Restaurant patrons cringed and mothers turned their children away from the television as the video came up of an armed Cho Seung-Hui delivering a snarling, venomous tirade about rich “brats” and their “hedonistic needs.”
The self-made video and photos of Cho pointing guns as if he were imitating a movie poster were mailed to NBC on the morning of the Virginia Tech massacre. A Postal Service time stamp reads 9:01 a.m. between the two attacks that left 33 people dead.
“This is it. This is where it all ends,” Cho says in one videotape, in which he appears to be more melancholy than angry. “What a life it was. Some life.”
Cho, 23, speaks in a harsh monotone in other videotaped rants, but it isn’t clear to whom he is speaking.
“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,” he says in one, with a snarl on his lips. “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.”
NBC said the package contained a rambling and often incoherent 23-page written statement, 28 video clips and 43 photos.
On NBC’s “Today” show Thursday, host Meredith Vieira said the decision to air the information “was not taken lightly.” Some victims’ relatives canceled their plans to speak with NBC because they were upset over the airing of the images, she said.
“I saw his picture on TV, and when I did I just got chills,” said Kristy Venning, a junior from Franklin County, Va. “There’s really no words. It shows he put so much thought into this and I think it’s sick.”
The package helped explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a classroom building.
“Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats,” says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. “Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.”
A dormitory neighbor of the first two victims, Ryan Clark, 22, and Emily Hilscher, 19, described on ABC’s “Good Morning America” what she saw that morning in Ambler Johnson Hall.
“I heard a really loud female voice scream. I opened my door and that’s when I saw the blood and the footprints, the sneaker prints, leading in a trail from her room,” Molly Donahue said.
That’s when she saw Clark, a resident assistant in the dorm, on the floor against a door, she said. A friend later told her he was dead. Donahue she said has since tried to return to the dorm but felt physically ill and is still terrified.
“I got to the point where I can’t be alone,” she said.
Authorities on Thursday disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho had been accused of sending unwanted messages to two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate’s orders and was pronounced a danger to himself. But he was released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.
The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho’s twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.
Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.
He refers to “martyrs like Eric and Dylan” — a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High School massacre.
NBC News President Steve Capus said the package was sent by overnight delivery but apparently had the wrong ZIP code and wasn’t opened until Wednesday, NBC said.
An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC’s attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho’s arm after the bloodbath, “Ismail Ax,” NBC said.
Capus said that the network notified the FBI around noon, but held off reporting on it at the FBI’s request, so that the bureau could look at it first. NBC finally broke the story just before police announced the development at 4:30 p.m.
It was clear Cho videotaped himself, Capus said, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera.
State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made.
Cho repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.
“You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience,” he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. “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.”
A law enforcement official said Cho’s letter also refers in the same sentence to President Bush and John Mark Karr, who falsely confessed last year to having killed child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak to the media.
Earlier Wednesday, authorities disclosed that in November and December 2005, two women complained to campus police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho. But the women considered the messages “annoying,” not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.
Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.
After the second complaint about Cho’s behavior, the university obtained a temporary detention order and took Cho away because an acquaintance reported he might be suicidal, authorities said. Police did not identify the acquaintance.
On Dec. 13, 2005, a magistrate ordered Cho to undergo an evaluation at Carilion St. Albans, a private psychiatric hospital. The magistrate signed the order after an initial evaluation found probable cause that Cho was a danger to himself or others as a result of mental illness.
The next day, according to court records, doctors at Carilion conducted further examination and a special justice, Paul M. Barnett, approved outpatient treatment.
A medical examination conducted Dec. 14 reported that that Cho’s “affect is flat. … He denies suicidal ideations. He does not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder. His insight and judgment are normal.”
The court papers indicate that Barnett checked a box that said Cho “presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness.” Barnett did not check the box that would indicate a danger to others.
It is unclear how long Cho stayed at Carilion, though court papers indicate he was free to leave as of Dec. 14. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Cho had been continually enrolled at Tech and never took a leave of absence.
