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Haunting Messages From a Mass Murderer; Gonzales on the Hill
Aired April 19, 2007 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And at the top this hour, haunting messages from a mass murderer. An update now on the Virginia Tech massacre, with the latest on what we know.
Police say gunman Cho Seung-Hui mailed a rambling, hate-filled manifesto to NBC News midway through his deadly rampage. The package included photos, video clips and writings. He railed against the wealthy and other unnamed enemies, and said, "You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option."
According to court documents, a Virginia magistrate in 2005 deemed Cho an imminent danger to himself due to mental illness. The magistrate ordered outpatient treatment.
We expect to hear more on these developments during a news conference at the bottom of the hour. You will see it here live in the NEWSROOM.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A package sealed with hatred. Authorities say the Virginia Tech shooter apparently took time between his two sprees to mail off a message.
CNN's Gary Tuchman explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cho Seung-Hui is dead. But he has now spoken as if from the grave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHO SEUNG-HUI, VIRGINIA TECH GUNMAN: When the time came, I did it. I had to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: It's now evident this bloodshed was elaborately planned. A package was sent by the gunman to NBC's headquarters in New York the day of the mayhem. What is being called a multimedia manifesto includes 27 video files.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: You had 100 billion chances and ways to have avoided today, but you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off. (END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: The package is not addressed to anyone in particular, but it's full of venom and hatred from a man who believes the world has done him wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Do you know what it feels like to be spit on your face and have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear?
Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled -- impaled upon on a cross and left to bleed to death for your amusement?
You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs.
Your trust fund wasn't enough. Your vodka and Cognac weren't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Cho included 43 still photos in the package. The first two show him as a normal looking college student. The rest are troubling and disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: You sadistic snobs, I may be nothing but a piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul, and tortured my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die, like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: The package's postmark indeed indicates it was mailed the day of the killings. In fact, the 9:01 a.m. time that is written shows he mailed it between the two murder sprees at the dorm and at the classroom building.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: You just love to crucify me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terrorizing my heart, and raping my soul all this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: And, in the package, a chilling note -- he praises the "martyrs like Eric and Dylan," a reference to the Columbine High School killers.
It is evident that this man, who has single-handedly ruined so many lives, considers himself a martyr, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But, no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) I did it for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: What he did was cause misery. And, in this high-tech multimedia age, he goes down as a calculated, cold-blooded killer.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Blacksburg, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Well, the gunman mailed his chilling messages from a post office in Blacksburg.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us from Blacksburg with more.
And Jeanne, I understand we're going to hear from postal inspectors in a news conference at the bottom of the hour, but give us a sense of what's going on at your location right now.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the post office is open for business. A small contingent of U.S. postal service inspectors was here this morning. We're told, however, that they have left in order to participate or assist with that press conference, which, as you said, is expected at the bottom of the hour.
This is your very typical small-town post office. Right now only one clerk on duty. No surveillance cameras or anything of the kind, but of course today it is anything but typical since it was determined that the package was mailed from here at 9:01 Monday morning.
Officials say that the clerk who has been interviewed by the FBI remembers only one package being mailed. It was mailed overnight, but NBC News says it might have reached them earlier if it had been addressed correctly. The mailer had the wrong zip code on it and also the wrong address. He addressed it to Rockefeller Avenue rather than Rockefeller Center in New York, but, of course, it did eventually get there with the stunning contents inside.
This post office is just a few blocks from one of the entrances to Virginia Tech University. The people who live here say it is quite possible that Cho could have walked from Ambler Johnston Hall, where the first shootings took place over to this post office, and then back again to Norris Hall, where the second batch of shootings took place. This of course helps account perhaps for that mysterious gap between the shootings on Monday.
Back to you, Tony.
HARRIS: OK. And Jeanne, just to be clear on that, that is the thinking right now, that he could physically have just walked around to the post office and then to that second location?
MESERVE: He could have done that, yes, and police officials told our Deborah Feyerick this morning that they do not believe that he had a car, that he did walk this distance.
HARRIS: Yes. OK.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve for us this morning.
Jeanne, thank you.
COLLINS: Tina Grimshaw shuttles Virginia Tech students around campus. That's what she was doing Monday morning, even after the first shooting.
Tina Grimshaw is joining us now from Blacksburg to tell us a little bit more about what happened that morning for her.
