Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

At least two individuals were killed on Wednesday afternoon in a shooting at Virginia Tech University, which in April 2007 was the site of the deadliest single-man gun rampage in the United States’ history.

One victim, police officer Deriek Crouse (39) was shot at near-point-blank range by the gunman, who police said to have approached the officer as he was making a traffic stop in a campus parking lot. Officer Crouse was an Army veteran with five children, officials added.

Staff confirmed via the university website that shortly past noon gunshots were reported in a parking lot. “Stay Inside. Secure doors. Emergency personnel [are] responding. Call 911 for help,” the site warned at the time.

Further updates from the university noted that the suspect, described as a white male wearing gray sweat pants, gray hat with a neon green brim, a maroon hooded jacket and backpack was “at large.”

Officials confirmed early on that a police officer at the university had been shot dead. According to witness reports received by the police, the shooter fled on foot heading toward a parking lot and at that parking lot, a second person was found. “That person is also deceased,” the university confirmed in an update to its website.

University officials also said that that a weapon was recovered near the second body found in a parking lot on campus, although at the time it was not clear if the second body was that of the gunman.

Media reports of a conference call with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said “The evidence was strong that the gunman was the second dead man... It was unclear, however, whether his wound was self-inflicted.”

On the call Rick Jenkins of the Virginia State Police said, “We have recovered clothing items that would lead us to believe that he would be one and the same,” however adding, “We are not in a situation to say that definitively at this point.”

By 4:30 pm the university announced that Virginia Tech Police, in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, have determined that there is no longer an active threat or a need to secure in place. Resume normal activities.”

The event echoed the now-infamous shooting spree of Cho Seung-Hui, an English major at Virginia Tech, who on April 16, 2007 unleashed two separate attacks several hours apart and killed 32 people and wounded 25 others. He then turned the gun on himself.

Following that incident there was also criticism of slow reaction time of university authorities to reports of Cho’s killing spree underway. In Wednesday’s shooting, however, the university went into lockdown mode with minutes of the first reports of gunshots. Law enforcement officers, including a heavily-armed local SWAT team, were seen searching the campus for the shooter.

At a press conference held in the afternoon university authorities defended their response on this occasion saying, “Communication systems we have in place today did not exist in 2007.”

However according to reports the deaths came on the same day that Virginia Tech officials were appealing a fine levied upon them by authorities in Washington over the university’s response in 2007.

Coming in the wake of numerous other such shootings carried out by youth, including the Columbine massacre, the Virginia Tech killings of 2007 sparked off a round of nationwide soul-searching on gun control, particularly the question of firearm bans on college campuses.

The event also sent shockwaves abroad. The slaying of G.V. Loganathan, a Professor in the Virginia Tech Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering drew much attention to the case in India and, in particular, in Tamil Nadu.