Very, very sad university news

[Rykion]

Just writing to add my prayers and condolences to all who were involved and affected by this event.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I don't know if I can fault the police- its a sizable and fairly open campus and according so some of the reports I've seen, they had some reason to believe that the situation was a "domestic dispute" between a BF & GF- a kind of incident that rarely explodes beyond the argument's principles and the immediate responders.

I agree. Someone shows up in a dorm, shoots two people and leaves. What reason is there to think this would be a larger incident waiting to happen? When someone is shot and killed in an apartment building, do people expect the investigating police to shut down the entire town until they find the shooter?

Not knowing the shooter's motivation and without the benefit of hindsight, would somehow informing all the students and cancelling classes have accomplished anything? VT has a large commuter population - people living off campus who would likely arrive on campus for class or to work. People in dorms would leave to eat, etc. You cannot lock down a campus the way you can lock down a single school building.

It appears the shooter was a student - therefore he had legitimate access to the dorms. Maybe all a lockdown type situation would have accomplished was people being shot and killed somewhere else other than the Engineering building.

 

[Imperialus]

You cannot lock down a campus the way you can lock down a single school building.

QFT. I am going to a relatively small collage of about 13,000 students. Even that is spread across 7 buildings plus dorms and it takes a good 30 minutes to walk clear across the campus. There are at least 5 separate entrances to the parking lots and hundreds of entrances/exits to the buildings themselves. To try an lock that down would be next to impossible. The entire city police force would likely have to show up just to cover everything.

 

[jaerdaph]

Liviu Librescu, the VTech professor and Nazi holocaust survivor who sacrificed himself for the safety of his students is now my personal hero. What a brave, selfless man.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Liviu Librescu, the VTech professor and Nazi holocaust survivor who sacrificed himself for the safety of his students is now my personal hero. What a brave, selfless man.

No doubt.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Horrific news. My thoughts and prayers are with the students, faculty, and friends of those who were affected by this.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Yesterday was a bit of a hectic day, I know not one but two engineering students at VT. From an insider's perspective this was passed on to me. The original reports were that an male asian student had been the original shooter, when police arrived on the scene they found a man fitting the description of the reported shooter who was unable to account for his whereabouts with enough varacity (and was completely uncooperative) to convice the police that he wasn't the shooter...they were actually getting ready to leave the scene when the second set of shootings happened.

So for those that have faulted the police and the faculty about inaction, please think more thoughfully of your fellow human beings, they had no reason to suspect they had the wrong person. When the second wave started the SWAT team appearantly reacted in record time, considereing this isn't a usual occurance in such a rural area (yes, even though Blackburn is a college town, by urban standards, its pretty rural.)

The media has pretty much savaged the faculty for their lack of action, but please remember, they also were quick to lynch the young men at Duke, the media weren't there, wait until the facts come out before passing judgement. Now as for the students, faculty and families, my prayers are definately with them.

 

[BOZ]

My brother works there. Thank the heavens, he overslpt today...

wow, that's like how people miss their flight right before the plane explodes...

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

So for those that have faulted the police and the faculty about inaction, please think more thoughfully of your fellow human beings, they had no reason to suspect they had the wrong person. When the second wave started the SWAT team appearantly reacted in record time, considereing this isn't a usual occurance in such a rural area (yes, even though Blackburn is a college town, by urban standards, its pretty rural.)

The problem is the mindset, they enter a scene with no real information, immediately leap to a conclusion, then attempt to look only for what they expect to find. They did know they had a firearm casualty they ASSUMED the rest based on nothing more than what they expected to find. We had a retired detective come around at one of my jobs about five years ago to teach "logical problemsolving" because of some high-up company thing. Paraphrasing for brevity to compress about fifteen minutes of the core into a couple sentences his method was... When you first get to the scene immediately ask yourself what your gut reaction tells you to believe then look for all the evidence that proves it. If that approach doesn't lead to rampant mistakes I'm a flying prismatic vampire goldfish named Qbert.

When they should have taken that description and sent out patrols across campus checking people who met the description and were carrying a firearm. If it really was a standard domestic homicide they had plenty of time to catch the shooter later. When you have a shooting you CHECK for ARMED PEOPLE.

If the killer dumped the gun and fled don't worry you can run him down later once you figure out who your suspect IS. But the first thing is to make sure you don't still have an armed gunman running around, it won't hurt the dead if it takes a few more hours to begin questioning the usual suspects.

 

[Thunderfoot]

But you seem to be missing the point - after they arrived (Again, don't listen to the media, I know someone who was THERE!) they realized it was not a M/S, and caught a suspect, that suspect, 1) fit the description, 2) resisted arrest and 3) failed to co-operate - OF COURSE THEY THOUGHT THEY HAD THE RIGHT GUY!!!! If you listen to the media espousal of what happended, then yes, the argument makes sense, but they have it wrong, as usual.