A spokesman for Carilion St. Albans would not comment.
Though the incidents with the two women did not result in criminal charges, police referred Cho to the university’s disciplinary system, Flinchum said. But Ed Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs, would not comment on any disciplinary proceedings, saying federal law protects students’ medical privacy even after death.
Some students refused to second-guess the university.
“Who would’ve woken up in the morning and said, `Maybe this student who’s just troubled is really going to do something this horrific?'” said Elizabeth Hart, a communications major and a spokeswoman for the student government.
One of the first Virginia Tech officials to recognize Cho’s problems was award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni, who kicked him out of her introduction to creative writing class in late 2005.
Students in Giovanni’s class had told their professor that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. Female students refused to come to class. She said she considered him “mean” and “a bully.”
Lucinda Roy, professor of English at Virginia Tech, said that she, too, relayed her concerns to campus police and various other college units after Cho displayed antisocial behavior in her class and handed in disturbing writing assignments.
But she said authorities “hit a wall” in terms of what they could do “with a student on campus unless he’d made a very overt threat to himself or others.” Cho resisted her repeated suggestion that he undergo counseling, Roy said.
Questions lingered over whether campus police should have issued an immediate campus-wide warning of a killer on the loose and locked down the campus after the first burst of gunfire.
Police said that after the first shooting, in which two students were killed, they believed that it was a domestic dispute, and that the gunman had fled the campus. Police went looking for a young man, Karl David Thornhill, who had once shot guns at a firing range with the roommate of one of the victims. But police said Thornhill is no longer under suspicion.
**************
Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed, Vicki Smith, Sue Lindsey and Justin Pope in Blacksburg, Va., Matt Barakat in Richmond, Va., Colleen Long and Tom Hays in New York, and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington, D.C. contributed to this report.
*************************************************
Hello Baby Boomers….
Well, I don’t know about you but I thought that what we are seeing now…is what it would be…Cho Seung Hui fits the profile of a disturbed person.
No one is to blame.
One can only guess how troubled a soul can truly be. Unless you are a professional and even then it is not, nor can be evident.
True there are warning signs, but we live in a society where one is “politically correct.” Fingers aren’t pointed…perhaps not even whispers.
Yet, there are people like Hitler, who as by far, worse then this young man and he was worshiped and followed.
Is our society to blame, the individual or both…you decide.
Me, I don’t blame his parents, any one around him for not seeing what a disturbed young man he was…not even his environment or the society. I think that Cho Seung Hui had wiring that had gone a muck. I think he was chemically imbalanced and that his brain was the evil twist in this story.
He is out of his misery now and it is regretful that he took so many with him.
My heart and prayers go out to all of you who are suffering and sad.
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:34 pm
When I look back at the time when he first went into middle school, I realize he was ridiculed back then. He spoke oddly, partly because of his Korean accent I suppose, but is that a good enough reason to tell someone to go back to China? Is it a good enough reason to taunt him and shove him around? Perhaps he was “wired” wrong, but no child going into puberty is going to survive such ridicule unscathed. A normal child would know how to reach out and get help, but yet would still suffer emotionally. He only regressed and pulled into a shell…where he felt safe. But yet people would still invade his safety, causing him to lash out. Most of those who retaliate would do it with words, but a “mis-wired” mind takes it a step further.
Why couldn’t teachers way back then help stop the ridicule? Kids can be truly cruel. I wonder if he told his parents what he felt. They may have been afraid of him too, who knows? And when you are close to a situation and nothing happens, you often dismiss your deepest fears in a false sense of security. I would guess this is what happened to his parents.
I have a son who has ADHD and has few friends, and I try to stay in tune to his fears, concerns, etc. If things don’t get better, I will attempt to home school him to protect him from such cruelty, and hopefully I can help him become confident in who he is, until he is mature enough to emerge into the world and face life. As parents, schools, church, and friends, we must do all we can to stay in tune with those who we see regularly. Not to hide our heads in the sand and hope it all works out.