Tina, can you hear me OK?
TINA GRIMSHAW, VIRGINIA TECH SHUTTLE BUS DRIVER: Yes, I can.
COLLINS: Tell me what happened on Monday morning.
GRIMSHAW: I started my shuttle runs at 7:30, and at 7:30, I saw police officers here, but I thought they were here for the bomb threat on Friday. And then I came back at 8:30, and then again at 9:30, and I parked across from Torgeson Hall.
And I -- and then I pick up at 10:00, so I get out and walked around. And I walked up towards where the police were and just to get some exercise and stuff. And the next thing I know, there's a girl screaming that some girl had been shot.
And the next thing, swarms of police officers were everywhere, and they were with M-16s, and everybody started screaming and running over one another. And so I ran back to the shuttle crying, and I called my husband, of course, and then I called -- I was listening to a Christian radio station, and I called there and spoke with a volunteer to put it on a prayer line. And this woman prayed with me until I could get off the campus, but it was -- it was -- it was insanity.
I'm really upset...
COLLINS: Did you have any idea, Tina, at that time -- did you have any idea what was going on inside the building? Was anyone able to tell you?
GRIMSHAW: Nobody told me anything. They put my life in danger and all these students in danger. In my heart, I truly feel they should have shut campus down after the first 911 call.
I was here for the first bomb threat, and they shut campus down then. The second bomb threat, I sat right across the street from one of the buildings that had a bomb threat. And the only way I knew is because one of the students got on the bus, on the shuttle bus and told me that they had just told them to leave the hall because it had a bomb threat.
At no time -- so twice now, not only my life was endangered, other people's lives was endangered. And that was -- Monday was supposed to be a happy day for me. My son was coming up to show me pictures of my granddaughter that's going to be born in October, and it ended up being a very sad day.
I'm having a difficult time dealing with it. This is the first time I've been back on campus, and I'm really kind of nervous being here. And I don't know when classes will start back and when I have to drive the shuttle bus back.
But I also want to say -- first of all, given thanks to my heavenly father for even being here and giving me the grace and mercy. But I send condolences out to these parents who sent their children here to get an education, to better their life.
And I'm not throwing blame, but my biggest question is why campus was not shut down. I think lives could have been saved. I think there would not have been such a mass confusion going on and people running.
COLLINS: Tina, I think that's a question that a lot of people have. I know that when I was there, it seemed like the kids were really trying very, very hard, and very determined to stay united and comfort one another, and talk about how much love they had for that school and for one another.
I think we're going to see, and we're hearing some of it now, that attitude change a bit, and people really wondering what was going on and why their safety was not taken at a more -- a higher priority.
Can you tell me quickly, back to the bomb threat, how was the school shut down with the bomb threats? Were the roads blocked? I mean, you're a shuttle driver. Were you not able to drive during those events that happened before the shootings?
GRIMSHAW: Before the first bomb threat. Not on Friday, but the following week, they shut down every entrance and every exit to campus. And on -- on the second bomb threat they didn't shut down anything. On the shooting they didn't shut down anything.
And, you know, this has terrified my family all across the United States. My father called me from Georgia watching the news, and, you know, his opinion also was, you know, he's seeing all these officers running around with M-16s, and he said they were hiding behind, you know, trees and buildings, but he saw people on the street. He wanted to know who was -- who was helping them.
COLLINS: Sure.
GRIMSHAW: They didn't even know where the gunman was.
COLLINS: Sure. Well, Tina, we certainly appreciate your accounts of all of this. I can hear in your voice how difficult it must be for you to be there, and to try to not to "what if" the entire situation. What if this had happened and so forth.
We're also hearing a lot of that from people. So we certainly appreciate your account of everything.
GRIMSHAW: It's very sad for the families. And also, I feel -- I feel much burden for the shooter's family. I feel that that young man was crying for help and nobody listened to him.
COLLINS: Well...
GRIMSHAW: And I think this could have all been avoided before it even started.
COLLINS: Well, again, we appreciate...
GRIMSHAW: After all that I've heard on the news.
COLLINS: Right. And we are learning more today, and we will learn more over the next several days and weeks to come in this situation.
Once again, Tina, we appreciate your thoughts today. And our thoughts go out to you as well.
Thanks for being here.
GRIMSHAW: Thank you. Thank you very much.
HARRIS: Heidi, welcome back.
