• Mass traumas ripple across towns — and time

    The massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School shook everyone in Newtown, Conn., including the first responders, who will be undergoing counseling. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    A serial tragedy — like Friday's mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children dead — is like “a big rock thrown in a pond,” grief experts say, casting emotional ringlets that drench those closest to the bloodshed in life-changing despair and bathe entire communities and even distant observers in sorrow.

    "What happens after that rock lands in the pond? The waves circulate out from ground zero. There are the victims. And these (at Sandy Hook Elementary School) are babies, so unbelievably sad,” said Dr. Jeff Dolgan, chief psychologist at Children's Hospital in Denver. “Some people are not even directly touched by the trauma but are in fact traumatized — think about the other kids at the school, the administrators at the school, the first responders, the caregivers. Then the waves radiate out from the school into the community."

    Those ripples may initially unite a town in candlelight and song then splinter it into a torrent of blame and lawsuits, as happened after the Columbine High School shootings in 1999 that killed 12 students and one teacher and injured 24 others.

    "At Columbine, the impact was very widely felt. I talked to the people who were dealing with the fatalities at the hospitals. They had caregiver trauma. They did everything they could with the influx of severely injured but felt inadequate to the task,” he added.

    After the Columbine massacre, Dolgan and his colleagues aligned with mental health experts in Jefferson County, Colo., launching a hotline where local parents could call for advice on soothing their own kids' anxieties. On Friday, Dolgan urged the parents in Newtown to similarly band together.

    “This is a neighborhood elementary school and the parents there hopefully are tight-knit. Once you have the care done, I hope the parents are supportive of one another and work with one another,” Dolgan said. “I hope parents team up and, in time, do get-togethers.”

    Dolgan witnessed firsthand how some Columbine families looked initially to condemn and penalize neighboring families and local law enforcement officers for the deaths in their school. The families of more than 30 Columbine victims sued the parents of the two killers, also Columbine students, eventually settling for $2.53 million. The families of 17 Columbine victims also sued the Jefferson County sheriff’s department; one of those victims settled in 2004 for $117,500.

    President Obama addressed the nation in an emotionally charged speech Friday, wiping away tears as he expressed sympathy for the families of the victims killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

    Many of the Columbine families, Dolgan agreed, were likely seeking outlets to vent their anger at the tragic event, and at the murders.

    “But who are you going to blame? The first responders? No. (Columbine principal Frank) DeAngelis? No. The school security? No,” Dolgan said. “In time, there was more healing and the parents came together. But initially, no, there were some fractious qualities.”

    While heartache and fury may engulf a town after a mass killing, such serial traumas psychologically damage those closest to the suffering on a far deeper level than they do people who were merely in the vicinity, who were, perhaps, close enough to hear the gunfire but not see the deaths, science has found. 

    Among 1,000 students who were on campus at Dawson College in Montreal in 2006 when a man shot and wounded 19 people, killing one, about one-third were found to be dealing with some form of mental illness within 18 months of that tragedy, according to a paper published in 2009. 

    “The most common form was clinical depression – which affected 12 percent or 1 in 8. That is about three times higher than would be expected in a normal population,” said Dr. Warren Steiner, head of the department of psychiatry at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, and one of the paper's authors.

    “The next highest was substance abuse — drug or alcohol — which affected about 10 percent, people who were self-treating their own anxieties. That’s about three times higher than you would see in the normal population,” Steiner said.

    The precise proximity of the survivors to the violence that day directly affected their mental health later, the research team learned. They divided the 1,000 students into four groups based on their “level of exposure.” Those who had witnessed the shootings received the “highest” exposure score, followed by those who only heard gunfire, followed by those who locked themselves into classrooms without knowing if they were next, followed by those who were on campus but unaware of the attacks.

    Slideshow: Connecticut school massacre

    Michelle Mcloughlin / Reuters

    The second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history sent crying children spilling into the school parking lot as frightened parents waited for word on their loved ones.

    Launch slideshow

    “There was a direct correlation between the level of exposure to the shootings and the development of mental illness. It’s common sense, but it had never been proven before,” Steiner said.

    For those who viewed the killings, or who had held a wounded classmate in their arms, post-traumatic stress disorder was the most commonly diagnosed illness, followed by depression and then alcohol dependency. 