This is sad, but all we can do is try to learn something from it. What can we do better? How can schools protect and help their students without invading into families’ privacy? It is time to research and come up with some answers to try and avoid a repeat of this atrocity. May God touch and quickly heal the hearts of all those torn apart by this tragedy.
April 19, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I’m surprised about fuss and objections about images shown by news media. Images are images and you see worse images in all kinds of media and or but what is called entertainment.
April 19, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Hello Gayle,
Thank you for your insightful comment.
Where/Are you a teacher of Cho? Or were you a classmate?
I had ADHD as a child and I guess you could say I never grew out of it.
But I make it work for me…my energy is what keeps me going.
I can remember my Mother putting a harness on me and then she tied it to the clothes line with a clip, so I could run about freely while we were out side and she doing the wash. Some of you might think this is horrible, but my Mother didn’t want to give me medications…not that there were as many meds are there are today…back when dinosaurs roamed the earth…lol…and I survived and am the creative person that I am today because of that.
I wish you the best with your son.
When everyone else is slowing down he will have them all beat…like Bill Gates, Edison, Picasso, Einstein, Henry Ford, Michael DE Angelo and so many wonderful, inventive people.
Smiles and world peace,
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Hello Bill…welcome to the bloggggggggg…LOL
Well dear, you can’t make all of the people happy, all of the time.
If you don’t want your children watching TV that is negative…don’t have a TV…I don’t.
My sister, who I concider to be a “news junkie,” doen’t understand this side of me…but she tolerates me any way, knowing I am different.
Big Bird won’t have the violent pics on his show!
We as adults need to have control over what our children see…even in a restaurant…you can have their backs to the TV. It is the parents choice not the restaurants.
Most children aren’t interested in the news…unless it is about Micky Mouse!
Please come back soon…
~the Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:05 pm
The one topic that should be held at dinner and breakfast tables across the country is the topic of BULLYING. We should talk with our children about both sides of the fence when it comes to bullying.
I, of course, am not excusing the masacre that has been committed but so many times in these scenarios bullying comes into the background of the troubled children.
As parents and aunts and uncles and grandparents we should make sure that it is understood that either being bullied or being the bully will not be tolerated.
Godspeed to all who have been touched by this tragedy.
April 19, 2007 at 12:32 pm
in response to those who are childish enough to believe that this wasn”t a spoiled brat himself . let it be so his childish selfish rants a blamming everyone else for his problems.hrows red flags up .parents that worked hard to send him to school.ect.applaud the media for exposingthis creature for what he is. never hide the truthit will always set you free.
April 19, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Asking the media not to broadcast this is like a car salesman telling his boss he just could not tell a customer that the car they wanted was really a lemon.
We all know what the boss would do to his employee.
The media has no concience.
Perhaps it should not.
The fact they make so much money and also happen to report news is where the problem
unfolds. No money, no news. The price for freedom.
April 19, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I think people who seriously object to the coverage (as I do) should contact advertisers such as Proctor and Gamble General Motors and Staples and ask them to pull their advertising away from NBC and MSNBC.
April 19, 2007 at 12:50 pm
The attention the media is giving this young man is appalling , yet unfortunately there are people in our society that feel the need to know everything. The disturbing thought that should be presented is:How is all the information you obtain from occurrences such as this and others in the past are going to make a differance in our lives?. We may never understand why people do the things they do , there are several theories but the bottom line is : There are people in our society that have inner demons that overwhelmed them and to add in a chemical imbalance and not recieving the help and follow up they need can lead to the unthinkable .I believe that we need to focus on being more observant and show more compassion to people and stop worrying about trying to keep up a social status because it means nothing in the end I would rather hear “She loved man kind and helped the people in need” and not hear “She lived in a house that was 10 times to big,drove in nice cars and dressed nice,etc…”.Right now we need to focus on the victims and the help they need to heal and reflect on how will this incident change you as a person in a positive way.My thoughts,my heart and my prayers are with the people this effected and their healing .My thought to society , do not wait till something of this nature occures again try to make a positive movement towards one another in your daily life.Make a difference!There is a possibility by making a difference you may save a life maybe even your own.
