Seung-Hui Cho

Case overview

Seung-Hui Cho was a mass murderer who shot and killed 32 people and wounded many more in a shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States.

Cho committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the academic building in which he had killed 30 of his 32 victims and wounded many more, including faculty and students.

Timeline

• September 1992 — Cho immigrated to the United States at age 8 with both of his parents and his older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho.
• 2003 — Cho graduated from Westfield High School.
• 2003 June — Cho graduated from Westfield High School.
• 2005 — Nikki Giovanni removed Cho from her poetry class about six weeks after the semester began in September.
• 2005 Fall — Cho enrolled in Professor Brent Stevens’s English 3984 class, “Special Studies: Contemporary Horror. - ‘not for the faint of heart’ .”
• Sunday, November 27, 2005 — A female student filed a report with Virginia Tech campus police indicating Cho had made “annoying” contact with her on the internet, by phone and in person; the investigating officer referred Cho to the school’s disciplinary office.
• Monday, December 12, 2005 — Another female student, a friend of Andy Koch, filed a report with Virginia Tech campus police complaining of “disturbing” instant messages from Cho and requested that Cho “have no further contact with her.”
• Tuesday, December 13, 2005 — Campus police notified Cho that he was to have no further contact with the female student; that same day Koch alerted campus police that Cho had sent him an instant message stating, “I might as well kill myself.”
• Tuesday, December 13, 2005 — Cho was temporarily detained for a psychiatric assessment after being suspected to be mentally ill and a danger to himself or others.
• December 14, 2005 — Cho was released from the mental health facility after Judge Paul Barnett ordered outpatient mental health treatment and a directive for the court-ordered outpatient to “follow all recommended treatments.”
• 2006 — Cho wrote a short one-act play entitled “Richard McBeef” in connection with a class assignment.
• August 30, 2007 — Cho’s grandfather reported concerns about Cho’s behavior during childhood in an interview.
• April 16, 2007 — Cho killed two students on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall; he then killed 30 people at Norris Hall before committing suicide in Norris 211.
• April 17, 2007 — Virginia Tech police department released the shooter’s name as Cho Seung-Hui and confirmed the death toll of 33.
• April 18, 2007 — NBC received Cho’s package and released a small fraction of the contents.
• April 24, 2007 — Steve Capus stated NBC decided to show two minutes of 25 minutes of video, seven of 43 photographs, and 37 sentences of 23 pages of written material during the April 24, 2007 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
• August 2007 — The Virginia Tech Review Panel report dismissed an autism diagnosis and placed the selective mutism diagnosis in spring of Cho’s eighth grade year.
• November 2009 — An addendum to the report of the Review Panel was released.

Background

Cho was born in South Korea on January 18, 1984, and died April 16, 2007.

Cho became a U.S. permanent resident and remained a South Korean national. At the time of the attacks, Cho was a senior-level undergraduate student at Virginia Tech, where he majored in English. He also lived in Suite 2121 in Harper Hall, a dormitory just west of West Ambler Johnston Hall, with five roommates.

Cho’s family lived in Detroit, Michigan before moving to Centreville, an unincorporated town located about 25 miles (40 km) west of Washington, D.C. Cho’s permanent address was in Centreville.

Cho’s parents opened a dry-cleaning business in Centreville, and members of the family became members of a local Christian church. Cho was raised as a member of the religion but “railed against his parents' strong Christian faith.”

The offence

Victims killed and wounded

During the two attacks, the shooter’s bullets killed 27 students and 5 faculty members and wounded many more. The record lists the following victims:

1. Ryan Clark (22), Martinez, Georgia — senior in Psych/Biology/English
2. Emily Hilscher (19), Woodville, Virginia — freshman in Animal Sciences
3. Minal Panchal (26), Mumbai, India — masters student in Architecture
4. G. V. Loganathan (53), Erode, Tamil Nadu, India — professor of Engineering
5. Jarrett Lane (22), Narrows, Virginia — senior in Civil Engineering
6. Brian Bluhm (25), Louisville, Kentucky — masters student in Civil Engineering
7. Matthew Gwaltney (24), Chesterfield County, Virginia — masters student in Environmental Engineering
8. Jeremy Herbstritt (27), Bellefonte, Pennsylvania — masters student in Civil Engineering
9. Partahi Lumbantoruan (34), Medan, Indonesia — PhD student in Civil Engineering
10. Daniel O'Neil (22), Lincoln, Rhode Island — masters student in Environmental Engineering
11. Juan Ortiz (26), Bayamón, Puerto Rico — masters student in Civil Engineering
12. Julia Pryde (23), Middletown, New Jersey — masters student in Biological Systems Engineering
13. Waleed Shaalan (32), Zagazig, Egypt — PhD student in Civil Engineering
14. Jamie Bishop (35), Pine Mountain, Georgia — German instructor
15. Lauren McCain (20), Hampton, Virginia — freshman in International Studies
16. Michael Pohle Jr. (23), Flemington, New Jersey — senior in Biological Sciences
17. Maxine Turner (22), Vienna, Virginia — senior in Chemical Engineering
18. Nicole White (20), Smithfield, Virginia — junior in International Studies
19. Liviu Librescu (76), Ploieşti, Romania — professor of Engineering
20. Jocelyne Couture-Nowak (49), Truro, Nova Scotia — professor of French
21. Ross Alameddine (20), Saugus, Massachusetts — sophomore in English/Business
22. Austin Cloyd (18), Champaign, Illinois — freshman in Int'l Studies/French
23. Daniel Perez Cueva (21), Woodbridge, Virginia — junior in International Studies
24. Caitlin Hammaren (19), Westtown, New York — sophomore in Int'l Studies/French
25. Rachael Hill (18), Richmond County, Virginia — freshman in Biological Sciences
26. Matthew La Porte (20), Dumont, New Jersey — sophomore in Political Science
27. Henry Lee (20), Roanoke, Virginia/Vietnam — freshman in Computer Engineering
28. Erin Peterson (18), Centreville, Virginia — freshman in International Studies
29. Mary Karen Read (19), Annandale, Virginia — freshman in Interdisciplinary Studies
30. Reema Samaha (18), Centreville, Virginia — freshman in Urban Planning
31. Leslie Sherman (20), Springfield, Virginia — junior in History/Int'l Studies
32. Kevin Granata (45), Toledo, Ohio — professor of Engineering

West Ambler Johnston Hall shootings

Around 7:15 a.m. EDT (11:15 UTC) on April 16, 2007, Cho allegedly killed two students:

• Emily J. Hilscher, and
• Ryan C. “Stack” Clark,

on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall, a high-rise co-educational dormitory.

Investigators later determined that Cho’s shoes matched a blood-stained print found in the hallway outside Hilscher’s room. The shoes and bloody jeans were found in Cho’s dormitory room where he had stashed them after the attack.

The hall is normally locked until 10 a.m., and it is not clear how Cho gained entrance to the facility.

Norris Hall shootings

At approximately 9:45 a.m. EDT (13:45 UTC), Cho crossed the campus to Norris Hall, a classroom building. Over the next span of nine minutes, Cho shot dozens of people, killing 30 of them.

Cho chained the three main entrance doors shut using chains purchased from Home Depot to stop people from escaping.

Cho committed suicide in Norris 211 with a gunshot to his head. Cho’s gunshot wounds destroyed his face, frustrating identification of his body for several hours. The police identified Cho by matching fingerprints on the guns used in the shootings with immigration records.

Firearms and shots

Cho used two firearms during the attacks: a small-bore .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun and a 9mm semiautomatic Glock handgun.

Through ballistics examination, law enforcement investigators determined that Cho used the Glock 19 pistol during the attacks at the West Ambler Johnston dormitory and at Norris Hall. Police investigators found Cho fired 170 shots, and evidence technicians found at least 17 spent ammunition magazines at the scene.

During the investigation, federal law enforcement investigators found that serial numbers were filed off both the Walther P22 and the Glock 19 handguns used by Cho during the killing spree.