    But while the mass traumas at Columbine and Dawson College soaked each community in immediate anguish -- and, eventually, imbued those closest to the gunfire with psychological turmoil -- they continue to resonate in the Denver area and in Montreal, the psychologists said.

    Memories of each are rekindled after the news of other serial shootings, including the 32 people who were shot and killed at Virginia Tech in 2007, the 13 people who were shot and killed at Fort Hood in 2009, and the 70 moviegoers who were shot — 12 fatally — in Aurora, Colo. on July 20.

    “You hear about another one, and there’s the reflex of anxiety,” Steiner said. “I guarantee everyone who was at Dawson will hear the news this evening and they will have flashbacks and disturbing memories, PTSD-like symptoms from what happened to them.

    “It goes on for a generation, no doubt about that,” Steiner said.

    Dolgan agreed that the shelf-life of a local mass tragedy sticks with a community for several decades, and isn't simply shaken by the passing of time.

    “No, no,” Dolgan said. “This is very long-lived.”

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  • Jury says Virginia Tech negligent for delays in warnings about 2007 shootings

    By NBC News and msnbc.com news services

    Slideshow: Virginia Tech shooting

    Alan Kim / The Roanoke Times

    View the anxious aftermath of the campus shooting and how students began to deal with their shock and grief.

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    Updated at 4:40 p.m. ET: CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. – A jury found Virginia Tech negligent Wednesday for delaying warnings in response to the first shootings in the 2007 massacre that left 33 dead on the campus.

    Jurors returned the verdict in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Jurors deliberated for 3 ½ hours.

    The families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde, each awarded $4 million, said the two might be alive today if Virginia Tech police and administrators warned the campus of two shootings in a dorm 2 ½ hours before Seung-Hui Cho ended his killing spree, then killed himself.


    The state immediately filed a motion to reduce the award. State law requires the award to be capped at $100,000, but jurors weren't told of the cap.

    Attorneys for the state have countered that there was no way to anticipate the man who committed those first two shootings April 16 in a dormitory would carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Police had initially concluded the first shootings were isolated. Both shooting victims later died.

    Jurors were charged with deciding whether Tech police and administrators could have reasonably foreseen a danger to the campus after the dorm shootings. Thirty more killings followed hours later at Norris Hall, a classroom building.

    "The university's contention has been all along, to quote president [Charles] Steger 'We did everything we could do,"' said Robert T. Hall, an attorney for the parents. "Obviously the jury didn't buy that."

    The verdict was met immediately by sobs from Peterson's mother, Celeste, while the Prydes didn't show much emotion.

    Matt Gentry / AP

    Defense attorneys Peter Messitt, right, and William "Bill" Broaddus, left, hold a map of the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall on the Virginia Tech campus in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Christiansburg, Va. on Wednesday before jurors began deliberating a lawsuit filed by the parents of two students slain in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

    "Today we got what we wanted," Celeste Peterson said afterward. "The truth is out there, and that's all we ever wanted. We came here for the truth."

    Circuit Judge William Alexander said it was the hardest case he had been a part of.

    "My heart goes out to all of you," he said to the families of victims.

    Virginia Tech officials said they were disappointed with the verdict.

    “We do not believe that evidence presented at trial relative to the murders in West Ambler Johnston created an increased danger to the campus that day,” university spokesman Mark Owczarski said in a prepared statement obtained by NBC News.  “We will discuss this matter with the attorney general, carefully review the case, and explore all of the options available. The heinous crimes committed by Seung-Hui Cho were an unprecedented act of violence that no one could have foreseen.”

    Hall earlier had said the families were interested in holding school officials accountable, not money.

    Evidence of the magnitude of the error, Hall said, "were the bodies of the young people on the floors of Norris Hall."

    "That's why these two families are here seeking accountability," Hall said in his 45-minute closing argument to jurors.

    One of the state's attorneys, Peter R. Messitt, said Tech officials could not be expected to anticipate the killing spree, calling the slaughter unprecedented "in the history of higher education" and "one of the most horrible days in America."

    "What happened at Norris Hall was not reasonably foreseeable," he told jurors.

