Cho Called NBC During VA Tech Massacre

Things are moving fast.

Rambling communication, video being examined by FBI, network says

Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building Monday morning, Cho Seung-Hui sent NBC News a rambling communication and videos about his grievances, the network said Wednesday.

Cho, 23, a senior English major at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, killed 32 people in two attacks Monday before taking his own life.

Network officials turned the material over to the FBI and said they would not immediately disclose its contents beyond characterizing the material as “disturbing.” It included a written communication, photographs and video.

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” said in a posting on the program’s “Daily Nightly” blog that the communication was received earlier Wednesday. He described it as a very long “multimedia manifesto.”
The package, timestamped in the two-hour window between Monday's shootings, was sent to NBC News head Steve Capus.It contained digital photos of the gunman holding weapons and a manifesto that "rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even," The Associated Press quoted an unidentified New York law enforcement official familiar with the case as saying. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about it. Police said the development might be "a very new, critical component of this investigation.""We're in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth," said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police.

As early as 2005, police and school administrators were wrestling with what to do with Cho, who was accused of stalking two female students and was sent to a mental health facility after police obtained a temporary detention order.

I wondered Tuesday why he was still in school, let alone not facing charges.

Setting fires?

Stalking women?

And he's allowed to remain there? I guess maybe we didn't want to offend the poor guy.

Based on his writing, I figure whatever Cho sent will be a psychotic rant.

Maybe he'll blame global warming.

UPDATE: More at Michelle Malkin.

Virginia Tech Killer ID'd

The Virginia Tech killer has been identified as Seung Hui Cho, a Korean national. See Hot Air for the latest via ABC News.

Seung Hui Cho, a permanent resident of the United States, a Korean national and a Virginia Tech student has been identified as the gunman in the shootings that left 33 people dead on the Virginia Tech campus Monday, ABC News has learned.

The student left a "disturbing note" before killing two people in a dorm room, returning to his own room to re-arm and entering a classroom building on the other side of campus to continue his rampage, sources said.

Cho's identitiy has been confirmed with a positive fingerprint match on the guns used in the rampage and with immigration materials. It is believed that he was the shooter in both incidents yesterday. Sources say Cho was carrying a backpack that contained receipts for a March purchase of a Glock 9 mm pistol, sources said. Witnesses had also told authorities that the shooter was carrying a backpack. Sections of chain similar to those used to lock the main doors at Norris Hall, the site of the second shooting that left 31 dead, were found inside a Virginia Tech dormitory, sources confirmed to ABC News.

Reaction from all over this morning and throughout the overnight hours.

At the Washington Times, Stacy McCain has an update from his original post yesterday with plenty of blog reactions.

Meanwhile, sorting out the facts of the frenzied events will take time, but accounts of heroism amidst the tragedy are surfacing.

One of the victims has been identified as a Professor from Israel.

Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.

Read the rest.

American Spectator has A Disarmed Campus.

Read the New York Post editorial, which harshly criticizes the administration at Virginia Tech.

AJ Strata has The Tech Massacre and Iraq.

Other reaction at Riehl World View, Michelle Malkin, Stuck on Stupid, Tel-Chai Nation, Wizbang!, Memeorandum, A Blog For All.

VA Tech Gunman on Student Visa From China

See here.

Authorities were investigating whether the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history was a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa.

The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai, the source said. Investigators have not linked him to any terrorist groups, the source said.

Police believe three bomb threats on the campus last week may have been attempts by the man to test the campus’ security response, the source said.

The exits to the buildings where the shootings occurred were chained by the shooter, the source said.

UPDATE: Great piece on media bias from Robert Stacy McCain.

For some, the criminal evil this morning at Virginia Tech was the death of a family member, a friend, or a neighbor. For others, it was a shocking reminder of the brutal cruelty that can lurk hidden in the hearts of men.

For Brian Ross of ABC News, however, the Blacksburg massacre was an opportunity to promote irrelevant propaganda about the expiration of the so-called “assault weapons” ban:

Read the rest.