Investigators also learned Cho practiced shooting at a firing range in Roanoke about 40 miles from the Virginia Tech campus in mid-March.

Investigation

Ballistics examination linked the firearms to both shooting incidents at West Ambler Johnston Hall and Norris Hall, and forensic evidence confirmed the same gun was used in both shooting incidents.

Investigators learned Cho practiced shooting at a firing range in Roanoke, about 40 miles from the Virginia Tech campus, in mid-March.

In the aftermath, a Virginia Governor appointed a panel to investigate the campus shootings and invited former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to join to review Cho’s mental health history and how police responded.

Federal law enforcement joined the investigation. The FBI spokesman said there was no immediate evidence to suggest a terrorist incident, but that the agency would explore all avenues.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) responded with 10 agents on-scene identifying the weapons and performing forensics.

Preparation and weapons purchasing

During February and March 2007, Cho began purchasing the weapons he later used during the killings.

• February 2, 2007 — Cho purchased his first handgun, a .22 caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol, from TGSCOM Inc., a federally-licensed firearms dealer based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, through the website he used to order the gun. TGSCOM Inc. shipped the Walther P22 to JND Pawnbrokers in Blacksburg, Virginia, where Cho completed the purchase transaction and picked up the handgun.
• March 13, 2007 — Cho purchased a 9 mm Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol from Roanoke Firearms, a licensed gun dealer in Roanoke, Virginia.
• Cho passed both background checks and completed both handgun purchases after presenting his U.S. permanent residency card, his Virginia driver’s permit to prove legal age and length of Virginia residence, and a checkbook showing his Virginia address, and after waiting the required 30-day period between each handgun purchase.
• Cho failed to disclose on the background questionnaire information about his mental health history leading to court-ordered outpatient treatment at a mental health facility.
• March 22, 2007 — Cho purchased two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22 pistol through eBay from Elk Ridge Shooting Supplies in Idaho.
• Cho purchased additional ammunition magazines from Wal-Mart and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
• Based on preliminary computer forensics examination of Cho’s eBay purchase records, investigators suspected Cho may have purchased an additional 10-round magazine on March 23, 2007 from another eBay seller who sold gun accessories.
• Investigators later stated Cho also bought jacketed hollow-point bullets.

Demeanor and mental health history

Cho was described as extremely shy as a child and “cold” by his maternal great-aunt Kim Yang-soon, who said Cho was extremely shy and “just wouldn’t talk at all.” The uncle said Cho “didn’t say much and didn't mix with other children.”

Relatives considered Cho mute or mentally ill and family members in Korea suggested autism, but no autism diagnosis could be verified and the Review Panel dismissed autism in its report.

In middle school and high school, Cho was teased and picked on for shyness and unusual speech patterns. In English class at Westfield High School, he refused to speak when called upon. When a teacher threatened to give him a failing grade, Cho began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded “like he had something in his mouth,” according to Chris Davids, who said the class laughed and pointed, saying, “Go back to China.”

Cho was teased as the “Trombone Kid” for his habit of walking to school alone with his trombone.

In his freshman year at Virginia Tech, Cho enrolled as an undergraduate major in business information technology, later changing his major to English by his senior year. The university declined to divulge details about his academic record and why he changed his major, citing privacy laws.

Court-ordered outpatient psychiatric assessment

Virginia law was described as requiring a magistrate to issue a detention order upon a finding that a person was mentally ill and in need of hospitalization or treatment, with an additional finding of imminent danger to himself or others.

On December 13, 2005, Cho was temporarily detained for a psychiatric assessment as he was suspected to be mentally ill and a danger to himself or others. Virginia Special Justice Paul Barnett certified in an order that Cho “[presented] an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness,” and directed outpatient treatment with a directive to follow recommended treatments.

A psychiatric evaluation noted Cho’s flat affect and depressed mood. After an outpatient directive from Judge Barnett, Cho was released on December 14, 2005.

Some parts of the record described debate over whether the order affected firearms eligibility under federal law, and it also stated that Cho was not involuntarily committed and remained legally eligible to buy guns under Virginia law.

