virginia State Police as well.

And Chief, thanks for being with us.

Colonel, thanks, as well.

Were you guys made aware of any of these fears by people in that department of Cho?

CHIEF WENDELL FLINCHUM, VIRGINIA TECH POLICE: We're still checking into all the details that we can find into the investigation of the background of Cho.

CHETRY: What about Lucinda Roy, the chairman who's saying she was offered protection? They don't really say by whom, but they say by Virginia State officials.

Did you guys offer her protection?

FLINCHUM: Not that I'm aware of. I haven't seen her interview, so I'm not sure exactly what she said.

CHETRY: And Colonel, did you know about some of the fears beforehand of the possibility of a threat posed by this young man?

COL. W. STEVEN FLAHERTY, SUPERINTENDENT, VIRGINIA STATE POLICE: No, did not beforehand. We're exploring all those things right now, as we do our investigation to try and determine, you know, why and what triggered the incident. But we weren't aware of that before.

CHETRY: And you were both here, of course, Monday morning, and there's been a lot made of the lack of notification by e-mail to the students after the first shooting in West AJ.

What do you think happened in terms of the investigation and why there was that delay?

FLINCHUM: When we initially got the call, our officers responded to the dormitory. We had several leads to follow up.

I went to the scene. Part of my job was to make sure we were getting the resources and the officers had the resources they needed to properly investigate this case. I also had (INAUDIBLE) to provide information to the university administration about what was happening.

So, the investigation took some time to determine what we had, what we were dealing with, and then me providing information to the administration.

CHETRY: So wouldn't it just -- would it be prudent at that point to just lock down the campus in general, just as even a precaution?

FLINCHUM: Well, there were a lot of details we were providing to the administration, and decisions were being made based on that information.

CHETRY: So you, as the campus police, don't make the call for a lockdown? That has to come from the university?

FLINCHUM: It comes from the university, in conjunction with me.

CHETRY: There is some interesting accounts now from witnesses who were at Norris Hall, the scene of most of the carnage, and they talk about this long time span, it seemed, between him being able to reload and leaving a classroom, perhaps returning 10 minutes later. And some of them describe calling police.

What was the situation from the outside of being able to get into that building and see what the situation was?

FLAHERTY: Well, as I said -- mentioned earlier as we were talking, Chief Flinchum's staff, the tactical teams and the Blacksburg Police Department, actually made that entry. We've been doing the crime scene investigation, and it's very obvious from the crime scene that it was a very, very chaotic scene.

And we have determined that Cho went from room to room, and in some cases even came back. We also understand that there were quite a few heroic acts on the parts of the would-be victims and the students that survived and whatnot.

CHETRY: Right. But were you in there trying to find this gunman, or what was happening on the outside? We know that the door was barricaded, you guys were able to break through that. And then what? FLINCHUM: The officers went into the building where they were hearing gunshots. Before they reached that area, the gunshots stopped. And then they found who we later determined Cho to be in a classroom. He had taken his own life.

CHETRY: So by the time police were able to get into the building, most of it was finished, it was over?

FLINCHUM: As they entered the building they were hearing shots. before they got to where the shots were being fired, it was over.

CHETRY: What are your -- what are your overall thoughts two days later? Could anything have been different in your mind?

FLINCHUM: My overall thoughts are this is a tragedy. And we're going to everything in the investigation to determine what happened and move forward.

CHETRY: Chief Wendell Flinchum, of the Virginia Tech Police Department, as well as Colonel Steve Flaherty from Virginia State Police, thanks for joining us.

FLAHERTY: Thank you.

FLINCHUM: Thank you.

CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break and talk a little bit more about some of the other elements and new details emerging about this suspect.

But meantime, if parents want to take a look of type and frequency of crime on their own children's campuses, they can log on, they can go to securityoncampus.org -- it's all one word, securityoncampus.org/crimestats. That information is compiled by the Department of Education, as well as the FBI.

And coming up, we're going to be talking with Professor Lucinda Roy. She is the one who taught that shooter one on one.

Also the ongoing fallout here on campus as students and parents packing up. Many parents trying to get their children out and home in light of the classes being canceled until next week.

We're going to have much more on that when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: This morning we want to put faces to the names of those killed here at Virginia Tech.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho tells us about a freshman named Matt LaPorte.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Matthew LaPorte might have been an officer in the Air Force. At Virginia Tech, he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, grew up in Dumont, New Jersey. His parents still live there, and Marie Grieco lives next door.

MARIE GRIECO, NEIGHBOR: When they come home, I'm just going to break down in tears. I don't know what to say. I'm sorry.