April 19, 2007 at 12:45 pm
The doctors who let him go and never warned others are totally at fault here. He got guns becuase they never filed a report. For shame!
April 19, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Hello Donna…
Thank you for reading my blog. And taking the time to comment.
I, personally am going to try and find some good that comes out of all this unhappiness…
It is out there…and perhaps we won’t even see it when it happens…like two estranged people coming back together, or a husband and wife holding hands during the news as a way of comfort, two people meeting at a grief counseling and getting married and having a child.
Miracles happen every day…even out of the mist of grief and sorrow.
Peace,
~The Baby Boomer~
April 19, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Hello David,
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving your comment.
I don’t think that there is any one person responsible except for Cho Seung Hui. And even then…we know he was not in the right state of mind when he did this horrific act. No one who is sane, could!
But I do believe him to be a coward.
He choose to end his life instead of facing the consequences of his actions.
If you have a point to make…one should stick around to make the point perfectly clear…
Yes, he was a coward and some where deep inside I do believe that a small glitter of knowledge, in what he had done was wrong and evil and that is what made him kill him self.
But then, I choose to look for the good and try to understand the bad.
My prayers have not stopped for those who are suffering.
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:19 pm
The media should be punished for releasing this stuff and making him seem like a celebrity while at the same time disrespecting the families of the victims. It is horrible what the media does to the world we live in, creating more chaos, fear and anxiety than there really is. Yet we continue to feed off it and they print more. It is time for us to wake up as humans and see how these organizations are killing the world under the protection of free speech! I feel so bad that the families of the victims can’t turn on a computer, tv or open a newspaper without being reminded of the tragedy of their loved ones. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
April 19, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Hello Honest Joe…
Thanks for commenting and visiting my blog.
Well Joe you are right we live in a democratic commercial state.
When I saw the media…around the Nicole Anna Smith death and saga…I believe I called them blood sucking, vultures, who would sell the soul of their mother for ratings…well something like that…any who…it sells papers and news which means commercials and that is big bucks…look what the Super Bowl brings in per minute!
Now I know I might get some slack on this…but you know I can take it…most people want to know…they can moan all they want…they are right there in front of the TV or Internet checking it out.
That is why it sells! Not from people like me who don’t even have a TV. {I do love the computer though!}
By the way…FYI…I have not watched the video of Cho Sheung Hui.
Peace out…
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:24 pm
He sent his garbage to NBC because he knows that the putrid television news talking heads agree with his moronic opinion that being rich means you deserve to die. Even though they themselves are rich, they are also good liberal brainwashed nazis and fully believe themselves to deserve death for being white if not rich. He knew they would play his propaganda videos because he was merely mimicking their propaganda. NBC created this monster and they are trying to create another one by playing his propaganda video over and over. All the victims’ families should join together in a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT against NBC for wrongful death.
April 19, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Hello Stan,
Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting.
Wow, that is an interesting point. Because to me what I read makes him sound horrible, cold and insane…not a movie star at all.
I found him to be small and pitaful…not glamorous.
I guess it is all in your preception.
He was one step away from being a rabid dog…yet I know he was a tormented soul. And I will have to forgive him as I don’t think that the Cho Seung Hui his Mother raised was the same boy on the Campus of VTU doing horrific acts. That boy was lost a long time ago.
Peace and forgiveness,
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:40 pm
“I found him to be small and pitaful…not glamorous.”
He tried to look all touch in his photos, but he looks like a cheesy cartoon character. He looks like a sponge-bob square pants hiped up on NBC’s propaganda of hating crackers and justifying killing them. NBC owes every victims’ family 200 billion dollars per victim (or more).
April 19, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Dear JK…
I don’t know where you came from {VA} but please come back…
Now there is an opinion that I can sink my teeth into!
You are barking right up my tree.
[grins] I can see you typing this as you nash your teeth and hit that last key with a vengdence and your hand going up in the air.
I like your spunk, JK!
Thanks for visiting my blog and come back soon!
