Gunman Sent Photos, Video and Writings to NBC

NY TIMES Scroll down for cell phone video of police shooting outside the building, and Gunman Manifesto video.

“I didn’t have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run.”

Those were some of the words of Cho Seung-Hui, the gunman responsible for the shootings at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute who mailed photographs, video and writings to NBC News, apparently sending off the material between the two attacks on campus that killed 33 people, including himself.

NBC released excerpts of the video footage and photos of Mr. Cho today, saying the materials were received at the network’s New York City office Tuesday afternoon but not opened until Wednesday morning. One photo shows him wearing a vest with pockets and baseball cap on backwards as he grips two guns, one in each gloved hand, and scowls into the camera. Another shows him with a white T-shirt and pointing one of the handguns directly into the lens. (Video Video: Gunman’s Manifesto)

In rambling statements, Mr. Cho appeared to address unidentified tormenters, and evoked the names of the killers in the Columbine High School shooting, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

His voice is at times soft, and at other times forceful. He appeared at times in front of a cinderblock wall, at times in a car. He wore several different outfits, and NBC reported that he began to compile the materials at least six days before the shootings.

It was not clear if he made the videos and took the pictures himself, or if someone else had.

“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,” he said. “But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”

NBC said it received 29 pictures, showing some of Mr. Cho, his hair cropped close, looking stern in most, and smiling in a few.

“You just loved crucifying me,” Mr. Cho said in one video clip. “You loved inducing cancer in my head, terrorizing my heart and ripping my soul all the time.”

He also railed against the wealth, materialism and privilege of others.

“Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated?” he asked.

“You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn’t enough. Your trust fund wasn’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough.”

“When the time came I did it, I had to,” he said in one video clip.

NBC, which turned the material over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, described receiving a “disturbing, rambling multi-page statement,” along with the video and photos that went on for many single-spaced pages.

“This may be a very new critical component of this investigation,” said Col. W. Steven Flaherty, the superintendent of the Virginia State Police, at a news conference. Authorities are now in the process of evaluating its worth, he said.

The Express Mail package had a postal stamp showing it had been received at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. on Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after a 911 call was made saying that a shooting had occurred at West Ambler Johnston residence hall, where two students were killed. It was about 45 minutes before Mr. Cho shot 30 people dead at Norris Hall.

“We probably would have received the mail earlier had it not been that he had the wrong address and ZIP code,” said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News. The package had a return address saying “Ismail” and was sent to “Rockefeller Ave.” instead of Rockefeller Plaza. Among the materials are 23 QuickTime video files showing Mr. Cho talking directly to the camera about his hatred of the wealthy, Mr. Capus said. In one instance, he makes a reference to the massacre, saying “This didn’t have to happen.’”

Mr. Cho had used two handguns, a 9-millimeter and a .22-caliber, to shoot dozens of rounds, leaving even those who survived with multiple bullet wounds, officials said.

In addition, more information was disclosed today about Cho Seung-Hui’s state of mind more than a year before the killing rampage. The police said today two female students complained to them about him in 2005.

General District Court records show that a Montgomery County magistrate ordered Mr. Cho, 23, to undergo a mental evaluation in December 2005. The magistrate found probable cause that Mr. Cho was “mentally ill” and an “imminent danger to self and others” or is so seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for himself.

It directed the order to any authorized officer of the Virginia Tech police department.

The new information raises questions about whether warning signs about Mr. Cho’s behavior and problems were handled effectively by police and the university.

Asked about the court document, the associate vice president for university relations, Larry Hincker said: “That is total news to me.”

“Shouldn’t the university have known that?” a reporter shouted as he left the room.

The two students complained to authorities about the behavior of Mr. Cho when he contacted them in separate incidents in 2005. Police questioned Mr. Cho and he was sent to a mental health facility, but no charges were filed against him.

Also in 2005, Lucinda Roy, an English professor, shared her concerns about Mr. Cho with the Virginia Tech police, but no official report was filed. The writings did not express threatening intentions, or allude to criminal activity, the police said today.

In the incidents involving the female students, the police said that in late November 2005, Mr. Cho contacted a fellow female student, by phone and in person, and she notified the campus police. She later declined to press charges, but officers spoke with Mr. Cho, who was referred to the University’s disciplinary system.

On December 12, 2005, a second female student complained to the police about an instant message Mr. Cho sent to her by computer. The police then spoke with Mr. Cho and asked him to have no further contact with the student. The police said the message was not threatening, and the student characterized it as “annoying.”

The police spoke with acquaintances of Mr. Cho’s and became concerned that Mr. Cho might be suicidal. Officers suggested to Mr. Cho that he speak to a counselor and he did so. He went voluntarily to the police department and, based on his meeting with the counselor, a temporary detention order was obtained and Mr. Cho was taken to a mental health facility, Carilion Saint Albans Behavioral Health Center.

Neither of the female students who complained about Mr. Cho were among the shooting victims, and the police said they did not know if they were in the vicinity of the shootings.

There were no further referrals to the police before Mr. Cho was named on Tuesday in connection with the deaths of the students and teachers on the sprawling campus.
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Here is a video of the police shooting at the building the gunman was inside. Wonder if they hit anything, considering the gunman killed himself. At the end of the video you hear a gunshot right by the camera man.



Manifesto of Gunman(Cho Seung-Hui)
Virginia Tech
Here is some of the footage that was sent to NBC, at least this was what they released.

I have no idea what he is talking about, nor do I understand who he is talking to. I got a few ideas though.



The truth will come out eventually. This smells.