CHO: As a young boy, Matthew played little league and worked as a lifeguard. He went to a military academy for high school and graduated third in his class.

In his yearbook page, he wrote, "He changed so much that I am not sure if that boy and I are the same person."

LT. GARY HALLMAN, CARSON LONG MILITARY INST.: A brother. I feel like I've lost a brother. And it's extremely painful.

CHO: The LaPortes attended church every Sunday. Since the shooting, Father James Bouffard was among the few to meet with the family.

FATHER JAMES BOUFFARD, SACRED HEART CHURCH: What do you do? You just -- you pray with them and you give them a lot of hugs.

CHO: Matthew, just 20 years old, was a sophomore at Virginia Tech, doing what a lot of college kids do -- logging on to his myspace page. His final entry, April 15th, the day before he died.

GRIECO: So unnecessary. His whole life was ahead of him. I mean, and I know he would have accomplished so much because he was so bright. Such a waste of a beautiful life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: That's a sentiment that's echoed. And we talked about it yesterday, as well, a waste. I mean, when you think about it, you know, people who had such potential that were going to make such a mark, you know, on life, and had so much love to give are just snuffed out so senselessly.

ROBERTS: And we are going to hear story after story after story after story, just like that. You know, there are 32 of them out there, and so many parents are going through such grief and such pain right now. It's really difficult to put yourselves in their feet, you know, when you look at what happened on Monday and how it affected so many lives.

CHETRY: A little bit later, coming up in about 15 or 20 minutes, we're going to have an interview yesterday that I did with a boy -- a young man, actually, who lost his sister, and the impact that it has taken on his family, as well. Yes. And so it just really brings home the impact of the loss that I think everyone here is feeling, especially the...

ROBERTS: It's a photograph of her, she was a dancer. CHETRY: There she is, Reema, just a bright, beautiful, talented, incredible girl, also killed in the senseless act that happened on Monday morning.

ROBERTS: Incredible.

We're going to take a quick break. A lot more when we come back.

New information coming in about the gunman. Of course, we're learning an awful lot more about him. We'll talk with the English professor who was so disturbed by him, that she took him out of a class and tutored him personally. And also implored him to get counseling and wanted police to take notice.

Plus, an amazing story of survival. Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about one survivor shot twice in the leg. He used his wits and a lamp cord to stop himself from bleeding to death.

You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: A live look at a much different Virginia Tech campus today, a lot quieter this morning. Many students taking the opportunity from the cutting off of classes for the week to get out and a lot of parents were very eager to get up here and get their kids.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: You're looking at pictures of a memorial on the drill field which is in front of Norris Hall, which is where all that carnage took place on Monday, students leaving flowers. There are also big panels that have been set up in that drill field so students could come along and write messages for the deceased on those boards.

CHETRY: And one again, we want to say good morning. It's a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING today live from Blacksburg, Virginia. I'm Kiran Chetry.

ROBERTS: And good morning to you, I'm John Roberts, Wednesday the 18th of April here. Thanks very much for joining us. We're going to be here all morning and throughout the day bringing you the very latest on this tragedy.

CHETRY: Here's what we know right now because there are new details emerging about this suspect, a portrait being painted and sort of filled in by those who knew Cho Seung-Hui, his roommate as well as his teachers. Investigators also are looking through notes, two notes, three pages each, according to reports, found in Cho's dorm room. One of them included a bomb threat. Campus and state police told us a few minutes ago that they didn't know of any threat from Cho before Monday's shooting. We're also learning more names and seeing more of the faces and learning more about the lives of the 32 people that were lost. The medical examiner says it will be days before all the victims are positively identified. Fourteen people also still in area hospitals, one in critical condition, one in serious condition, the rest of them stable. Montgomery Regional Hospital will be updating conditions in about an hour from now. Also in the weeks ahead, there's an independent investigation being launched by Virginia's governor at Virginia Tech's request. Of utmost interest, the two-hour delay between the first shooting and Virginia Tech's e-mail warning that went out to students. And it's interesting, John, because doing some reading about that this morning, they may have had a false lead. They may have thought it was somebody else. In fact the possible boyfriend of one of the victims and they spent a lot of time trying to chase that down.