COLLINS: You know, she started to touch on what I think we're going to see a lot more on. Nobody wants to second-guess, nobody wants to Monday morning quarterback. I mean, none of that for what the police were doing and what the security officers on campus were doing, what decisions were made with the management team in between those two shootings. But I think we're going to see a dramatic shift now, knowing that the police did have contact with him two years back, and I think we're going to hear it from the parents of the victims as soon as they can start to heal a little bit more.
HARRIS: I'm interested in that point of view, and I'm really going to be interested to hear more on that story as it develops, because as you know -- you were there on the ground, but -- and some of the people that we talked to back here in Atlanta, there is a sense among some of the students that the authorities had handled it properly.
COLLINS: There was a lot of that.
HARRIS: Yes.
COLLINS: In fact, the majority of kids that I talked to, in the beginning, which I think is exactly what I'm trying to say -- we're going to see this shift. I mean, I don't want to predict anything, but as we learn more and see some of the signs that were, you know, clearly warning signs, I'll be very interested to talk with some of the same people that I met earlier in the week and see if...
HARRIS: A couple weeks down the road.
COLLINS: ... you know, their thoughts are starting to change a little bit.
HARRIS: Well, great hob. Great job from Blacksburg. And great to have you back.
COLLINS: Thank you. It was not fun.
HARRIS: No. No. Would never describe that as fun.
COLLINS: No.
HARRIS: Still to come this morning in the NEWSROOM, this next man survived the Virginia Tech massacre. He was in class when the gunman burst in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I saw Satan at work, and I saw God at work at the same time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Killer at the classroom door. A survivor's amazing words coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: His version of events sometimes confusing, sometimes contradictory. The attorney general tries to clear the air over those fired prosecutors. His Senate testimony happening today, live in the NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: The U.S. defense secretary in Baghdad today. The city on guard after a harrowing day of explosions that killed some 200 people.
The latest in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: The worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. The Oklahoma City bombing remembered in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And once again, everyone, the next scheduled briefing from the alumnae center there on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg scheduled for 9:00 a.m. has been delayed until, we understand, 9:30. And at that time we expect to hear from postal inspectors in Blacksburg discussing the package sent to NBC on Monday, received by NBC yesterday, containing the videos, statement from Cho Seung-Hui.
That briefing from the postal inspectors this morning, 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
We'll bring it to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: And to one of the other major stories of the day. On the Hill and under oath. The nation's embattled attorney general appears this hour before a Senate panel.
Alberto Gonzales faces a grilling over the firing of eight federal prosecutors. Did partisan politics overshadow justice?
CNN Congressional Correspondent Andrea Koppel is on the Hill now for us this morning.
Andrea, tell us why some of these lawmakers are calling this a make-or-break hearing for Gonzales.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. His job is on the line, Heidi. And, in fact, when he arrives in the hearing room behind me in just a few minutes, they are going to be looking for answers, specifics, as to how those eight of 93 U.S. attorneys were singled out to be fired.
We heard Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York, say that his chief of staff, Gonzales' former chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, when he testified, he said, "I don't recall" 122 times, and Schumer said that ain't going to cut it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: It's time for the contradictions and the confusion to end. I hope the attorney general cooperates with full, complete and unambiguous answers. We expect nothing less. And I hope that by the end of Thursday, we are closer, not further, from the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOPPEL: So, he better come armed with answers, not just because of questions that will be coming from Chuck Schumer, but from a lot of Republicans too -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Boy, it's going to certainly be an interesting day.
I wonder, any idea, Andrea, from what you're hearing there, how long these proceedings will take? How many days we're going to see him stand up for himself, basically?
KOPPEL: Pretty much today. That's what we've been told.
COLLINS: OK.
KOPPEL: That this is going to run all day today. We can expect it to last well into the afternoon hours. And I think we're going to see a lot of very pointed questions trying to get at the root of why those eight prosecutors were fired last year. COLLINS: Right. And remind me, though. I mean, we've heard so much about how the attorneys certainly serve at the pleasure of the president, so -- attorneys general, I should say, so they can't be fired, can't be dismissed for any reason?
KOPPEL: Well, the president can -- they serve four-year terms, and they're public servants, and they serve at the pleasure of the president, as you said, and, in fact, Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, said the other day -- he said, "Look, the president can get rid of these guys basically for any reason, but he can't do so for a bad reason."
