BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A gunman killed a police officer in a Virginia Tech parking lot Thursday and was found dead nearby in a baffling attack that sent shudders through the campus nearly five years after it was the scene of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history.
The shooting took place on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a government fine over their alleged mishandling of the 2007 bloodbath.
What an eerie coincidence -- if it was that.
Before it became clear that the gunman in Thursday’s attack was dead, the school applied the lessons learned during the last tragedy, locking down the campus and using a high-tech alert system to warn students and faculty members to stay indoors.
A law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the gunman was dead, but wouldn’t say how.
It appeared the gunman died about a quarter-mile away from the traffic stop, in another school parking lot, where officials said a man was found dead with a gun nearby. While police at a news conference wouldn’t confirm the second body was the gunman, Carpentieri said ‘‘you can kind of read between the lines.’’
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Sudents were preparing for exams were suddenly told to hunker down. Heavily armed officers walked around campus as caravans of SWAT vehicles and other police cars with emergency lights flashing patrolled nearby.
“A lot of people, especially toward the beginning were scared,’’ said Jared Brumfield, a 19-year-old freshman from Culpeper, Va., who was locked in the Squires Student Center since around 1:30 p.m.
The university sent updates about every 30 minutes, regardless of whether they had any new information, school spokesman Mark Owczarski said.
‘‘It’s crazy that someone would go and do something like that with all the stuff that happened in 2007,’’ said Corey Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore from Mechanicsville, Va., who was headed to a dining hall near the site of one of the shootings....
Campus was quieter than usual because classes ended Wednesday and students were preparing for exams, which were to begin Friday. The school postponed those tests.
The shooting came soon after the conclusion of a hearing where Virginia Tech was appealing a $55,000 fine by the U.S. Education Department in connection with the university’s response to the 2007 rampage.
The department said the school violated the law by waiting more than two hours after two students were shot to death in their dorm before sending an email warning. By then, student gunman Seung-Hui Cho was chaining the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more people and then himself.
The department said the email was too vague because it mentioned only a ‘‘shooting incident,’’ not the deaths. During testimony Thursday, the university’s police chief, Wendell Flinchum, said there were no immediate signs in the dorm to indicate a threat to the campus. He said the shootings were believed to be an isolated domestic incident and that the shooter had fled.
An administrative judge ended the hearing by asking each side to submit a brief by the end of January. It is unclear when he will rule.
Since the massacre, the school expanded its emergency notification systems. Alerts now go out by electronic message boards in classrooms, by text messages and other methods. Other colleges and universities have put in place similar systems....
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Related: Va. Tech shooter was not student at school
Why the WALL, Globe?!
Va. Tech gunman called quiet
Va. Tech gunman called quiet; went to small school
Friends: Va. Tech gunman never hinted at violence
And why the rewrites(??)!
Could we have another Manchurian candidate or bluebird sighting here with the corporate media covering it up again?
Also see: 2007 massacre colors reactions to Virginia Tech killing