Smiles and world peace,
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Hello Carol…
Thank you for the visit and comment.
Well, it seems as thought there are pro’s and con’s to the media here.
I ran thru the media today…and there was very little good posted anywwhere!
Bad sells…good doesn’t…I didn’t see a single miricle in todays posts.
I love a happy ending…
Keep the faith…miricles are out there,
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 19, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Hello JK,
You know I ran pic’s of all the victims today. I am not a typist or computer person…plus I was at work…so it took me all day to do this…but one thing that I did notice was…it wasn’t about race, age or sex…it was random killing.
I think that his reality was what he showed on his pics and videos…I don’t know as I won’t watch them.
But I do think that this was the only time this young man had power. I think it was an issue for him.
And you are right the TV is a horrendous media.
My Father called it the “IDIOT TUBE” and we were only allowed to watch so much of it and forget Saturdays…cartoons weren’t allowed when he was around.
Thanks for coming back so soon…
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 20, 2007 at 12:42 am
NBC would never have played these videos if the shooter was black and that’s a fact.Virginia Tech and its Corps of Cadets have a long tradition of providing service to the military. Seven Medal of Honor recipients are alumni or former cadets at Virginia Tech, more honorees than any other institution of higher learning with the exception of sister senior military colleges Texas A&M and VMI (excluding the United States Military Academy and United States Naval Academy).But they made a rule not allowing students with permits from having a gun on campus.But think crazy people follow rules one person in the right spot could have stopped this whole senseless
tragedy.
April 20, 2007 at 12:04 am
It’s apparent that so many people who have sent their opinions regarding this tragedy are not thinking how the parents and the brothers and the sisters of these kids have been affected and how their lives will never be the same again. Perhaps before another comment is made by a person who just does not have the right to say anything at all & who could not know what it feels like to lose a child should take a step back and realize that until they know how truly horrible things can be they should keep their mouths closed. I’m positive if I was a parent of one of the kids in question, I would want to know every single detail of the incident which took the life of my child. I think the NBC news information shared with the public was the right thing to do. Everyone affected by this tragedy and everyone whose lives will change because of this has a right to know as much as they can. These were kids, somehow it will never be ok. I pray for their families peace.
April 20, 2007 at 12:16 am
Hey what are you thinking?
Don’t give the shooter any more credit than you have by plastering his name and video all over the news…Hello? That’s what he wanted you to do…The results = If a person wants attention ( on a national level) let’s copycat this incident, and it will happen… The more you play his crap on the TV, it hurts the victims families, and they have to relive the saddness and awful feelings again!
YOUR ENCOURAGING THIS! STOP IT, for now and forever! Don’t give mass murders hours of media time, that is what they wanted!
Prayers to all of the victims families and everyone in the school that has to live with this.
April 20, 2007 at 12:35 am
Hello hypnotist,
Thank you for coming to my blog and voicing your opinion.
I feel as though when something so horrendous happens such as this that people want to know why as it is some incomprehensible.
And there are the others who just like to see blood and gore.
Everyone has their own way of working this out. It has saddened the nation and what the ones effected by this are going thru is unmeasurable.
Please come back soon, I welcome your opinions.
Peace out…
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 20, 2007 at 12:45 am
Hello mulldo…
Thank you for visiting my site and leaving a comment.
I as well, would want to now everything. Perhpas not at this very mommnet but soon…as that would give me closure.
Prayers and thoughts for all in greif and sorrow.
World peace,
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
April 20, 2007 at 12:53 am
Hello azcruiser,
Thank you for visiting my site and leaving your heart felt comment.
HOWEVER…I do feel that NBC would have shown what they were sent reguardless of their skin color, religion or sex!
This is their business and it sells advertisers!
The same goes for the papers!
Peace out…
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
May 2, 2007 at 12:45 am
Peace people
We love you
August 6, 2007 at 12:14 am
This sure helped me HEAPS
August 6, 2007 at 12:51 am
This helped me out of those DARK PLACES.
October 10, 2007 at 12:57 pm
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