    This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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  • Virginia repeals one-a-month limit on handgun purchases

    By msnbc.com news services

    RICHMOND, Va. -- A Virginia law limiting handgun purchases to one per month was repealed Tuesday, over the opposition of gun control supporters and relatives of victims who survived the Virginia Tech massacre.

    Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell signed the bill into law after it was passed two weeks ago by the GOP-controlled General Assembly. He did not comment on signing the bill, though he said earlier he supported repealing the law.

    The governor met Saturday with families of people killed or injured in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The families had hoped to persuade him to veto the bill, although they knew it was a long shot.

    Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was wounded at Virginia Tech, was at the meeting. He said the governor had previously said he would sign the bill and "it would have been very difficult for him to go back on it."

    McDonnell is seen as a contender for his party's vice presidential nomination in 2012. He signed the repeal a day after a high school student opened fire with a handgun at an Ohio school, killing three students and wounding two others.

    Colin Goddard of the Brady Campaign, a survivor from the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, shares his thoughts regarding Monday morning's shooting at Chardon High School and the NOW panel weighs in on the need for stricter gun control laws.

    Opponents worry that lifting the limit could spur an increase in gun violence.

    'They have not learned'
    Goddard, president of the Virginia Center for Public Safety, reserved his harshest criticism for legislators who passed the bill.

    "They have not learned a damn thing," Goddard said. Alluding to Monday's school shooting that left three students dead in Ohio, Goddard said: "Here we are watching kids dying in other states, and we're going to be a purveyor of firearms for other states."

    Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded in the shooting that left the gunman and 32 others dead at Virginia Tech, said she was disappointed by the governor's action.

    "Getting rid of the one-handgun-a-month law will make it easier for gun traffickers to purchase handguns in bulk," she said in a written statement. "There have been too many tragedies in other states fueled by guns that come from Virginia, and this will only make the situation worse."

    Del. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Prince William and sponsor of the repeal bill, said the one-handgun limit didn't accomplish much for law enforcement.

    April 16: On the anniversary of a campus shooting, the Virginia Tech community gathered to commemorate the 32 people who lost their lives. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    "I think Virginians deserve effective laws, and one handgun a month has been overtaken by technology and improved background checks," he said. "Criminals don't go into gun stores, stand there in the bright light, hand over their driver's license and stand there and wait for the vendor to see if they have a criminal record."

    He added: "If you really want to get after gun crime, you get after people who use guns illegally. You don't punish law-abiding citizens."

    The 1993 law was a major legislative legacy of Democratic former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, passed when Virginia was a favorite armory for East Coast criminals. It never applied to rifles or shotguns.

    The law was intended to slow the flow of guns from Virginia to New York City and other metropolitan areas in the Northeast. In 1991, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that 40 percent of the 1,236 guns found at crime scenes in New York had been purchased in Virginia.

    Goddard said the repeal legislation was one of 30 gun bills his organization opposed this year in a session that has seen an increase in conservative measures pushed by Republicans, who strengthened their House majority and gained control of the Senate in last November's elections. Ten of those bills are still alive, he said, whereas in previous years only one or two pro-gun bills typically were passed.

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    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

  • Friend: Va. Tech shooter had visited gun range

    By The Associated Press

    RADFORD, Va.-- A friend says the man who authorities say killed a Virginia Tech police officer had visited a shooting range this year but hadn't gone for several months because he didn't have bullets for his gun.

    Matt Dailey tells The Roanoke Times  that he considered 22-year-old Ross Truett Ashley his best friend. Authorities say Ashley killed police officer Deriek Crouse on the Virginia Tech campus while the officer made a traffic stop, then killed himself not long after.

    Dailey says the two had made two or three trips to the shooting range — the same one used by Seung-Hui Cho, the gunman who killed 32 people and then himself on the campus in 2007.

    However, Dailey dismissed any comparisons between Cho and his friend.

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  • Va. Tech gunman called quiet; went to small school

    By Bob Lewis, Zinie Chen Sampson, The Associated Press

    Virginia State Police via AP

    Police identified the Virginia Tech gunman on Friday as Ross Truett Ashley, 22, a part-time college student from nearby Radford University.

    BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The man who authorities say killed a Virginia Tech police officer was described as a typical college student in many ways, making it difficult to understand why he would commit an armed robbery and then, apparently at random, target the patrolman before killing himself.

    The gunman was identified Friday as Ross Truett Ashley, a 22-year-old part-time business student at Radford University, about 10 miles from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. He first drew authorities'attention Wednesday when, they say, he walked into his landlord's office with a handgun and demanded the keys to a Mercedes-Benz SUV.

    As investigators worked to unravel a motive, thousands of people gathered for a candlelight vigil Friday night on a campus all too familiar with tragedy.

    Those who knew Ashley said he could be standoffish. He liked to run down the hallways and recently shaved his head, a neighbor said.

    Virginia State Police said he walked up to officer Deriek W. Crouseafter noon on Thursday and shot him to death as the patrolman sat in his unmarked cruiser during a traffic stop. Ashley was not involved in the stop and did not know the driver, who is cooperating with police, they said.

    Authorities said Ashley then took off for the campus greenhouses, ditching his pullover, wool cap and backpack as police quickly sent out a campus-wide alert that a gunman was on the loose. Officials said the alert system put in place after the nation's worst mass slaying in recent memory worked well, but it nevertheless rattled a community still coping with the day a student gunman killed 32 people and then himself.

    A deputy sheriff on patrol noticed a man acting suspiciously in a parking lot about a half-mile from the shooting. The deputy drove up and down the rows of the sprawling Cage parking lot and lost sight of the man for a moment, then found Ashley shot to death on the pavement, a handgun nearby. No one saw him take his life and he wasn't carrying any ID.

    State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Ashley appears to have acted alone and didn't know the slain officer: "At this time we have no connection between the two of them, that they knew one another or had encountered one another prior to the shooting," she said.

    'Nothing unusual'
    Ashley lived in an apartment on the top floor of a worn, gray three-story brick building in the small city of Radford, a college town. He lived above a yogurt shop, consignment store, barber shop and a tattoo parlor.

    On Friday night, students popped in and out of the building visiting friends. Mandy Adams, a Radford grad student, said Ashley had recently shaved his head. Other than running down the hallways, he was quiet, she said.

    "He would just run down the hallway — never walk, always run," said Adams, who was out on a rear fire escape with a glass of white wine and a cigarette to calm her nerves. "It's going to be really creepy when they come to take his stuff out of here."

    Neighbor Nan Forbes, a Radford senior, said Ashley was rarely seen or heard from. She said she knew he was in trouble when she saw two police officers guarding the door to his apartment

    "It does freak us out because we live in this building, but there was not one peep of trouble, nothing unusual," she said.

    Ashley made the dean's list in 2008 at the University of Virginia-Wise, which is located in southwest Virginia. He took classes at Radford, a former state teachers college in the Blue Ridge Mountains that now has more than 9,000 students.

    AP

    Deriek Crouse, a 39-year-old Army veteran, was a married father of five. He previously worked at a jail and a sheriff's department. (AP Photo/Virginia Tech)

    Officials at Radford or UVA-Wise were not immediately able to talk in detail about Ashley.

    At the Virginia Tech campus, thousands of people silently filled the Drillfield for a candlelight vigil Friday night to remember Crouse, a firearms and defense instructor with a specialty in crisis intervention. He had been on the campus force for four years, joining it about six months after the April 16, 2007 massacre.

    Crouse was a member of the Army Reserves who served a year in Iraq beginning in March 2004, according to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command. He was assigned to active duty service at Fort Hood, Texas from October 1993 until July 1996, where he was listed as an M1 armor crewman, or tank operator. From July 1996 to May 2001, Crousewas listed as a motor transport operator with the 316th Sustainment Command in Galax, Va. Crouse's last rank was staff sergeant.

    For about nine months in 2007, Crouse worked as an officer with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office at the county's jail before leaving for the Virginia Tech police, said Capt. Brian Wright, a spokesman with the department.

    Those who worked with Crouse remembered him as a "great employee" and a "hard worker," said Wright, who had worked security with Crouse at Virginia Tech football games.

    "He was just very personable, easy to talk to," Wright said. "Everybody liked him."

