Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Cho not tied to earlier bomb threats at Virginia Tech
By Amie Steele
The Collegiate Times (Virginia Tech)
08/10/2007

(U-WIRE) ROANOKE, Va. — The bomb threats on campus buildings on April 2 and April 13 were not from Seung-Hui Cho, Wendell Flinchum, chief of Virginia Tech Police, said in a press conference Friday.

The written notes did not match Cho's handwriting, Flinchum said.

Cho did however leave a handwritten bomb threat in Norris Hall the morning of April 16. The handwriting matched other writing samples from Cho, Flinchum said.

A faculty member found a piece of paper with a bomb threat taped to an interior door in Norris early that morning. The faculty member gave it to a janitor, and the paper was eventually found on a faculty member's desk later that afternoon, Flinchum said.

The normal protocol for a bomb threat on campus would be to call the police, but that call was not made, Flinchum said.

Four months into the investigation of the shootings on April 16, Virginia Tech and Virginia State Police are still going through hundreds of pieces of evidence from the crime scenes in West Ambler-Johnston Hall and Norris. The Virginia Tech Police is the lead agency investigating the WAJ shooting, while the Virginia State Police is investigating the Norris shooting with the aid of the Blacksburg Police and the FBI.

"We are investigating 32 homicides, a suicide and 23 attempted homicides," said Col. W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. Invesgiations of this nature "tend to take a long, long time and we simply can't put a deadline or a limit on the time it takes to do these investigations," Flaherty said.

It had originally been reported that there were 25 injuries as a result of the shootings in Norris. Two injuries are a result attempting to esacpe; the other 23 are a result of gunfire.

Through witness accounts and credit card receipts, investigators have found that Cho had been planning the shootings since early 2007, Flinchum said.

A witness reported they saw a suspicious looking male student with a hooded sweatshirt about 10 a.m. Saturday, April 14 in Norris. The hood was over the student's head, and Flaherty said that police are not sure that the male student was Cho.

Another student reported that a door in Norris had been chained shut that Saturday morning. It was unclear whether the door remained chained over the weekend and into Monday, Flinchum said.

Police are speculating that the student in the Norris on Saturday was Cho because the door was chained shut, Flaherty said.

Cho was seen by a witness outside of WAJ around 6:45 a.m. on April 16 and was let in the building by another student.

Emily Hilscher entered the building around 7 a.m. through a different door, Flinchum said. Hilscher was killed later that morning, along with Ryan Clark, in her room in WAJ.

Cho returned to his room in Harper Hall at 7:17 a.m. where he changed out of his jeans and tennis shoes and into a black t-shirt, cargo pants and Virginia Tech baseball hat. The jeans and tennis shoes had Clark's blood on them, and the shoes matched the shoe imprint found in WAJ, Flinchum said.

This was the first time police had officially linked Cho to the shootings in WAJ. Police are still unsure of the motive behind the WAJ shootings.

The 911 call from the shooting in WAJ was received at 7:20 a.m. At 7:25 a.m. Cho accessed his personal e-mail account and deleted several e-mails. Investigators are still looking for his computer hard drive to retrieve the e-mails. A witness said she saw an Asian male student throw a hard drive into the Duck Pond between 8 and 8:10 a.m. April 16. After draining the Duck Pond earlier this summer, investigators did not find any evidence, Flaherty said.

Police are also looking for his cell phone. Call records show that he did not make any calls from his cell phone the morning of April 16.

Witnesses have reported they saw Cho enter Norris between 9:15 and 9:30 a.m.

Police found Cho in the same clothing that witnesses had described with 203 live rounds of ammunition, two knives and a hammer, Flaherty said. He used 174 rounds in nine minutes. The words "Ax Ishmael" were written on red ink on his left arm.

The words "Ax Ishmael" was also listed as the name on the return label of the package Cho sent to NBC the morning of April 16.

In addition to the package sent to NBC, Cho also sent a letter to the English department at Virginia Tech. Flinchum said the letter was "incoherent" and had "rambling passages" of little help to the investigation. He also confirmed that the photos in the package sent to NBC were taken in a local motel.

Investigators are still searching for a motive, but do not have one clear theory at this time. Police suspect he chose Norris because Cho did have classes in there and the doors were allowed to be chained, Flaherty said.

There are 12 active investigators working on this case.

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