April 18, 2007
In Memoriam
We're continuing to update the list of 32 people killed in Monday's massacre, as those names are confirmed by the Associated Press. The Post has some touching profiles of some of the victims. Feel free to continue sharing your thoughts and memories with the DCist community here.
While we at DCist are heartbroken by these events, there is hope in the tremendous strength being shown by students and families, as well as stories of heroism among the victims. Our thoughts are with everyone in Blacksburg as well as the many members of the Virginia Tech community throughout the D.C. area.
* Jamie Bishop
* Nicole White
* Minal Panchal
* Matt Gwaltney
* Waleed Shaalan
* Julia Pryde
* Partahi Lumbantoruan
* Mike Pohle, 23, Flemington, N.J.
* Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, French Instructor
* Daniel O'Neil, 22, Lincoln, R.I.
* Lauren McCain, 20, Hampton, Va.
* Brian Bluhm, 25, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
* Rachael Elizabeth Hill, 18, Richmond, Va.
* Austin Cloyd, 18, Blacksburg, Va.
* Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, Bellefonte, Pa.
* Kevin Granata, 45, Toledo, Ohio, professor of engineering science and mechanics.
* Daniel Perez Cueva, 21, Woodbridge, Va.
* Ross Abdallah Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass.
* Mary Karen Read, 19, of Annandale, Va.
* Henry Lee, freshman, computer engineering major, from Roanoke, Va.
* Christopher James "Jamie" Bishop, 35, Foreign Languages Instructor
* Juan Ramon Ortiz, 26, graduate student in engineering from Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
* Jarrett Lee Lane, 22
* Leslie Sherman, sophomore History and International Studies major, attended high school in Fairfax County.
* Caitlin Hammaren, 19, Middletown, NY
* Maxine Turner, senior from Vienna, Va.
* Reema Samaha, freshman from Centreville, Va., graduate of Westfield High School in Chantilly.
* Emily Hilscher, freshman from Woodville, Va.
* Ryan Clark, senior with a triple major in psychology, biology and English. Clark was a resident advisor at West Ambler Johnston Hall.
* Prof. Liviu Librescu, Romanian Israeli who lived in the United States for several years, killed in Norris Hall.
* Dr. G.V. Loganathan, engineering professor who taught in Norris Hall
* Matthew La Porte, student from Dumont, NJ.
Photo by Flickr user llamanie.
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I'm still in shock over the events that transpired yesterday at my Alma Mater, Virginia Tech. In shock, of course, that such a tragic event could happen, but further shocked by the fact that this could happen there. In the five years that I attending Virginia Tech, I came to call the area home, and it was very difficult to leave and transition to life away from the tranquil campus nestled in the Blue Ridge upon graduations. This place just has that sort of affect on you. I've met only a handful of people who went to Virginia Tech who didn't fall under the spell of this place. It's for this reason that VT and those of us who have become associated it, either as students, parents of students, or just local residents, have such great respect for this place, and there is a tremendous sense of camaraderie. It IS a family. While I cannot even begin to fathom what the families of the victim's, the students that were witnesses and injured, and the greater student body must be dealing with today, my heart is truly hurting. I think that for all of us that have been touched by this place, this university, and this community, this is a very personal attack.
My prayers and thoughts of course extend to the families and friends of the fallen victims, and my prayers for health and healing extend to the injured. I also pray for the community, for the students, faculty, and staff. I worry that this will leave a scar on Virginia Tech. I'm sure that this tragedy will resound and come to mind whenever Virginia Tech is mentioned for some time into the future, much the way that Columbine does today. But Virginia Tech has so much to be proud of that I hope that this tragedy won't be allowed to sully the name of this fine university. It is a tragic event. We cannot and will not forget those that were affected by this event. But we also can't let this madman's actions further hurt this wonderful community.
According to the post the correct spelling of the 3rd name is G.V. Loganathan.