    The Friday night vigil included a moment of silence and closed with two trumpeters stationed across the field from each other playing "Echo Taps" as students raised their candles.

    "Let's go!" one student then shouted.

    "Hokies!" everyone else responded.

    'Go home and hug my mom'
    Kathleen O'Dwyer, a fifth-year engineering major at Tech, said it was important to come for Crouse's family. Crouse was married and had five children and stepchildren.

    "Also it's for the community, to see the violence that happens isn't what we're about," said O'Dwyer, who will be graduating next week.

    Her plans when she leaves school?

    "First, go home and hug my mom," O'Dwyer said.

    Nobody answered the door Friday evening at Ashley's parents' home in Spotsylvania County, along the Interstate 95 corridor between Richmond and Washington. The house was dark and no vehicles were in the driveway. The two-story, log cabin-style home in a semi-rural area sits about 200 yards off the road up a narrow gravel drive.

    Billie Jo Phillippe, who lives three houses down, said she didn't really associate with the family.

    "They stay off to themselves a lot," she said. "He was a clean-cut young guy but standoffish."

    Authorities declined to answer some questions about Ashley, including whether he had any mental health issues or was licensed to carry a handgun.

    But Gov. Bob McDonnell commented briefly on the shooting while helping load presents into a van for the Marine Corps Reserves' Toys for Tots program.

    "Some crimes, there's a relationship between a perpetrator and a victim, and some there aren't," said McDonnell, a former prosecutor and attorney general. "There are random acts of violence, they involve either mental health issues, or robbery, or other motivations....Unfortunately in our society random acts of violence do occur, we unfortunately see it every day somewhere in this country."

    He said there's an "extra degree of scrutiny" of incidents at Virginia Tech because of the 2007 mass shooting.

    "It's just unfortunate and almost inexplicable that you could have a series of these events happen in a short four-year period," the governor said. 

     

    Flowers lie on the ground as a memorial to Virginia Tech police Officer Deriek Crouse who was gunned down Thursday during a traffic stop on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Friday. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

    Lewis reported from Radford. Associated Press writers Michael Felberbaum, Larry O'Dell, Steve Szkotak and Dena Potter in Richmond, Va., Brock Vergakis in Norfolk and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

  • Police identify Virginia Tech gunman as student from nearby school

    By The Associated Press

    Virginia State Police via AP

    Police identified the Virginia Tech gunman on Friday as Ross Truett Ashley, 22, a part-time college student from nearby Radford University.

    BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Police have identified the Virginia Tech gunman as a 22-year-old student at nearby Radford University.

    Police said Friday that Ross Truett Ashley, of Radford, was responsible for killing a Virginia Tech police officer Thursday, triggering a campus-wide lockdown for thousands of students.

    Ashley killed himself after shooting the officer, officials said.

    Police also say Ashley stole a car on Wednesday from a real estate office in Radford, which is about 15 miles from Virginia Tech.

    Ashley studied business management and made the dean's list in 2008 at the University of Virginia-Wise, which is located in southwest Virginia, far from Ashley's hometown of Partlow. Officials at Radford or UVA-Wise were not immediately able to talk in detail about Ashley.

    The shooting shook up the Virginia Tech campus, the scene of the nation's worst mass slaying in recent memory.

    Thousands of people silently filled the Drillfield for a candlelight vigil Friday night to remember officer Deriek W. Crouse, 39, a firearms and defense instructor with a specialty in crisis intervention. He had been on the force for four years, joining about six months after a student gunman killed 32 and himself on April 16, 2007.

    The vigil included a moment of silence and later closed with two trumpeters stationed across the field from each other playing "Echo Taps" as students raised their candles.

    "Let's go!" one student then shouted. "Hokies!" everyone else responded.

    Read more posts on the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech

    The man who killed a Virginia Tech police officer walked up to the patrolman he did not know and fired, then took off for the campus greenhouses, ditching his pullover, wool cap and backpack.

    He made his way to a nearby parking lot and when a deputy spotted him, he took his own life, leaving fresh questions on a campus still coping with the 2007 massacre.

    AP

    Deriek Crouse, a 39-year-old Army veteran and married father of five, was shot and killed on Thursday. (AP Photo/Virginia Tech)

    Why didn't he run or engage the deputy who closed in? Was he even aware that thousands of students had just been alerted by cell phone that a gunman was on the loose and the campus was locked down? And why did he shoot an officer at a school he never attended?

