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BLACKSBURG, Virginia - The gunman who killed 32 people at a Virginia university in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history was a student of Asian origin who may have acted with a second suspect, the university's president said Tuesday.
"It appears that the second shooter was a resident in our dormitory ... it appears he was an on-campus resident," the president of Virginia Tech University Charles Steger said in an interview on ABC television.
Asked if he meant that there were two people involved in the killings, he said: "That's what we're trying to confirm ... The possibility exists."
The massacre on Monday ended when the unidentified gunman, described by some students as "Asian-looking," shot himself, bringing the final death toll to 33 and searing the name of Virginia Tech onto the tragic roll call of US school shootings that includes the likes of Columbine High.
Amid the shock and horrified reaction, there was criticism from some survivors of the college officials who failed to lock down the campus when gunfire first broke out.
There were two separate attacks, two hours apart.
The first inside a dormitory early Monday morning killed two people. After that a rampage took place in another building, killing 30 people and leaving bodies at several points in the building before shooting himself in the head. Up to 30 others were reported wounded.
Steger described the attacks as "two very tragic events" that "may or may not" be related. "We just don't know at this point in time," he said.
As gunshots and screams first rang across the campus, some panicked students leapt from windows and others feigned death to escape the shooter.
They described him as Asian, wearing a brown hiking shirt and black combat-style vest. Police said they had made a preliminary identification, but would not release the suspect's name.
The Chicago Sun Times daily cited an unnamed official source as saying that authorities were investigating whether he was a Chinese man who came to the United States in August, 2006 on a student visa.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in Beijing said China could not confirm the report. Steger could not confirm whether the student was from China.
Relatives and friends of the victims demanded to know why campus officials did not shut down the school after the initial shooting.
"There was a long lapse between the first incident and the second," said student John Reaves, 22.
Local television in this town 425 kilometres (264 miles) southwest of Washington said foreign exchange students had been among the dead and this caused a delay in the release of details while relatives were notified.
Campus police chief Wendell Flinchum said the first shooting had appeared to be "domestic in nature" so authorities did not feel it warranted an immediate lockdown of the sprawling engineering and research university which has some 26,000 students and 10,000 staff.
After the first killings, "we had information that led us to believe that the building was secure and that the person had left the building," Flinchum told reporters. "We acted on the best information we had at the time."
Flags were to hang at half-mast across the state of Virginia and more details of the crime were expected to emerge at a news conference at 9:00 am (1300 GMT). A memorial service and a candlelight vigil were also planned.
Student Erin Sheehan survived along with a handful of classmates in a 20-plus member German class. Students held the door shut against the gunman after he barged in twice and fired repeatedly, she said.
"He seemed very thorough about it, getting almost everyone down. I was trying to act dead," she said.
One of the victims was identified as Ryan Clark, a young man who was shot in the dormitory in the morning. A woman was also killed in that incident, but her name was not released.
Police broke into the building where the second shooting began but the firing stopped before they reached the scene of the killings, university president Charles Steger said.
CNN news citing a source close to the investigation said a .22-caliber handgun and a nine-millimeter handgun were recovered at the scene.
Lorraine and Jeff Watkins drove to Blacksburg to see their 19-year-old daughter Lauren, who lives in the dormitory where the first shooting took place. They expressed frustration that school officials did not lock down the entire university after the first incident.
"If someone has come into a campus and murdered two students in a dorm, there should be a mass filing informing students and staff of what is going on immediately," Lorraine Watkins said.
The shooting immediately renewed concern over school security and access to guns that was rekindled last year by a rash of shootings. The state of Virginia has some of the weakest gun licensing requirements in the country. – AFP/ir
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