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'Troubled' Writings Of Campus Killer
Last Edited: Tuesday, 17 Apr 2007, 3:00 PM EDT
Created: Tuesday, 17 Apr 2007, 3:00 PM EDT
04/17/2007 --

The American campus killer produced creative writing which was so disturbed that he was referred to his university's counselling service.

Details are now beginning to emerge about Cho Seung-Hui, who is thought to have killed his girlfriend after she dumped him and then shot her resident assistant when he tried to intervene.

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman.

However, she spoke to a colleague who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."

"There was some concern about him," she said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."

The South Korean immigrant had been in the United States since 1992 and held a green card signifying his status as a legal permanent US resident, federal officials said.

The 23-year-old English major was born in South Korea but was brought up in suburban Washington DC.

He last renewed his green card in October 2003.

University officials said he lived in a dormitory on the Virginia Tech campus, not the one where the first shootings took place, but could shed no light on a motive for the shootings.

"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said a spokesman.

Students are logging onto websites where the Cho is believed to have written poetry to express his disappointment in love.

Speculation is rife in the US about what drove him to shoot two people and then, two hours later, kill 30 others before turning his gun on himself.

Sky News US correspondent Andrew Wilson said witnesses have reported how Cho twice looked through a window at the Norris Hall building at 9.22am to check who was inside.

This suggests he may have had other targets in mind before he broke in and opened fire.

Officials at Virginia Tech are anxiously defending their security and safety measures by saying it is impossible to defend against such extreme actions of a crazed gunman.

But questions remain about how the gunman was able to travel a quarter of a mile before killing again.