In other words, he can't get rid of them for political reasons, because either they were going after Republicans too much or not going after Democrats enough -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. We know you'll be watching it very closely for us.
CNN's Andrea Koppel.
Thanks, Andrea.
KOPPEL: Sure.
HARRIS: Americans divided over the future of Alberto Gonzales. The split is apparent in a CNN-Opinion Research Corporation poll. When asked, "Do you think Alberto Gonzales should or should not resign as attorney general?" Thirty-eight percent say yes, 37 percent say no. Almost one in four Americans say they're just not sure.
The nation's top prosecutor a star witness today in his own defense, as Alberto Gonzales fights for his job. We talk to a former official with the Justice Department straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: These students scrambled, this next man could not. He was trapped in a Virginia Tech classroom with the shooter at the door.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't say anything. All he did was, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Under fire in class. A survivor speaks in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Iraq today. Gates plans to meet with U.S. commanders and Iraqi government officials. His visit comes one day after a series of bombings that killed almost 200 people in Baghdad.
Gates is expected to tell Iraqi leaders the U.S. commitment to a military buildup is not open-ended. This is Gates' third trip to Iraq now since taking over as defense secretary.
We'll go live to Baghdad in about 15 minutes.
HARRIS: Let's see the shots of the committee room right now. There you go.
We are planning to bring you live coverage of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' testimony this morning before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Testimony on the firings of eight federal prosecutors.
Opening statements to get under way at about 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time. And we hope to bring that to you this morning live right here in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: We are also waiting on this. Microphones bare there for now, but Virginia Tech alumnae center there, for the very latest information in this continually developing and continually shocking story, the massacre that happened on Monday.
We'll bring that to you as well just as soon as it happens. It should be about five minutes or so from now.
Meanwhile, we are remembering those who lost their lives at Virginia Tech. Here's a look.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: OK. Let's take you now to the New York Stock Exchange, where the Dow -- man, closed at a new all- time high yesterday, close to Dow 13,000, but some mixed information from earnings reports might indicate a bit of a sell-off today. That is something we'll be watching throughout the morning right here in the NEWSROOM.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: As we await the press conference coming up at any moment now, we say good morning to you on this Thursday morning, April 19th. I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: Want to get the very latest developments from the situation at Virginia Tech. We have our Brianna Keilar on the ground there. She's going to give us the latest. As we wait for this news conference to come, Brianna, we are learning so much more about Cho from the materials he send to NBC, it's hard to watch, harder even still I think to listen to his voice.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And NBC released some more of those video clips they received from Cho Seung- Hui this morning. Some more of the same theme that we're hearing from Cho. He says, I didn't want to do this, again essentially saying that his hand was forced into this and he was forced into going on this massacre. Yesterday you may recall we heard Cho compare himself to Jesus. Well, in this newly released video, another biblical reference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NBR NEWS, CHO SEUNG-HUI: I did it to make you stop what you did to me. The future generations of the weak and the defenseless. Like Moses, I split the sea and lead my people, the weak, the defenseless and the innocent children of all ages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: We heard him compare himself to Moses, saying like Moses he split the sea, the weak, the defenseless, the innocent children of all ages, these of course part of 27 quick-time video clips that Cho sent to NBC News, along with still photos of him holding two weapons, probably the two weapons that he used in this massacre, the 9- millimeter Glock and the .22 pistol. This was of course along with an 1800-word manifesto and we're learning more about that now. We hear that he praises Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (ph), Heidi, calling them martyrs. Heidi.
COLLINS: Well, that's probably not so much of a surprise Brianna, I guess, knowing what we know now. Obviously there's at least two schools of thought on whether or not a killer like this should be getting the media and putting these pictures out there, some people saying it's exactly what he wanted. Others saying we really need to know. We need to be able to look in those eyes and see the best that we can what kind of person we're dealing with. I do wonder, though, what the kids there on campus are saying about this manifesto, if you will. Have you had an opportunity to find out how they feel about it?
KEILAR: Yes, some of the students and also there are family members here, like you mentioned, they're not happy that he's got this platform. They pretty much say it's like he's rising from the grave in video form to terrorize the campus all over again. One girl who survived the massacre in her German class by playing dead called Cho really sick and she said that she thinks through these video clips that he's trying to create an image of fear. Yet we also heard from a roommate -- pardon me, I believe a suite mate of Cho's, who as of Monday morning was his suite mate and he was just really surprised, because like a lot of people, described Cho as someone who never really spoke and obviously we see Cho being extremely verbose in these video clips. Heidi.