    "That's very much the fundamental part of the investigation right now," state police spokeswoman Corrine Geller said Friday at a news conference.

    The gunman was likely the same man who is accused of stealing a 2011 white Mercedes SUV from a real estate office Wednesday in Radford, which is about 15 miles from Virginia Tech. Office employees told police a man came in with a handgun and demanded keys to one of their vehicles.

    The office is located in a gritty part of Radford and caters to students who go to the city's small namesake school. At the real estate office Friday, the shades were drawn and the doors locked.

    It's not clear what happened between the robbery and 24 hours later when Crouse was shot.

    Police were looking for surveillance video around campus to see if it would lend any clues to the gunman's whereabouts before the shooting.

    Crouse was a trained firearms and defense instructor with a specialty in crisis intervention. He had been on the force for four years, joining about six months after 33 people were killed in a classroom building and dorm April 16, 2007.

    Timeline of events
    At 12:15 p.m. Thursday, Crouse pulled over a student and was shot while sitting in his unmarked cruiser. The student didn't have any link to the gunman, Geller said.

    Shortly before 12:30 p.m., police received a call from a witness who said an officer had been shot. About six minutes later, the first campus-wide alert was sent by email, text message and electronic signs in university buildings. Many students on campus were preparing for exams, and some described a frantic scene after the initial alert. Soon, heavily armed officers were walking around campus, caravans of SWAT vehicles were driving around and other police cars with emergency lights flashing patrolled nearby.

    Students outdoors went inside buildings. Those already there stayed put. Everybody waited.

    Police aren't sure what the gunman was doing at this point.

    After the shooting, he fled on foot to the greenhouses, where he left some of his clothes and his ID.

    Fifteen minutes after the witness called police, a deputy sheriff on patrol noticed a man at the back of another parking lot about a half-mile from the shooting. The man was by himself, looking around furtively and acting "a little suspicious," according to Geller.

    The deputy drove up and down the rows of the sprawling Cage parking lot and lost sight of the man for a moment. The deputy then found the man lying on the pavement, shot to death. The handgun was nearby.

    Police said nobody witnessed the suicide, the parking lot apparently vacant because of warnings. For three more hours, students checked their phones, computers and TVs. Finally, the school gave the all clear.

    The events unfolded on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a federal government fine over their handling of the 2007 massacre, and the shooting brought back painful memories. About 150 students gathered silently Thursday night for a candlelight vigil on a field facing the stone plaza memorial for the 2007 victims.

    "Why Tech, why again?" said Philip Sturgill, a jewelry store owner. "It's so senseless. This is a lovely, lovely place."

    An official vigil is planned Friday night.

    School spokesman Larry Hincker said the alert system worked exactly as expected.

    "It's fair to say that life is very different at college campuses today. The telecommunications technology and protocols that we have available to us, that we now have in place, didn't exist years ago," he said. "We believe the system worked very well."

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  • Police: Virginia Tech gunman acted alone

    Law enforcement officials have confirmed that the shooter who killed a police officer at Virginia Tech yesterday was not a student. Officials have also confirmed from video rolling inside the officer's patrol car, that clothes found next to the deceased gunman matched that of the shooter. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

    By The Associated Press

    BLACKSBURG, Virginia - Investigators believe the gunman who killed a Virginia Tech policeman acted alone and that he changed clothes after fleeing the scene, then killed himself with his handgun when another officer spotted him, state police said Friday.

    The events unfolded on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington, fighting a federal government fine over their handling of the 2007 massacre where 33 people were killed. The shooting brought back painful memories. About 150 students gathered silently for a candlelight vigil on a field facing the stone plaza memorial for the 2007 victims. An official vigil is planned for Friday night.

    Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators have not found anything connecting the gunman and the slain officer, Deriek W. Crouse, who was shot in his car Thursday in a campus parking lot after pulling over a driver for a traffic stop. The motive remains a mystery, she said.

    "That's very much the fundamental part of the investigation right now," Geller said at a news conference.