A review later stated Cho never complied with the order for mandated mental health treatment as an outpatient, and neither the court nor New River Valley Community Services Board exercised oversight to determine compliance.

Relationship with professors and students

Nikki Giovanni

Professor and acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni taught Cho in a poetry class and stated she had him removed because she found his behavior menacing. She recalled a “mean streak” and described his writing as “intimidating.”

When informed of the massacre, Giovanni remarked:

• “I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was,” and
• “I would have been shocked if it wasn't.”

Giovanni insisted Cho be removed from her class in 2005, about six weeks after the semester began in September. She said Cho intimidated female students by photographing their legs under their desks and by writing obscene, violent poetry. Giovanni said, “I was willing to resign before I would continue with him.”

Giovanni wrote a letter to then-department head Lucinda Roy, who removed Cho from the class.

Roy described Cho as “an intelligent man” but stated he seemed awkward, lonely and insecure, and he never took off his sunglasses even indoors. Roy said Cho’s behavior was at times “arrogant” and “obnoxious.” Roy also described Cho as whispering and taking 20 seconds to answer questions, and as taking cell phone pictures of her in class.

After Roy became concerned with Cho’s behavior and the themes in his writings, she started meeting with Cho one-on-one, and told her assistant a duress emergency code: if she uttered a name of a dead professor, the assistant was to call security.

Roy notified legal authorities about Cho’s behavior and urged Cho to seek counseling, but Roy said Cho never attended.

Giovanni’s removal and Roy’s actions were communicated to student affairs, the dean’s office, and campus police; the offices said they could do nothing if Cho had made no overt threats against himself or others.

Lisa Norris and Mary Ann Lewis

Virginia Tech creative writing professor Lisa Norris taught Cho in Advanced Fiction Writing and Contemporary Fiction. Norris inquired about Cho from the associate dean for Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, Mary Ann Lewis. Norris said she was not told that Cho was suffering from mental health issues or about police reports. Norris wrote:

• “My guess is that either the information was not accessible to her or it was privileged and could not be released to me.”

Lewis told Norris to recommend counseling at the on-campus Cook Counseling Center, which Norris had already done.

Stalking incidents and warnings

Cho was described as involved in at least three stalking incidents in 2005 and as receiving verbal warnings.

First stalking incident

The first stalking incident occurred on Sunday November 27, 2005. Cho sent annoying messages and made an unannounced visit. Two uniformed campus police visited Cho’s dorm late Sunday evening and verbally warned him not to contact the girl again, with no further contact made.

The record includes Koch’s description of Cho visiting the girl and saying:

• “Hi, I'm Question Mark,”

which “really freaked her out.”

Second stalking incident

The final stalking incident occurred on Tuesday December 13, 2005. Cho wrote on a door board a line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene II, in which Romeo laments:

• “My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself. . . . Had I it written, I would tear the word.”

The young woman contacted campus police and Cho was verbally warned again. Later that day, Cho texted Koch saying:

• “I might as well kill myself now.”

Koch contacted his father for advice and then contacted campus authorities. Campus police escorted Cho for psychiatric assessment at Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford, Va.

Media package to NBC News

Between the two shooting events on April 16, Cho mailed a parcel to the New York headquarters of NBC News containing video clips, photographs and a manifesto explaining the reasons for his actions. The package was delayed due to an incorrect ZIP code in the address.

Upon receiving the package on April 18, 2007, NBC contacted authorities and decided to publicize a small fraction of what it received.

Quoted material from Cho’s videos and manifesto

A record includes two verbatim video statements and quotes attributed to Cho:

From one of the videos, Cho said:

• “I didn’t have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It’s not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you fucked, I did it for them… When the time came, I did it. I had to.”

A later section reproduces extended manifesto/video dialogue. In one video, Cho said:

• “You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul, and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and defenseless people. Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon on a cross? And left to bleed to death for your amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?...I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you fucked;, I did it for them... When the time came, I did it. I had to...You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today, 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. You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn't enough. Your Vodka and Cognac weren't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.”