COLLINS: Yeah, it's part of the job we don't love, that's for sure. Brianna Keilar, there on the ground for us at Virginia Tech. Thanks Brianna.
HARRIS: Let's take you live to pictures from Capitol Hill right now, Alberto Gonzales facing tough questions on the Hill. Today's answers may determine whether he'll keep his job as the nation's attorney general. Critics from both parties have blasted Gonzales over the firing of eight Federal prosecutors. They say the dismissals smacked of partisan politics. Our next guest served in Ronald Reagan's Justice Department. Bruce Fein was an associate deputy U.S. attorney general. He joins us from our Washington bureau. Bruce, great to talk to you again. Thanks for your time this morning.
BRUCE FEIN, FMR. ASSOC DEP. U.S. ATTY. GEN: Thank you. HARRIS: Bruce, did you and other conservatives send a letter to the president, was it Monday, calling for the resignation of the attorney general?
FEIN: Yes, we did, myself, David Keene (ph), Richard Vigary (ph), Bob Barr (ph), among others, insisting that he has abandoned conservative credentials, the rule of law is a conservative cornerstone of the Constitution. The attorney general has permitted the appearance to be created that the firings were for partisan, political objectives, not legitimate law enforcement objectives and that simply is a standard that's unsatisfactory for the chief law enforcement officer in the land. I have what I call the Elliott Richardson standard for attorney general. You recall he was Republican attorney general who quit rather than fire Archibald Cox in the Watergate scandal. If you have suspicion that the attorney general would have fired Mr. Cox, then that attorney general should no longer serve.
HARRIS: What's the reason for the harsh criticism? Is it Gonzales' loyalty to the president? Is it personal?
FEIN: No, there's nothing wrong with loyalty to the president. The fact that he has through his equivocations and shifting statements as to the reasons why the U.S. attorneys were fired, his knowledge and participation in the U.S. attorneys, his invocation or insertion of executive privilege to prevent the Congress from getting the full facts, all creates an appearance of some kind of cover-up or impropriety. Even if there was no actual effort to thwart an investigation or insist upon a particular prosecution, clearly that appearance has been created, which explains the overwhelming public disenchantment with the attorney general and suspicion over the legitimacy of the firings. And appearances count. One of the things that speaks volumes to me is that his subordinate Kyle Sampson said before the Senate committee that he quit, because he understood the appearance had been created of impropriety. The attorney general seems to have a standard...
HARRIS: Bruce, why don't you stand by for just a moment, you're going to be with us as we watch the testimony. We want to get to Heidi right now.
COLLINS: In fact, we want to go straight to the news conference coming to us out of Virginia Tech. Let's go ahead listen in here now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom Brown, who is a senior associate director of the dean of students can speak a little bit to that particular area. You heard Dr. Christopher Flynn, who is the director of Cook counseling center (INAUDIBLE) the vice president for student affairs, Mark McNamee (ph), the university provost, the chief academic officer of the university, Wendell Flinchum again, the Virginia Tech chief of police, Colonel Steve Flaherty, who is the superintendent of the Virginia state police and then also because of that breaking news yesterday, we have a representative from the U.S. Postal Service investigative team, Mr. Dave McGinnis.
I know you have this information. I know that you've been publishing some wonderful stories about our lost loved ones. I am seeing these names for the first time and I hope that you will indulge me and allow me to begin this conference before we take your questions by reviewing the latest list of names where identification has been complete and these individuals are now going to be soon in contact with their loved ones. Bluhm, Brian Roy and his hometown was Stevens City, Virginia. He was master student in civil engineering and he was a student since the spring of 2005. Clark Ryan Christopher, his home ton was Martinez, Georgia. He's a senior in psychology. He was a student since the fall of 2002. Cloyd (ph), Austin Michelle, she was from Blacksburg, Virginia and she was a sophomore in international studies. She was in the honors program. She was a student since the fall of 2006.
