Tuesday, April 17, 2007

VA Tech Shooter Had A History [Updated]

[Posted by reader_iam]

OK, now we're getting some information that's useful. (See also earlier post from today.) The Chicago Tribune reports that Cho Seung-Hui had shown signs of disturbance, according to an "investigative source" (a rather useless description, by the way).
Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.

A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."

"There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this." [All emphasis added.]
Now, there's some food for thought.

Hat tip, Memeorandum.
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Unrelated: It's being reported now, on cable, that some sort of bomb-threat note was found near the killer's body, and that this gives more credence to the idea that the bomb threats of last week are related.

Updated: The Smoking Gun has put up what it says is a copy of a play that Cho wrote last year. I link to this with caution, and some misgiving, because I wish I knew the provenance of this, how and how well this was confirmed to be the work of "the" Cho, and so forth. Proceed with caution.

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