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Subscribe to RSSVirginia Tech officials confirm a police officer was killed during a traffic stop on campus, the suspect then ran to a parking lot and killed another person. WSLS reports the shooter remains on the loose.
BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A Virginia Tech police officer was shot to death Thursday and a second person found dead on campus was believed to have killed him, NBC News reported.
The officer was shot during a traffic stop, Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski told NBC News.
Police said the shooter was not in the car that was pulled over.
A second person also was found shot to death, and law enforcement officials believe he killed the policeman, NBC News' Pete Williams reported.
Officials at 4:31 p.m. EST lifted a warning that everyone should seek shelter. Normal activities could resume, the alert said.
Earlier, witnesses reported to police the shooter fled on foot from the traffic stop toward the Cage, a parking lot near Duck Pond Drive. At that parking lot, the second person was found dead, Owczarski said.
The Virginia Tech alert posted on the school's website described the suspected shooter as a white male wearing gray sweat pants, a gray hat with a neon green brim and a maroon hoodie, and carrying a backpack.
The alert said the suspect was last seen walking toward McComas Hall, which is the main gym on campus, about two blocks from Lane Stadium.
The shooting came the same day as Virginia Tech was appealing a $55,000 fine by the U.S. Education Department in connection with the university's response to a 2007 rampage.
In the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, 33 people, including the mentally ill gunman, were killed on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007. The massacre in a classroom building began at 9:40 a.m. when Seung-Hui Cho chained the doors and killed dozens before committing suicide.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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FBI statistics show that in states with liberal concealed weapon permit laws, violent crime plummets. I certainly feel safer knowing that the person next to me at a restaurant is armed and able to thwart an armed thief. In fifty years of owning and carrying firearms, I have never had need to shoot anyone, but there's nothing better to have when that "thwart" thing happens. All first time firearm owners should be required to attend a safety class-involving actually firing a gun, as well as being checked through local law enforcement. ALL current gun laws should be strictly enforced. Too many criminals and violent gang members get off with just a hand slap. Lock them up! Read what Jefferson said about gun ownership.
Seems to me that being totally clueless about the exact character,mental state or fiream skills of that person sitting next to you, your statement is a bit illogical at best.
for you anti-gun nazi's...... if you had your way and they made it illegal to own guns you would live in constant fear, because every crimnal would have a gun and they would know you don't. if the government can't keep drugs from crossing the border or human beings how are they going to stop the illegal guns coming into america? they would be the biggest black market item out there. I swear you people are such idiots, the only way you are ever going to ever live in your anti-gun eutopia is if you move to the socialist country of your choice and I wish you would hurry up and move.
My daughter is in lockdown in the library right now. VT is a great school, in a great town. Yes, this has me panicked, but I'm also aware that campus crimes happen everywhere, all the time. It's just because VT is a well-known university that tragic news like this will spread like wildfire, branding the school negatively in the eyes of many. I have confidence that the school has employed top safety measures and pray for all on campus.
Guns, Guns Guns. Somebody suggested making bullets cost $5000....so, only the rich can kill:)
Blame the parents, the schools, the video games, the streets, the drug dealers (big and small ones), the law makers, before you blame the guns. Sometimes I wonder why we call ourselves a developed country,... because of a universal human collective effort that put us on the moon? because of our strong economy...we go around terrorizing other countries, to make them just unstable enough, so that their intellectual and material capital start flowing towards us?
"mentally ill gunman" This article is an example of ignorant journalism. Unlike depression and bipolar, there is no pill for sociopathy. A murderer is a sociopath, not a bipolar or depressed person. They could easily have diabetes or heart disease. They could be depressed. Irrespective of height, size, mood, or health condition, it's their sociopathy that drives them to steal, exploit, murder. Please stop discriminating through ignorance.
Rptng Viola - not all murderers are sociopaths...in fact, I'd bet that most aren't.
Criminals will always get arms. Hell most of them buy them off the street because they cannot legally purchase them. I will never give up my arms because if the criminals know that no law abiding citizen is armed boy are they going to have a field day!!!!! Life is tough but if it is him or me, then by all that is holy it is going to be him. I will protect myself, my family, and my home with the last breath I have. It is an American right to bear arms and they cannot take that away.
Criminals get guns through straw buyers, unregulated gun shows, breaking into the homes of gun owners lacking the sense to keep their weapons secure, sporting goods and hunting store , gun shops and yes even guns confiscated by the police headed for the smelter. Camden NJ is a city where crime has gotten so out of hand after a large number of police lay offs, that the Mayor wants to bring in the New Jersey National Guard to patrol the streets. Gun control works really well in New Jersey?
nononononnonoooo ive got friends at vt right now nooooooooooooo i hope they're ok D:
The Truth is that No one ever really thinks about what happened to the Person who commits the Tragedy, No one seems to care about what happens to People at all, maybe these people that you call "mentally ill" were pushed over the edge by stress, discouragement/ hate from others, having a vastly outcast view of the world, and so many other things that you people don't think about. If people actually cared about other people and things like the educational system were not such a pathetic joke (because the Irrelevance of Courses and ridiculous requirements are just insane) then maybe things like this wouldn't happen. But most people today seem to be just so blindly Content with letting the world be a miserable, hateful, suffering and Stagnant Place, and even when a Tragedy finally results from it, you still don't see that the world needs to change...