Hammaren, Caitlin Miller (ph). She was from West town, New York. She was a sophomore in international studies. She was here since the fall of 2005. Herbstritt (ph) Jeremy Michael, he was from Blacksburg, Virginia. He was a masters student in civil engineering and he was a student since the fall of 2006. Lane, Jaret Lee (ph), was from (INAUDIBLE) Virginia, just down the road and he was a senior in civil engineering since the fall of 2003. Lombantoruan, Partahi (INAUDIBLE) (ph). He was from Blacksburg, Virginia, but originally from Indonesia. He was a Ph.D. student in civil engineering and he had been here since the fall of 2006. Perez, Daniel Alejandro (ph), his hometown was in Woodbridge, Virginia. He was a sophomore in international studies and he's been here, was here since the fall of 2006.
Pohle (ph), Michael Steven, hometown, Flemmington (ph), New Jersey, senior in biological science and he was a student since the fall of 2002, Pryde, Julia Kathleen (ph), her hometown was Blacksburg, Virginia, a masters student in biological systems engineering, a student since the summer of 2006. Reed, Mary Karen (ph), her hometown was Annandale, Virginia and she was a freshman in interdisciplinary studies since the fall of 2006. Samaha, Reema Joseph (ph) and he was from Centreville, Virginia, a freshman in university studies since the fall of 2006.
I think it's important that we do this to recognize the loss, but also I want to point out that I thank you and appreciate very much the stories that you've been writing about these people. We frankly have felt inhibited and inadequate in not being able to write about them ourselves. My people now are going to begin the process of gathering as much bio information as we can to start preparing the appropriate memorials and recognitions in their name. I would now like to call on Colonel Flaherty for a few comments, to be followed by Mr. McGinnis and then I'll kind of set up the structure of how we're going to go ahead and take questions again from the university officials.
COL. STEVE FLAHERTY, VA STATE POLICE: Thank you. Good morning. Over the last news cycle, families of the victims they have endured. The Virginia Tech family has endured and indeed the world has endured a view of life that few of us should or -- would or should ever have to endure. It's sad that life a few years ago, only those who had chosen to work in a profession that's responsible for managing and mitigating crime and violence would be exposed to. Investigators did have a chance yesterday to view the package that we received from NBC prior to it being aired nationally last night. We appreciate NBC's cooperation and they're cooperating with all the authorities, though we're rather disappointed in the editorial decision to broadcast these disturbing images.
The victims of the families, the entire university campus, even the international community certainly have been afflicted by these horrific events and this horrific tragedy and this intense media attention. I'm sorry that you are all exposed to these images. We had hoped that the correspondence that we received from NBC would contain some vital evidence and be of very significant value. When the FBI took custody of the package yesterday afternoon, it was immediately to become a part of our criminal investigative package and our criminal investigative files. While there was some marginal value to the package that we received, the fact of the matter is we already had most all of this information and most all of this evidence among the evidence that we had recovered to date.
The package simply confirmed what we already knew in many, many cases. Many, many thanks to the FBI. The FBI office in New York and the FBI offices -- and the men and women of FBI from here to New York for the work that they did in retrieving the package and getting it to us, and they were helped by several other Federal, state and local agencies. We appreciate that so very very much. We are at a point in time when we are closing out our on-scene investigation of this matter. And now we move on to the task of reviewing and re-reviewing and interviewing and re-interviewing and combing through the mounds of evidence that we've collected.
We're trying to determine what happened and as much as possible, why, why this terrible tragedy occurred. From this point we probably will have very little to tell you on a daily basis from a law enforcement perspective. We certainly will come back to you when we find anything that's meaningful and we have any meaningful developments, but as a matter of a daily routine, the information flow from law enforcement will probably dwindle at this particular point in time. With that being said, I would like to invite David McGinnis from the U.S. postal inspector service up to make just a few comments.
DAVID McGINNIS, U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: Good morning, my name is David McGinnis, I'm a U.S. postal inspector. I'm just going to speak briefly about the part of this investigation that occurred at the post office. On April 16th, 2007 at 9:01 a.m., an express mail parcel was presented for mailing at the Blacksburg post office, downtown station of 118 North Main Street. According to officials at the post office, it was a very busy time and a number of customers were attempting to mail their tax returns. The clerk recalls the parcel being presented and noticed that there were six digits in the zip code and corrected that by removing one of the digits. Apparently there were other difficulties with the address on the label and it was delayed in delivery in New York. However, an alert postal carrier realized the appropriate destination and delivered it to NBC News at Rockefeller Plaza on April 18th. The clerk in Blacksburg is cooperating fully with authorities in this investigation. However, she does not wish to make further statements to the media and we ask that you respect her wishes in this regard. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, in addition to trying to respond to many of the issues and concerns and questions that you and indeed the whole world has, let me just kind of characterize how our university is trying to cope and during the process of questions and statements by Dr. Heinz (ph) and Dr. MacNamee (ph), I hope that you'll get a little flavor of that. Obviously the most important thing for us that we've been trying to focus on is the care of the families that are left behind here. We're doing everything we possibly can to try to set up counseling centers under the direction of the -- of John Marshall -- is John here? Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce the secretary of public safety, John Marshall -- to release additional resources for the medical examiner to move those exams along as quickly as possible.
