Second Male May Be Involved in VA Tech Massacre

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Source: ABC News

Right now, it's a breaking news header at http://abcnews.go.com/

POLICE SAY THERE MAY BE SOMEONE ELSE INVOLVED IN THE MASSACRE AT VA TECH, IN ADDITION TO THE DEAD SHOOTER

UPDATE

Campus police have identified a person of interest who is not currently in police custody. Police say the person of interest is a male who knew the female who was killed in the original double homicide at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory. Flinchum also said he is not a student and that he knew the female who was killed in the original double homicide.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3045574&page=1

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. It's hard to believe any story at this point. n/t

MKJ

[EVDebs]

2. You mean this guy ?

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/i_want_to_clear.html

[idgiehkt]

12. thanks for posting that

I guess Chiang is who they are referring to. The new Richard Jewell. Poor man, they'll use him til they get their legal bases covered I guess. Wonder if they have enough plaintiffs for a class action suit here...

[realisticphish]

3. at this point

i'm waiting a few days. too much media speculation

[brentspeak]

4. The authorities were talking about that possibility early in the day

but they eventually changed their mind. It sounds like ABC is crying wolf to get an exciting headline.

[DCKit]

5. As much as I'd like to say they blew it by not shutting down the campus and saving 29 kids

My 20/20 hindsight, with absolutely no solid information of what was going on there today, is just as lame as anyone else's.

I would hope, next time something like this happens in such a setting, classes are halted and the kids are asked to get someplace secure.

[napi21]

8. It's very easy to say what they did after the first shooting was wrong

AFTER you've heard all about what transpired 2 hours later. If all fairness, I believe they did what they believed to be the right thing with the info they had at the time. It looked and sounded like a domestic violence case, and MOST OF THE TIME, those situations involve two people or at the most three when it's one person jealous of a romantic relationship so the jealous party kills the other two and then themselves.

That's a hugh campus, and when I heard about over 100 buildings, 25,000 students, more than 10,000 employees, and an unknown number of visitors, I can't imagine it would have been possible to notify EVERYONE that campus was on lockdown within the two hours between the shootings.

Unfortunately, there have always been crazy people in the world, and there always will be!

[ObamaNationYes]

11. But if the Shooter from incident number 1 was not in custody,

IT was totally negligent not to lockdown. In addition, the first email to students alerted them that an incident has occurred but advised them to proceed with caution. You don't proceed at all if the shooter is not apprehended!

[idgiehkt]

13. exactly

and the shooter had already shot an unrelated party. They keep saying they had information leading them to believe he'd 'left campus'...but then when people ask them why they didn't notify students they talk about how it's a 'big campus'. It seems to me all the more reason to notify students if it's a great big campus and he may or may not have left, and it would take him a while to leave and they could be anywhere.

[mithnanthy]

15. Is it just me?

Besides the tech approach of informing the students of a threat on a campus that size....does anyone remember megaphones? Couldn't they immediately have driven thru the campus announcing the alert?

[DCKit]

20. But that would cause a panic! Besides, if they did that and nothing came of it....

They'd look like fools..... ohhhh, wait.

[JPZenger]

21. Campus had card security system but...

I heard that the campus buildings have a security system that can be set to require the use of cards to enter a building. The cards are not used during most of the day. Theoretically, they could have acitivated the system. However, the shooter was a student, and would have been able to get in most buildings, unless they knew to turn off his individual card. In any case, it might have been a matter of students getting shot standing outside a building to use their cards, instead of being shot inside a building.

[LostinVA]

16. Even if they locked down, I believe students still would have been killed

Just different kids.

[Bragi]

19. What about cities?

Personally, I see no reason why police would have suspected that the missing shooter in the first incident would proceed to kill more people two hours later. There is just no way to predict that.

And if you do think the campus should ahve been locked down after the first incident, then where exactly do you stop with this?

For example, if a gunman kills someone in Queens and then flees, should police lockdown the entire six boroughs because the shooter is still at large, and may turn into a mass murderer? If not, why not?

I think people are, as usual, looking for scapegoats to blame. If the massacre has any lessons to teach, it isn't about security provisions, it is more about dark problems deep within the soul of America.

- B

[MiniMe]

6. Remember when we had news and not speculation?

Is it really that hard to report what actually happened and what is known instead of what you think happened?

[jobycom]

7. Actually, no, I never remember a time like that.

I don't remember the UT shooting, but being here in Austin I've heard enough stories. They thought there was more than one shooter much of the time. I do remember a sniper in a New Orleans Howard Johnson's, that I watched live coverage of as a kid. They reported multiple shooters. Turned out the sniper was throwing firecrackers to make it seem like more than one person.

At Columbine there were early reports of even greater casualties, and of four shooters. Some of the JFK conspiracy theories are still fueled by statements made in the confusion of the moment. Same with the crash at Roswell. After Katrina there were reports of hundreds of bodies in trees in Hancock County and/or floating in Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell. After OKC reports were that Middle Eastern men had been seen fleeing the scene--that still gets worked into CTs, too.

That's the way it is. Now, even if it turns out there was only one shooter, someone will start a web page claiming there was a plot and someone covered it up.

[Demeter]

9. Where's the Fun in That?

You'd have to slog out to whatever godforsaken spot, ask everyone the same 5 questions, try to figure out who's lying, probably lay out good money for considerations (and no expense sheets anymore), and then put it into grammatical English so some dumb editor can shred it or can it.

There wasn't that much glory in it. It was hard work. That's why no one does it any more. Not even Woodward.

[AngryOldDem]

18. What gets me is...

...how some are trying to lay blame. Should have done this. Should have done that. There will be plenty of time for this. But not on the day of or the day after the tragedy.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[camero]

14. There was a 2 hr 15 minute time frame between shootings, correct?

It's plausible that there would only be one shooter.

[AngryOldDem]

17. Could it all be just a horrific, tragic coincidence? n/t