ROBERTS: As the university president said to us yesterday, they thought that they had this event contained. They were looking into a person of interest. They thought that everything was pretty much wrapped up going in a single direction, when this shooting erupted on the other side of the drill field from where the first shootings took place. But there's still some students who say, hey, regardless of what you thought, you should have put out the e-mail and allowed us to make that choice. Fears and concerns about Cho Seung-Hui were rippling across Virginia Tech at least two years ago. Cho's former poetry professor Nikki Giovanni told us earlier this morning that students in her class were afraid of him and refused to come to class if he was there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF NIKKI GIOVANNI, VIRGINIA TECH PROFESSOR: Well, he was very intimidating student to my other students and Lucinda Roy was the department head at that time and I finally wrote a letter. I thought that we needed to have a bit of a record going. So I finally wrote a letter to Lucinda requesting that she take him out of my class, that she talk to the provost, get him out of my class, which, ultimately, she said she did. And it needs to be done. I was, I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him. He came into class, you know, as you described. He would wear sunglasses and a cap and I would say to him because (INAUDIBLE) , I would say, Mr. Cho, please take your glasses off. Which he would reluctantly do and then I would say, Mr. Cho, please take your cap off and we would go through this sort of ritual. I think that because I'm a woman sometimes you get the young men who want to bully you, they think they can. That's not going to be one of the possibilities for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Nikki Giovanni took her concerns to the chair of the English department, Professor Lucinda Roy and she joins us now. Professor, we heard a lot from Ms. Giovanni earlier this morning about her impressions of Cho Seung-Hui. What were your impressions of this fellow?

LUCINDA ROY, PROFESSOR AT VIRGINIA TECH: I agree with her in that he seemed to be a very troubled student and then when I met with him soon after that, after I had written to him and explained that I needed to talk to him, he seemed very withdrawn, very depressed and I wrote a note to people describing his mood and saying that he seemed to be crying behind the sunglasses. It was hard to see that because he kept the sunglasses on inside.

ROBERTS: Professor Giovanni told us she that was so concerned about this that she threatened to quit unless he was taken out of her class.

ROY: She was very concerned. And, of course, if a faculty member says she's worried about something, then, as chair of the department, it's my obligation to try to find a solution.

ROBERTS: What was it about his writings that you found disturbing that Professor Giovanni found intimidating to other students?

ROY: I think what it was was there was this steady tone of anger in his writing. It seemed as though he was expressing emptiness and fury at himself and it seemed as though also at people around him and that's why the students were concerned.

ROBERTS: Did you get a sense that he would be a physical threat to other students?

ROY: I thought that that was a possibility and that's why are I removed him from her class. Unfortunately, I was told the only option I would have would be to put him in another class. So I felt I needed to take him myself and just work with him one-on-one and then there wouldn't be students around.

ROBERTS: If you thought he could be a physical threat, shouldn't the university have taken more action to look into this more deeply?

ROY: That's why I contacted Virginia Tech police and student affairs and counseling and the college the Virginia Tech police immediately responded and said that they could provide security, there could be someone there outside the classroom, for example, for Nikki. I know that Nikki Giovanni didn't feel that that would be appropriate either and I completely understand that. But they did feel that their hands were tied because he hadn't made an actual threat and that was very, that was difficult for me to accept.

ROBERTS: Now, you took it upon yourself to teach this fellow one-on-one. Why on a campus of 26,000 people would you go to that effort for one student?

ROY: Because I'm a teacher and teachers must care about their students. It doesn't matter who they are or how difficult they must be. You must care about them because that's your vocation.

ROBERTS: There's an awful lot of armchair quarterbacking that's going on now two days after the shooting with the benefit of hindsight. A lot of people are looking and things, saying you know, it added up all the way along. Let me ask you this question and try not to do it from the armchair quarterback's perspective, but did you ever see a point along that way that something like this might happen? ROY: 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. There was such an absence in the room when he entered that everything emptied out and just seemed very dark. So, there were times when I thought he could probably do harm to himself because he was so depressed. Of course, we never imagine, necessarily, these kinds of things. The irony for me is I'd just came back from Sierra Leone not long ago and I had gone to see if my students there had survived and I found that some of them had not and some had and I came back here to a safe space where I thought my students would be safe.

ROBERTS: What you thought was a safe space. I read your op-ed in the "New York Times" today. You said when you heard 20 dead, you said the reporter must have been completely wrong.

ROY: I think everyone felt that. You've been around here now. You see a campus that is reeling in many ways from the horror of this, but there's also a strength here.

ROBERTS: Let me ask you one quick question. Did anybody drop a ball with Cho Seung-Hui? Should there have been more intervention earlier on? Could this have been prevented?

ROY: I don't know if it could have been prevented and nobody will ever know that. I know I'll think about myself and wonder, could I have done more? And I'm sure that everyone on this campus is thinking about that right now.

