This morning 22 33 people (incl. the shooter) lost their lives on the campus of Virginia Tech.
UPDATE: Reports from WDBJ state that there may be upwards of 20 fatalities.
UPDATE 2: The gunman is dead.
Just in from CNN:
One person was killed and several were wounded in two shootings on the Virginia Tech university campus in Blacksburg on Monday, The Associated Press and the university reported.
The AP reported that one person was killed and one wounded in a shooting at a dormitory. Another shooting at Norris Hall, an engineering building, resulted in multiple casualties, the university reported.
There were seven or eight total casualties in the two incidents, AP reported.
“Police have one shooter in custody, and as part of routine police procedure they continue to search for a second shooter,” the university said in a written statement.
The first reported shooting occurred at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory that houses 895 students. The dormitory, one of the largest residence halls on campus, is located near the drill field and stadium.
One person has been taken into custody. The shooter is apparently deceased. One of the problems in gathering information in a tragic event is that the facts always take a while to filter out. A perfect example of this was seen on the VT website where the statement was posted (or updated) at 10:51 am (EST) that the shooter was in fact in custody. Here is a screen capture of the website from this morning as the school attempted to alert the campus to the horrific events that were unfolding.
If this doesn’t underline the very real need for gun control in the USA I don’t know what will. I would love to see how the NRA spins this one.
[tags]VT, Virginia Tech, Campus Shootings, Tragedy[/tags]