Emily Hilscher, a 19-year-old student from Rappahannock County...this was the initial victim from the dorm, an apparent ex-girlfriend of the shooter?
I go about my routine today with a heavy heart. The VT community is in my prayers.
Maxine Turner was the sorority sister or "big" to a close friend of mine. My heart goes out to the friends and family of all the victims.
Thank you for the candles, and the thoughts.
My Ph.D. is from Virginia Tech, and I spent five years in Blacksburg, most of that time in a building right next to Norris Hall. I met my partner of the last eight years there, an engineering student who had many classes in Norris and knew in passing several of the professors killed.
A terrible day. My thoughts are with all of those in Blacksburg, and their friends and families.
The original list of those who have died (still being updated) is here.
I am saddened by things like this but the people who express incredulity at the location of the tragedy.."all it takes is one brooding outcast, and the ease of access to guns" and voila. It's exactly because it was an otherwise "happy and healthy" environment that he tried to strike out and destroy it. It's not like 90% of the student body came in with guns one day and shot at HIM. He couldn't cope with a constructive society so he got a GUN to compensate for his inability to adjust to IT. We need gun registration reform in this country. One gun for your own protection maybe. But when the guy bought a second EVERY RED FLAG AT HOMELAND SECURITY SHOULD HAVE GONE OFF. "The problem dear Brutus is not in our stars (arab terrorists) but in ourselves." It is to easy for the Columbine and VTech shooters of this world to procure MULTIPLE assault weapons. We need reform.
"The problem dear Brutus is not in our stars (arab terrorists) (guns) but in ourselves."
Fixed that for ya.
Except that (again) guns weren't the problem here. If he had walked into a hardware store, bought a bag of fertilizer, then walked in a month later and bought another bag, nothing would have happened. And bags of fertilizer + pipes = bombs. And he could have just as easily walked from room to room throwing bombs in the doors. The problem we have is that many people need help and we want to put band-aids on the situation rather than solve deep-rooted social issues. Guns kill people like forks cause obesity.
But redline, he didn't buy fertilizer, nor build a bomb, did he? He used two guns...Hypotheticals don't change the fact that we need gun reform.
Also - just because he could have killed them with something else doesn't mean it should be as easy to buy a gun as it is to buy a pack of beer.
People drink and drive even with a law against it but we still keep the law - because it makes sense. Just because laws surrounding the purchase and use of a gun might not have stopped this kid, it doesn't mean they don't make sense to have. Guns serve one purpose - to kill. I'm not arguing we shouldn't have the right to own them, but that doesn't mean unstable individuals should find it so easy to get their hands on one. Or two in this case. There is a reason why our country sees so much gun violence compared to other industrialized nations. We need to start focusing on why that is and how to stop it.
While I agree with you all that it is disturbing that such an atrocity happened and that it is ashame that we let this boy get guns in his hands, the guns weren't the main issue here. He was disturbed, and we find out more and more as the days go by. If guns were outlawed it wouldn't have changed the fact that he did something-he just wouldn't have used guns. Agreed it should be harder for (apparently) clearly psychopathic people to get their hands on guns, but on the flip side, if we had one (hopefully) sane person in any one of those classes with a legal concealed weapon, the killing spree would have been over as quickly as it had begun. However, VTech is a gun-free zone and, right or wrong, it meant that he knew no one else would have a gun when he did.
Nikki Giovanni's tribute:
www.vt.edu/tragedy/giovanni_transcript.php
(video)
files.filefront.com/7268096
We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while.
We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly,
we are brave enough to bend to cry,
and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy.
We know we did nothing to deserve it,
but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS,
neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being
captured by the rogue army,
neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated
for ivory,
neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water,
neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in
his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over
by a boulder because the land was destabilized.
No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and
hands to those who offer their hearts and minds.
We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid.
We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be.
We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities.
We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and
through all our sadness.
We are the Hokies.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We will prevail.
We are Virginia Tech.