Tech archives differ from official state report
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Tech archives differ from official state report...
VT records show buildings on campus were locked before the campuswide alert was issued.Published: February 3, 2009
Updated: February 3, 2009
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Part 1 - More sites locked down before Tech alert
April 16th, 2007 is a day that won’t be forgotten.
And while we all know what happened on the campus of Virginia Tech, where 32 people lost their lives, we’re learning more thanks to the archive of documents released back in December to the victims families.
The documents, which are made up of e-mails and notes, were released as part of the settlement agreement with the state.
Our newspaper partner, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, was able to access the documents.
The university is voluntarily releasing the documents to the public later this month, according to Spokesman Larry Hincker. It has not given an exact date.
The database will only be available at the Library of Virginia in Richmond, and at Tech’s library at first.
It will eventually be more easily accessed, but no word on how long that will take
While we’ve reported before that many in the university community were concerned about Seung-Hui Cho’s behavoir, the various e-mails and notes paint a clearer picture of what went on leading up to the shootings.
A note from Lucinda Roy, the head of the English department, updates another school leader in November of 2005, after Cho was pulled from an english class for disturbing writing and put into an independent study.
Roy writes it has, “gone reasonably well, though all of his submissions so far have been about shooting or harming people.“
You can still see the anger in Cho’s writing in the spring of 2007 when he wrote in an essay, “I will personally go over to your house and hurt you. I mean it. I’m not kidding.“
The archives of Tech records and briefings by police and Tech officials reveal a different timeline of April 16th than what was disclosed in the official state report.
They show top university leaders took actions to protect themselves well *before* they issued the initial campus-wide alert.
According to the records, at 7:15 a.m., Seung-Hui Cho first took the life of Ryan Clark, then fatally wounded Emily Hilscher.
Just 15 minutes later, word of the Clark’s death reached vice president Edward Spencer and Student Affairs vice president Zenobia Hikes.
The official report mentions nothing of school leaders knowing of the shooting by that time.
At about 8:00 a.m., the Center for Professional and Continuing Education is locked down. That’s also omitted from the official report.
At 8:25 a.m., the bursar’s office relayed word from tech police that all pickup’s of bank deposits were suspended.
Around that same time, the ‘policy group’ of top university leaders gathered at Burruss Hall to decide what to tell the campus and when.
As they met, the government relations Executive Director, Ralph Byers, e-mailed a Virginia Tech lobbyist in Richmond saying quote, “gunman on loose”. He added that one student was dead, but asked her not to tell anyone.
Just minutes later at 8:49 a.m., Byers e-mailed the lobbyist a second time saying, “Just try to be sure it doesn’t get out until we have more information.“
Then, at 8:52 a.m., he e-mailed an administrative assitant in the president’s office to quote “lock the doors”.
At 9:00 a.m., the Maryland-Virginia Veterinary college is locked down.
Five minutes later, police stop trash collection on part of the campus.
One minute later, an assistant vice president asked the counseling center staff to keep news of the first shootings confidential.
At 9:25 a.m., the environmental health and safety office is locked down.
School leaders notes show that around that same time, a Virginia Tech police captain told them a lockdown wasn’t necessary.
At 9:26 a.m., 34 minutes after Byers ordered the doors of university president’s office locked, the first campus wide alert went out. It did not say anyone was dead or anything about a gunman.
At 9:50 a.m., a second e-mail was issued ordering a lockdown.
One minute later, Cho turned the gun on himself, ending the nation’s worst mass shooting.
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