    Not a student at the university
    The gunman was not a student at Virginia Tech, the scene of the deadliest gun rampage in modern U.S. history in 2007. Geller said investigators were confident they know the gunman's identity but she declined to say anything more about his name, age or hometown until the medical examiner confirms his identity and next of kin are notified.

    The campus shooting prompted officials to lock down the university for hours while police and elite response teams searched the school.

    Authorities have in-car video from Crouse's cruiser that shows a man with a handgun at the officer's car at the time of the shooting.

    Geller laid out the most detailed account thus far of the shooting. She said Crouse had pulled over a car driven by a student and was stopped on a campus parking lot with the car in front of his cruiser. She said the driver, who she didn't name, had no connection to the shooting and has been very helpful to investigators.

    Crouse was sitting in his cruiser when the gunman walked up and shot him. Geller declined to say if the officer was wearing body armor or where exactly he was shot. He was not able to return fire, she said.

    The gunman fled on foot and went to nearby greenhouses, where investigators say he changed out of a pullover wool cap and left them there with his backpack.

    Geller said a deputy sheriff on patrol then noticed a man at the back of a parking lot about half a mile from the shooting. The man was by himself and acting "a little suspicious." The officer drove around to approach him, lost sight of the man and then found him on the ground. The man appeared to have a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a handgun was nearby.

    Crouse was an Army veteran and married father of five children and stepchildren who joined the campus police force in October 2007. He previously worked at a jail and for the Montgomery County sheriff's department.

    Crouse was one of about 50 officers on the campus force, which also has 20 full- and part-time security guards. Crouse received an award in 2008 for his commitment to the department's drunken driving efforts. He was trained as a crisis intervention officer and as a general, firearms and defensive tactics instructor.

    The university also said its counseling center would be open all day Friday for students.

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  • Officer killed in Virginia Tech shooting had 5 kids

    Investigators are trying to determine why a man shot and killed a Virginia Tech campus police officer Thursday before turning the gun on himself. NBC's Pete Williams reports.

    By msnbc.com staff

    The Virginia Tech police officer who was killed on campus during a traffic stop was identified as four-year member of the force who was married and had five children and stepchildren.

    The Virginia Tech News website said Deriek W. Crouse, 39, of Christiansburg, was survived by his wife, five children and step-children, and his mother and brother. Funeral arrangements were pending.

    AP

    Police Officer Deriek Crouse

    The site said Crouse joined the campus Police Department on Oct. 27, 2007, and served in the patrol division. He had been a member of the force's Emergency Response Team since February, and in 2008 he received an award for his commitment to the department's efforts against driving under the influence.

    He was an Army veteran who had worked at the New River Valley Jail and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department.

    The gunman thought to have killed Crouse was found dead on campus with a gunshot wound.

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  • Police officer, gunman dead in Virginia Tech shooting

    Don Petersen / AP

    Virginia Tech campus police officers console each other after a fellow officer was killed Thursday on the campus in Blacksburg, Va.

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

     

     

    BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A gunman killed a Virginia Tech police officer and was found dead in a nearby parking lot Thursday at the university, scene of the worst campus killings in U.S. history, officials said.

    At a news conference on the campus in Blacksburg, Va., police said only that the second body was that of a white male and that he was not shot by police. A weapon was found nearby, they said.

    Police wouldn't comment further on whether the second person was the gunman. But other authorities told NBC's Pete Williams that they believed the second victim was the man who shot the campus officer.

    A law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed to The Associated Press the gunman was dead, but wouldn't say how.

    Get updates on the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech

    Police refused to say explicitly that no other gunmen were involved. But they said they were confident that the situation is secure and "you can read between the lines."

    A campuswide alert was lifted late Thursday afternoon, and Montgomery County schools lifted a lockdown,  allowing students to begin heading home.

    Staffers, students under lockdown at Virginia Tech: Shooting brings back '4/16'

    Earlier reports suggested that the gunman was the driver of a car that the officer had stopped for a traffic violation, but police said late Thursday afternoon that the driver was not involved in the shooting. Instead, they said, the gunman apparently walked up to the scene during the traffic stop and shot the officer.

    University President Charles W. Steger called the incident "a wanton act of violence." Fortunately, few students were outside because final exams had been scheduled for Friday and most students were indoors studying, he said.