ROBERTS: They certainly are. So many emotions running through this place, really is incredible. Lucinda Roy, thanks very much professor, appreciate you for being with us.

Much more ahead on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We have seen this incredible picture, but up next, Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us how this student's quick thinking saved his own life. Barricading a door, he took a couple of bullets to the leg, hit an artery. He would have died if it weren't for his quick thinking. Our special edition of AMERICAN MORNING live from the campus of Virginia Tech; we'll be right back.

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CHETRY: A look now at some of the memorials going up around the area as many people on this campus write their words of support and encouragement and love, not only for the victims and their families, but for the thousands of other friends and people touched by this tragedy. Joining me right now is Sara Stevens. She was a classmate of the shooter, Seung Cho. She was in a play writing class with him. His writing of course raising all kinds of questions this morning and you said it was certainly no secret among your fellow students that this was a troubled young man.

SARA STEVENS, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: Absolutely. I had classes with him for three years and I've never heard him speak, I never heard what his voice sound like. When I say I never heard him speak, I literally have never heard him speak.

CHETRY: You said he referred to himself as question mark. What does that mean?

STEVENS: He was known throughout the English department among students and even I hear past that as question mark. It was just on a roll sheet one day he wrote down as his name question mark and that's sort of where it began from. We're a small, close-knit department. So stuff like that becomes pretty infamous and well known.

CHETRY: You say that when you had to read some of his plays, it was the most disturbing writings you had ever seen.

STEVENS: Yeah, from a fellow classmate, absolutely. They were graphic and vulgar and the language was just so violent that it was worrying because, you know, 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 or until then, I had no idea what it was like.

CHETRY: What was done, Sara?

STEVENS: We discussed the plays in class and clearly, a lot of us were concerned or troubled, but up to this point, I know, you know, several students had talked to their teachers about it. It didn't go unnoticed, to say the least.

CHETRY: Is that why eventually the unusual move was made to have him be tutored by the chairman of the department?

STEVENS: I mean, possibly, sure. I know there was tons of outreach. I'm so honored to be a part of a department that did so much for one of its students. I don't want people to think that this was something that nobody saw. I mean --

CHETRY: Right. But you told me when we were just speaking a few moments ago that they were short of kicking him out, which I guess they couldn't do. What else could have been done?

STEVENS: Exactly. I mean literally I've been reassured by every teacher that I had in which he was in the class that, you know, every effort was made to get him help for his mental state. There was counseling offered. There was, you know, everything that I think they could have possibly done.

CHETRY: What about other Korean American students who are maybe perhaps fearful that they will be judged or treated badly because of the actions of one.

STEVENS: I know that personally and I hope that this is the opinion of our entire campus and the nation that, you know, I feel so much for them because I realize that this is not representative of that community. They are, you know, loving and wonderful people that have so much to offer and this one person, you know, unfortunately, you know, is Korean American and I hope this is not associated with them. CHETRY: You also don't want Virginia Tech to be defined by this.

STEVENS: No. This is not what defines Virginia Tech. This is a horrible, tragic incident that happened, but we are so much bigger than that. This is not what makes Virginia Tech. We're Hokies. We have Hokie spirit and as I was saying before, that it can't be. Hokie spirit is not us cheering in a stadium. It's not us going to class. It's not us being on the drill field and just being students. It's so much more than that. It's an entire state of being. That pride is something that we all continue to feel.

CHETRY: Sara Stevens, thank you for sharing some of your insight with us this morning.

Coming up, we have an amazing story of survival. We have all seen this picture. It was a young survivor being carried out of the Norris building bleeding. Dr. Sanjay Gupta found him and heard how he used a power cord, basically an extension cord, quick thinking to save his own life. His story next on AMERICAN MORNING.

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ROBERTS: Stones left in the middle of the drill field, each one representing the 32 victims of Monday's senseless tragedy. Of all the images from the massacre here on the campus of Virginia Tech, none shows the agony and the horror of what happened quite like this one does. Virginia Tech senior Kevin Sterne shot twice in the leg. The bullet clipped an artery. He would have died, would have bled out but Kevin is an Eagle scout and he knew just what to do in a situation like that, even as the gunman was trying to get into the room where he was and was trying to shoot through the door. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us this morning. What did he do? What an incredible story of self preservation.

