Thread: VTU Shooter thought to be Chinese here on Student Visa

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55220


Shanghai student eyed in Virginia Tech probe
Officials investigating slaughter of 32 say man arrived in August from China
Posted: April 16, 2007
1:38 p.m. Eastern


© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Virginia Tech campus

Authorities investigating the killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech today, the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history, are targeting a Chinese man who arrived in the U.S. last year on a student visa, a source told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Investigators have not linked the 24-year-old to any terrorist group, the paper said.

The man, with a visa issued in Shanghai, arrived Aug. 7 in San Francisco on United Airlines. Three reported bomb threats on the campus last week might have been attempts by him to test the campus' security response, the source told the Sun-Times.

The gunman found dead today by authorities from apparently self-inflicted wounds was described by an injured student to MSNBC as a college-aged Asian with a maroon hat and black leather jacket.

Officials said at a news conference this afternoon there were two separate shooting incidents on the Virginia campus, hours apart, but it is still unclear whether they were related. The first 9/11 call came at 7:15 a.m. from a residence hall where two people reportedly had been shot.

(Story continues below)

It took authorities more than two hours to notify the campus, by e-mail, of the first incident.

Asked by reporters to explain, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said initial information led officials to believe it was an isolated event and that the shooter had fled the campus. Only the residence hall, West Ambler Johnston, was locked down, he said.

University President Charles Steger defended his handling of the tragedy, saying he and other officials "had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur."

"We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time," he said. "You don't have hours to reflect on it."

Steger said it was difficult to inform everyone on campus, with about 11,000 people arriving in the morning.

A gunman was found dead at the scene of the second shooting, at Norris Hall, an engineering school building.

Two were killed at West Ambler Johnston and 31 died at Norris Hall, including the shooter.

Flinchum told reporters, however, he did not know the identity of the gunman, who had no ID with him. Later, ABC News reported authorities were having difficulty identifying the shooter because he shot himself in the face.

Earlier, Steger said the grieving campus was quickly organizing a convocation of faculty, staff and students.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," he said. "The university is shocked and horrified that this would befall our campus. ... I cannot begin to convey my own personal sense of loss over this senseless of such an incomprehensible and heinous act."

The deadliest U.S. campus shooting, until today, took place at the University of Texas in 1966 when 16 people were killed by Charles Whitman, who opened fire from a clock tower. In 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students at Columbine High School near Denver.

But today's shooting is the deadliest mass shooting of any kind in U.S. history, a prominent criminologist told the Roanoke Times.

James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston said the death toll, which stands at 33, surpasses the 22 people killed in 1991 when a gunman opened fire at a cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.

Officials at Virginia Tech said the second incident took place about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering school building.

ABC News reported students and an employee say the first e-mail warning they got from the university came at 9:26 a.m. By that time, the gunman had struck again.

Another ABC News report said there were two separate bomb threats in the past two weeks at Virginia Tech that targeted engineering buildings.

The first was in early April and the second at the end of last week, which prompted evacuation of students and staff. The university had offered a $5,000 reward for information.

The 2,600-acre campus in Blacksburg, in the western part of the state near West Virginia and Tennessee, has more than 28,000 full-time students.

Virginia Tech student Blake Harrison witnessed the chaos while on his way to a class near Norris Hall.

"This teacher comes flying out of Norris, he's bleeding from his arm or his shoulder ... all these students were coming out of Norris trying to take shelter in Randolph [Hall]. All these kids were freaked out," Harrison said, according to Fox News.

The students and faculty were barricading themselves in their classrooms.

The shooter was "wearing a vest covered in clips was just unloading on their door, going from classroom to classroom ... they said it never seemed like it was going to stop and there was just blood all over," Harrison said.

The shooter had two handguns and several clips of ammunition, according to NBC News. Flinchum confirmed an earlier report that the shooter chained the doors of a classroom to make it almost impossible for the students to escape.

University officials closed the campus at least for today and tomorrow and directed families and students to meet at the Inn at Virginia Tech.

Last August, classes were canceled on the opening day at Virginia Tech when an escaped gunman, William Morva, allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the campus area.

President Bush said he was "horrified" after hearing news of the shootings, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

"It is difficult to comprehend senseless violence on this scale," said Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine in a statement. "Our prayers are with the families and friends of these victims, and members of the extended Virginia Tech community."

I attended Virginia Tech, and the school and Blacksburg are simply a wonderful place to be. However, I did notice there were more foreign grad students than Americans and the proportion appeared to be Indian/Chinese/Caucasian-American (and unfortunately very few blacks despite the name of the city). I am post-grad, but I've been told by others it's getting impossible to find a grad spot open that hasn't been scooped up by a foreigner. I'm not buying it that there aren't enough qualified Americans. Remember too that this is a publicly funded university. Why are we spending so much money bringing in foreigners? Many professors told me we should make sure to give them jobs and make them citizens so we don't lose the skills they learned here. I can't find a job anywhere and I have physics and engineering degrees! I do however, meet a lot of H1Bs who have great jobs, and less education. Maybe some good will come out of this tragedy. Maybe these kids didn't die in vain and America will wake up to the dangers of foreign invaders, whether legal or not, whether educated or not. It's eating our society right through the middle and working its way up and down. Maybe we won't have to say goodbye to the middle class because people are outraged by this. I hope some flowers grow out of this BS.