Actually in 2010 less than 9000 people in the US were murdered with firearms.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state
This in a country with 50,000 to 500,000 defensive gun uses per year.
All a No Gun law does is reassure the guy breaking the law that you are probably defenseless to him
I'm happy to see that all of you have everything figured out down to the last detail. Hell, now the cops won't have anything to do except twiddle their middle finger. Stop solving their problems for them. They get paid.
Perfect.
Here it comes again! All the libs and Dems and anti-2nd folks gonna be coming out of the woodwork with their "oh, no! no more guns! guns are bad!" Kinda like blaming spoons for people being fat.
It's not a "gun" issue it's a "people feeling hopeless" issue!
I am a staunch advocate of guns being allowed on school grounds for this exact reason. I also believe that if people want to own a firearm, they need to demonstrate they know how to use it before receiving any firearms. That way, when this garbage does happen, the person who happens to be carrying a legal weapon can make their mark if some crazy person goes on a rampage.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. It's that simple.
prayers going out to the Hokie nation
It is human nature to invent better ways to do everything. From stone club to nuclear bombs, it is an absolute. To argue against progress of any kind is futile, and therefore useless. Once we have this technology it cannot be uninvented. We have technology that we could easily install on all guns that would prevent firing them by anyone but the legal owner. A law forcing all gun companies to only manufacture guns with this technology would virtually eliminate murder by gun within five years. Only someone attempting suicide would kill using a gun ONLY he could fire. In a free country their should NEVER be a law restricting it's citizens from arming themselves. It will always be our responsablity to fix a simple problem like this one. Join me in a prayer for the souls at VT.
That person is NEVER going to get out of jail
And all you liberals blaming republicans and capitalism... please share with us how taking away legally owned firearms would improve anything .... if you did that then the ONLY people to have guns would be criminals ..Do you think someone that commits this kind of act walks into a pawn shop and says "Why good afternoon kind sir, may I purchase a firearm?" then gets turned down and just forgets about it? NO! If they are crazy enough to do this then they will go to whatever lengths necessary you moron.
Yes. Just look at the recent riots in England. Law-abiding and non-gun-owning English cowering in their homes, and many homes being invaded, because of the armed (with various things) lawless rioters the police were even afraid to confront.
Thr comin to take r guns!!!
Do an experiment all you anti-gun folks. Put a loaded gun on a shelf out of everyone's reach, out of the weather, and in a climate controlled room and see how many people it kills. Take careful observations over the years...it WILL take YEARS! Publish your findings and numbers of deaths due to gun violence.
Then start the second portion of your study. Take that same loaded weapon down from the shelf and let a mentally unstable, or suicidal, or criminal, or reckless/careless person get ahold of that very same weapon, and see how long it takes them to alter your study.
It's NOT the weapon! It's people! Take firearms away and they'll use their kitchen knife. Gonna take that next? Ok. Steak knife, now that has to go. Next, the car. When will it stop? Your way of thinking is flawed in that you feel "objects" need to be removed so crimes can't be committed. Sorry! Hate to break it to you! Your fellow man isn't as nice as you'd like for him to be. Criminals aren't punished harshly enough for their crimes so there is no fear of consequences.
"Someone goes crazy and shoots people and they blame the guns not the person. If the person would have used a baseball bat would they be trying to ban baseball ? " How many, of the 29,000 murders, were by baseball bat pummeling?
I just want to point out that the constitution says: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
You can't just shorten it to "the right to bear arms" because the text is so much more than that. By the way -- I think people should be able to carry guns... but lets just understand that it isn't a RIGHT. In fact, the text says bear arms, not guns... so there are lots of ways to interpret.
I say open a gun shop right next to the bookstore at VT. It seems that a weapon to protect yourself is as much of a necessity on that campus as books or a calculator.
Mikey:
Purdy sur' the cop had a gun...what good di it do 'em?
Wow! Another wacko who was able to purchase a gun. This rarely happens in America. I'm surprised. Apparently these tragic deaths are acceptable to Americans.
Quote: dongwork4yuda yeah and if everyojne had guns common sense says more people will die by guns.. People get angry and react to that anger, and if people have guns they will use them when they act more so.In anger one needs to walk away and cool down, arm everyone and it will become shoot 1st cool down later. Guns kill people, because if people didn't have guns nobody would be getting shot...this mindset horrifies me. Unquote
Its the human behind the gun. In Japan they have fewer guns...sooo...they use swords to attack and kill people. If it wasnt a sword it would be a baseball bat. Etc. A TV character once responded to the "guns kill people" argument with "Would it make you feel anybetter if I pushed them out the window. They would be just as dead" Enforce the laws we already have. Dont let criminals out of jail because its to crowded. Too crowded! Tough!