We are trying to put together as many resources, legal help, all kinds of help for the families. The next priority has to be trying to help and assist our students that are here today. Dr. McNamee and Dr. Heinz are going to talk a little bit about some of the activities that we are immediately beginning to work on, how we're going to help them, if they wish to, ease back into class schedule next week. I mentioned that classes are scheduled to begin on Monday. Finally, and I know that's the question that many of you have, is our third priority has to be to understand everything that took place.
You've seen in the newspaper, the governor released that he is going to appoint a body -- a review body of some sort, a structure and process yet to be determined, headed up by the former superintendent of state police Colonel Massengale (ph). Our university also will be doing something in parallel. In any major incident, obviously an incident of this extraordinary magnitude, we will be looking top to bottom, running complementary review. That will begin to take place next week, so that we can understand all the protocols, understand all the things that took place, understand anything that we can do in the future to prevent such horror. I would like to ask Dr. McNamee to speak just a little bit to some of the issues I referenced, and then Dr. Heinz will take questions.
MARK McNAMEE, VIRGINIA TECH PROVOST AND VP: Good morning. I'm Mark McNamee, the university provost and vice president of academic affairs. As you know, we canceled classes this week and we are scheduled to start classes again on Monday. I've been working with our eight college deans, plus the dean of the graduate school -- sure, I've been working with our eight college deans plus the dean of the graduate school to develop a common strategy and set of principles that we will use to help our students continue the learning process at Virginia Tech. We have decided among ourselves that we are going to focus on the students first. So the students are going to have choices about how they will complete the semester. We are outlining exactly what the process will be, and we'll be reviewing that with the department heads, the deans and all the faculty members over the next few days.
But basically for each course the student is enrolled in, they will be able to make a choice among several options how they would like to complete that course for the semester, including the possibility that the work they've done so far will be sufficient for them to receive a grade in that class. Again this is in the hands of the students, our advisers, our faculty will work closely with the students to make sure they make informed choices. We'll make all the information available to them. We're also providing information to the faculty about the kind of issues they would like to discuss with the students so they fully understand that it's in their hands to make the choices. This is out of respect for our students. We want to make sure and we're going to encourage them very strongly to continue in their classes, to get as much out of the learning process as they possibly can, but also to do it in the context of what they're capable of handling under the current circumstances.
This will be different for different students. So again this is our set of principles, and we'll have very specific things of how this will work with the university structure. The dean's office and provost's office will fully support whatever it takes to make this work on a practical basis. The other thing I would like to mention briefly, which is something I'm very pleased to report, we have recommended and the president has approved, a decision to award all students who were killed on Monday posthumous degrees from Virginia Tech for the degree they were pursuing. The families are very happy about this and we are actually going to award those degrees during the regular commencement exercises that the students -- would have participated in with their friends. With that, we'll have additional information and then I can answer questions later. Thank you very much.
ZENOVIA LAWRENCE HEINZ: Good morning. I'm Zenovia Lawrence Heinz (ph) and I serve as vice president for student affairs. I'd like to begin by saying -- to echo the comments you've heard from Larry, and say thank you so much for the positive stories that you have given about our students. This is a real-life issue for us. We have lost talented students and gifted professors, so we appreciate the positives that you have done for us. I'd also like to thank colleagues in higher education around the world that have flooded all of us with wonderful e-mails and I'd like to have this opportunity to thank all of them and just friends worldwide. So to get that message out to them is critical.
As you have heard, we have very special priorities at this time. We are very concerned about a number of different facets of our university community. We are at this time providing personal and individual attention to each of the families of the deceased students, so each one of them has an individual point person. So that is being taken care of. We are also providing individual attention to the injured students who are still hospitalized. We're providing support to families in various ways, and Dr. Flynn I'm sure will speaking later about the initiatives that are taking place in our campus community.