    Friday's exams were canceled. Counseling and support were being arranged for students and faculty and their families, said Steger, who said the shootings were "very traumatic because of the past."

    That was a reference to April 16, 2007, when 33 people, including the mentally ill gunman, were killed on the Virginia Tech campus. Thursday's shooting came as Virginia Tech officials were in Washington appealing a $55,000 fine by the U.S. Education Department in connection with the university's response to the 2007 rampage.

    University officials said they didn't believe the shooting was related in any way.

    A candlelight vigil was planned for 6:30 p.m. Friday at the memorial to the 2007 shootings.

    NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams contributed to this report.

  • Virginia Tech shootings: Authorities believe gunman is second victim; alert lifted

    By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

    Updated at 5:11 p.m. ET: Police refused to say explicitly that no other gunmen were involved. But they said they were confident that the situation is secure and "you can read between the lines."

    Updated at 5:08 p.m. ET: A gunman shot and killed a Virginia Tech police officer Thursday, university officials said. Police said a second person was later found dead.

    At a news conference in Blacksburg late Thursday afternoon, police said only that the second body was that of a white male and that he was not shot by police. A weapon was found nearby, they said.

    Police said they couldn't officially comment on whether the second person was the gunman, but authorities told NBC's Pete Williams that they believed the second victim was the man who shot the campus officer.

    Police said earlier reports that the gunman was the driver of a car the officer had stopped for a traffic violation had turned out to be untrue; instead, they said, the gunman apparently walked up to the scene during the traffic stop and shot the officer.

    A campuswide alert was lifted late Thursday afternoon. Montgomery County schools lifted a lockdown and allowed pupils to begin heading home.

    University President Charles W. Steger called the incident "an wanton act of violence"

    Few students were outside because final exams had been scheduled for Friday and most students were indoors studying, Steger said. Friday's exams were canceled. Counseling and support were being arranged for students and faculty and their families, said Steger, who said the shootings were "very traumatic because of the past."

    That was a reference to the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, when 33 people, including the mentally ill gunman, were killed on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, 2007.

    The shooting Thursday 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 the 2007 rampage.

    Updated at 4:34 p.m. ET: Virginia Tech has lifted the campuswide alert.

    Updated at 4:31 p.m. ET: The Collegiate Times reports that there is now "no active threat" at Virginia Tech and that students are being allowed to "resume normal activities."

    Updated at 4:25 p.m. ET: Virginia Tech officials say a weapon was found near the body of the second person who was killed on campus.

    Original post: Law enforcement officials tell NBC News they believe the second shooting victim at Virginia Tech University was the man who shot and killed the campus police officer.

    NBC's Pete Williams reports that authorities say they're awaiting final confirmation but that they believe the campuswide alert for a gunman at large will soon be canceled.

    Get updates on the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech

    Staffers, students under lockdown at Virginia Tech: Shooting brings back '4/16'

    Msnbc.com's Alex Johnson contributed to this report by Pete Williams of NBC News.

  • Virginia Tech shootings: Local school lockdown lifted

    By msnbc.com staff

    Montgomery County schools, which were under lockdown most of the day, is now sending students home in phases "following all reasonable safety precautions.

    NBC station WSLS-TV of Roanoke reports parents are being allowed to pick up their children now.

    Get updates on the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech

    Staffers, students under lockdown at Virginia Tech: Shooting brings back '4/16'

  • Virginia Tech shootings: Huge police response

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    The law enforcement response to the shootings at Virginia Tech is enormous. Here's a breakdown of who's on the scene looking for a white male wearing gray sweatpants, a neon cap and a hoodie and carrying a grey backpack, as compiled by msnbc.com:

    • Virginia State Police, who are in charge of the investigation
    • Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
    • FBI agents
    • Campus police
    • Roanoke police tactical units
    • Montgomery County police tactical units 
    • Blacksburg police
    • Christiansburg police
    • Pulaski County sheriff's K9 unit

    Other nearby agencies say they are on standby in case they are needed.

    Staffers, students under lockdown at Virginia Tech: Shooting brings back '4/16'

    Get updates on the fatal shootings at Virginia Tech

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