Dr. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really is. Keep in mind, this is after he has been shot not once, but twice and there's a gunman out there, shot a lot of people around him. The presence of mind that it takes, but also it reminded me of this idea that, you know, you get a lot of medical care obviously in hospitals, but to actually save lives, you got to start even before that. Here's what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a gold alert, trauma alert called. There are multiple, very serious injuries coming to the hospital. By the time the first student hit the emergency room, we had three general surgeons there.

GUPTA (voice-over): Doctors rushing to save lives. Mothers praying they'll be successful.

SUZANNE GRIMES, KEVIN STERNE'S MOTHER: He got shot twice in the upper thigh.

GUPTA: Twenty-one-year-old Kevin Sterne's mom was out shopping for his upcoming graduation when she got the unimaginable call.

GRIMES: That's what it felt like. A bomb just dropped.

GUPTA: She learned a bullet had hit her son and in all likelihood he was bleeding to death. Having just been shot not once, but twice, and having seen several of his classmates killed, Kevin decided to fight for his life.

DR. DAVID STOEKLE, HOSPITAL CHIEF OF SURGERY: He had a gunshot wound right through his femoral artery. He was an Eagle scout. He wrapped a wire cord from apparently an electrical, something electrical was in that classroom, he wrapped it tightly and I think he had one of the other students help him wrap this around his leg because he knew he was bleeding to death.

MATT LEWIS, VIRGINIA TECH RESCUE SQUAD: If he had enough common sense to hurry up and try to fix himself, that's amazing. That's a real hero right there.

GUPTA: Still, several minutes had passed. The major artery supplying blood to his leg was shredded apart. The skin and muscle would start to die. Just a little more time and his heart would die, as well. Finally, 30 hours after the ordeal began, good news.

STOEKLE: He's stable and I think he's going to be here a while.

GRIMES: There is good in our country. There's good in Blacksburg. There's good in Virginia Tech. There's good all around it, you just have to focus on it. You have to be positive. And as far as Kevin, he's a tough trooper.

GUPTA: Kevin will walk out of the hospital, both his leg and his life saved when so many others died.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: What worked for him, basically was taking this wire and basically just tying a tourniquet essentially around his leg. Paramedics that had gotten there early probably would have just put pressure on his leg. With extremity injuries like this, that's what you need to do. When you're shot in the abdomen, you're shot in the chest, obviously you can't put pressure on those so those are much more sort of urgent matters. But he was probably able to save his life. It's amazing how much blood you can lose from one single artery in an extremity like that.

CHETRY: We were reading more about the accounts, especially from that one classroom that he was in in particular. People who had multiple gunshot wounds that were still able to muster the strength, the physical strength to help barricade the door as the gunman tried to come back in. How do they do that?

GUPTA: I think that a lot of that is just pure adrenaline quite frankly at that point. It's hard to predict how someone is going to react in situations like that, not only physically, but mentally, as well. I was talking to another doctor who told me yesterday that a man survived a gunshot wound to the back of his head and you know, you ask yourself, how do people really do that. But it's probably the same sort of thing.

ROBERTS: This is the sort of stuff you see in combat where people are shot and they keep going because of the adrenaline. That is the only thing really you can compare this to.

GUPTA: And this whole idea of self-preservation. At some point you say, I am going to fight. I'm going to save my life today and you're bleeding to death quite literally. You have minutes and actually tie that tourniquet around. It probably saved his life. As much as the doctors and paramedics and the EMTs did, Kevin probably saved his own life.

CHETRY: In the next hour, we're going to talk to you about the mental and the emotional impact that this takes. There were people who literally were facing down this man and doing anything they could to survive and how in the days to come they look at that and deal with that is unbelievable.

GUPTA: The next days and weeks are going to be very important for them.

ROBERTS: Amazing bravery and presence of mind. All morning long we have been hearing from room mates, classmates, teachers painting a very disturbing portrait of the gunman. What they're saying now and could it prevent another tragedy?

And separated by a short distance, terrified for each other's safety. We'll look at how a cell phone kept a mother and daughter connected during the shooting, a mother and daughter who are also professor and student. We're coming right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: This morning from loner to killer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was never with anyone, a professor, another guy, girl.

CHETRY: Roommates and teachers of the suspected Virginia Tech gunman speaking out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was something mean about this boy.

CHETRY: Was it depression, anger? What set him off?

ROBERTS: While across campus, pain, grief and strength in numbers, thousands leaning on each other, a show of unity on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning and welcome back to our special edition of AMERICAN MORNING live from the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. It is Wednesday, the 18th of April. two days after the massacre that took so many lives here. Good morning, I'm John Roberts. CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. There's a lot more information coming out this morning, as well, about the mental state of the suspect.

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