We are also very, very concerned and will be concerned not only as the semester rolls to its close, but also in the years to come about our students from a counseling standpoint. So we will be looking at special initiatives to address those concerns. With me today -- and you heard them announced earlier -- their names announced earlier, but my colleagues are here with me from the division of student affairs to answer specific questions that you may have regarding residential living, judicial service, the judicial system, counseling services and the dean of students office. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. I know there's a lot of questions, and I'll do my very best -- I guess I have a couple cops, so I'll be a traffic cop up here. I'll just start working around the room and I'll try to do my very best to just kind of work the room separately. So Roland?
QUESTION: I have a question for Mr. Flaherty. Keeping in mind that all of us are gathered here to serve the grieving community, do you have a personal regret that your limited comments yesterday -- and I should say a grieving community that needs basic information. Do you have personal regret that your comments yesterday might have served as a teaser for an evening newscast?
FLAHERTY: Well, that certainly wasn't the intent of our comments. We didn't know what evidence may come from this. We had no idea what was in the package at the time that I spoke with you. This was a very new event to us and we were evaluating. We certainly had no intent of making it a teaser for any newscast.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am? Ma'am?
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Was there any unusual behavior? (INAUDIBLE)
FLAHERTY: We're fully vetting that issue of what took place at the post office. I know that you have -- some of you have probably done some interviews with folks that have told you some things that, quite frankly, we're not sure are absolutely correct. Keep in mind what day we were talking about. Monday was the 16th of April. That's the beginning of the end of the tax day. It was a very, very busy climate at the post office, so we're taking various steps to determine exactly what took place there. We don't have that information. Right now, as we speak, our investigators are working on those types of issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am, back here? Right here.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) Can you tell us more about those (INAUDIBLE)
FLAHERTY: Excuse me for the short answer, but the short answer is no, I have not heard the 911 tapes, and I don't have any flavor for them.
QUESTION: When will they be released?
FLAHERTY: They won't be released. They're part of the criminal investigation.
QUESTION: Do you think there needs to be some tinkering with the law in regards to intervention (INAUDIBLE)
FLAHERTY I think that there is a great deal of analysis that's going to take place. You know about the governor's actions, which we applaud. You heard this morning about steps the college plans to take. I can assure you the Virginia state police, as we always do, will do an after-action review of what we have done. And everyone will be taking a long, hard look at everything that takes place and what impacts it. What we all have to be cautioned about is making some knee-jerk reaction and trying to fix things that maybe on the surface appear to be broken that maybe aren't broken. So we have to be careful about how we go about our analysis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here.
QUESTION: Are you afraid (INAUDIBLE) someday be published (INAUDIBLE)
FLAHERTY: I think a significant amount of it has been published to now.
QUESTION: I just want to know if you can tell us any more about, was he acting at random or was there a reason why he was choosing the targets and where he was going?
FLAHERTY: I don't have any more information in that regard. We're reviewing the package right now as we speak, to see precisely what value, what it tells us and I don't know at this point.
QUESTION: Have you made any conclusion to whether he was randomly --
FLAHERTY: No, we've not made any conclusion along those lines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Do we know now, looking at -- we have a few days to look back, do we know now whether the right decision was made in the very early moments to go after (INAUDIBLE) campus. Do we have a connection here between Cho (INAUDIBLE) anything that bolsters (INAUDIBLE) --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've asked a lot of questions, and I'll try to get them all answered. If not, let me know. We acted and made the best decisions based on the information we had at the time on Monday morning. That's what I've said and that is still the case. We still are examining and investigating to determine whether there is any link to Cho, to the victims in AJ or not. We've not made any conclusions and that's still until investigation.
QUESTION: Is there anything - (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's all part of the investigation. We have not reached any conclusions yet. We're still investigating to see if there are any connections.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes ma'am, back in the back here.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That did not come from this office.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) broadcast (INAUDIBLE) worried about. FLAHERTY: I'm worried about absolutely nothing. What I was concerned about is, as I began my comments, that a lot of folks that saw images that really very disturbing and they're the type of things that those of us in my walk in life usually have to contend with and deal with and I just hate that a lot of folks that are not used to seeing that type of image had to see it.
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