Hi sofedup.

I made a rather long reply to another one of your posts - this one over here:

http://www.alipac.us/modules.php?name=F ... ht=#335218

Anyway, again, welcome aboard!

OK, let me ask the obvious and possibly naive question:

How did a non-citizen on a student visa purchase a firearm?

(Yes, I think I know the answer - but I'm going to ask the question just to cover the obvious) And... let us hope the irresponsible lawbreakers that facilitated this transfer 'have the book thrown at them' too.

Sofedup,

You're absolutely 100% correct when you say there are more international grad students than black & hispanic combined. My daughter had a TA for one class a couple of years ago that she couldn't understand. How do students learn if they can't understand the instructor?

Good luck with your job search.

No Chinese students found among victims in Va. Tech shootings

BLACKSBURG, United States, April 16 (Xinhua) -- No Chinese students have been found among the dozens of victims in Monday's shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), in the eastern U.S. state of Virginia.

Ray Wang, a board member of the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars (ACSS) at Virginia Tech, told Xinhua that he was not at the scene of the shootings, but he had contacted quite a number of Chinese students and had so far got no word that Chinese students were injured or killed in the incident.

A total of 33 people, including the gunman, were killed in the shooting incident in Virginia Tech on Monday morning.

A man first opened fire at a dormitory room, killing two persons - a male and a female and injuring several others. About two hours later, a gunman shot at an academic building some 800 meters away from the dormitory, killing 30 people before shooting himself to death, university officials said.

University police chief Wendell Flinchum refused to disclose the identity of the suspected gunman and the victims, and said that police were still trying to determine whether the two shooting incidents were linked.

The first shooting incident seemed to be domestic, officials said.

The rampage at Virginia Tech was the deadliest in campus shootings in U.S. history.

Founded in 1872, the state university has more than 25,000 full-time students, including 400 to 500 Chinese students, said Wang, a doctorate candidate of material science and engineering.


http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007- ... 986983.htm

Thanks PhredE and had_enuf and all,

I see now that sometimes I'm just repeating what is painfully obvious to everyone in this forum. Specifically because I attended Virginia Tech I did want to point out that I observed what I felt like was way too many foreigners in graduate positions. This was true on other campuses as well. There is a poster here h1b who likes to brag about his high salary. I have more education, I guarantee it, and I'm not the only American wondering why it's completely "who you know" when looking for employment. Employment based on merit alone has simply been given away or run through an h1b "pipeline" of referral. If he thinks it makes me feel better that he is not exploited for a lower wage (which may or may not true) because he makes a great salary and pays taxes then I can only thank him because I'm applying for food stamps in the next month and I can't thank him enough for his "contribution" because we all know I never could have been a productive, happy member of society with only physics and engineering degrees and published research papers. Yet I keep meeting foreigners who have my dream job. In fact, here in San Jose, they are planning a condo near me just to accommodate a massive influx of H1Bs. Thanks for letting me vent. Some people just don't get it.

sofedup : I'm sorry I did not mean to brag about my high pay. Infact, people were accusing me of being cheap labor. I pray sincerely that you get your dream job. I'm so impressed that you have both Physics and Engineering degrees. Good Luck to you!!

Sofedup, you have physics and engineering degrees? Shoot me a PM and let me know what your qualifications are. I can't guarantee anything, but I may be able to hook you up, depending on the salary you are looking for and the dues you are willing to pay.

We don't hire H1Bs.

Originally Posted by h1b

sofedup : I'm sorry I did not mean to brag about my high pay. Infact, people were accusing me of being cheap labor. I pray sincerely that you get your dream job. I'm so impressed that you have both Physics and Engineering degrees. Good Luck to you!!

No one is ACCUSING you of anything except, perhaps, not understanding the corporate market. What we are doing is attempting to explain to you what is happening in our nation concerning the Visa programs.

Doesn't it seem ODD to you that Sofedup, with degrees in Physics & Engineering might not be as marketable as one would think? That alone should make you begin thinking on a deeper level.

H, you still haven't been able to absorb what happens to the salaries of our workers, whether they are Visa holders or Americans.

When the market gets flooded in a wave of CHEAP LABOR, tech or otherwise, the higher paid workers begin to suffer.

Let us hope that we can stop this massive influx BEFORE you experience the process.

Your wages, H, are lower than they should be and have been.
Don't you understand? Our workers in your position were much better paid than you are. You are considered, by the corporations, to be 3rd world cheap labor. That is the reason why you received your Visa.
This is not said to be insulting but to explain the facts to you.

There is another wave waiting to take your place. There is what we call a "ceiling" above you now. What an American worker is facing now, you will face in the future.