The record also includes a note about Cho sending bullets to NBC with the caption:

• “All the [shit] you've given me, right back at you with hollow points.”

Release decisions and responses

After the broadcast, students and faculty from Virginia Tech, along with relatives of victims, expressed concerns that glorifying the rampage could lead to copycat killings.

Peter Read, father of Mary Read, asked the media to stop airing Cho’s manifesto.

Dr. Michael Welner (also spelled Wellner in parts) stated:

• “These videos do not help us understand [Cho]. They distort him. He was meek. He was quiet. This is a PR tape of him trying to turn himself into a Quentin Tarantino character.”

NBC News President Steve Capus said during the April 24, 2007 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show:

• “NBC decided to show two minutes of 25 minutes of video, seven of 43 photographs and 37 sentences of 23 pages of written material,” and that unreleased content included “over the top profanity” and “incredibly violent images.”

Writings

Cho wrote plays in 2006 and submitted other writings.

“Richard McBeef”

In 2006, Cho wrote a one-act play entitled “Richard McBeef” in connection with a class assignment. The record describes John (a 13-year-old boy), his stepfather Richard McBeef, and Sue (John’s mother), as well as a major argument and ending with violence involving a cereal bar. The record says the play was profanity-laden and that Richard reacted “out of sheer desecrated hurt and anger” and “swinging a deadly blow.”

“Mr. Brownstone”

Cho wrote a second play titled “Mr. Brownstone” for another class assignment. It described three 17-year-olds (John, Jane and Joe) in a casino and a mathematics teacher Mr. Brownstone; the record includes the phrase “ass-rape.” The play involved discussion of deep hatred, slot machines, a multi-million-dollar jackpot, profanity, and reporting to casino officials that the three characters were underage and had illegally picked up the winning ticket.

Short fiction paper

About one year before the incident, Cho wrote a paper for “Intro to Short Fiction” in spring 2006. The panel later learned of the paper during proceedings, and the record states the paper’s precise contents have not been released to the public.

Resistance and immediate actions during Norris Hall attack

Several individuals tried to help others during the attack, including:

• Professor Liviu Librescu held the door of Room 204 shut while Cho attempted to enter it; Librescu prevented the shooter from entering until students escaped through windows, but was eventually shot five times and killed.
• Couture-Nowak tried to save students in Room 211 after looking Cho in the eye in the hallway; Colin Goddard described her ordering students to the back of the class and making a fatal attempt to barricade the door.
• Waleed Shaalan, a Ph.D. student in civil engineering and teaching assistant from Zagazig, Egypt, distracted Cho and was shot a second time and died.
• Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan protected Guillermo Colman by diving on top of him; multiple gunshots killed Lumbantoruan.
• Zach Petkewicz barricaded the door of Room 205 with a large table; no one in that classroom was killed.
• Derek O’Dell and Katelyn Carney and friends barricaded the door of Room 207; both were injured.
• Matthew Joseph La Porte, an Air Force ROTC student, was reported to have attempted to tackle Cho from behind but was fatally injured in the attempt.
• Kevin Granata and Wally Grant brought 20 students into an office on the third floor; both went downstairs and were shot by Cho. Grant was wounded and survived; Granata died. No students locked in Granata’s office were injured.

Other details

Claimed and debated mental-health diagnoses

The record states Cho’s relatives thought autism might explain his behavior, but no autism diagnosis could be verified with Cho’s parents, and the Review Panel report dismissed an autism diagnosis.

The record also states that in middle school, Cho was diagnosed with selective mutism and major depressive disorder, and described selective mutism as social anxiety and delayed speech acquisition.

It also notes that a lack of speech could have been an early indication of developing schizophrenia and that paranoid and grandiose delusions appeared in Cho’s manifesto; it states that it had been argued Cho was schizophrenic.

Family statements

Cho’s older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, prepared a statement on the family’s behalf publicly apologizing and lending prayers to victims and families of wounded and killed victims. The record includes:

• “This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person,”
• “We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.”

Cho’s grandfather stated:

• “My grandson Seung-Hui was very shy. I can't believe he did such a thing.”

Video and photo counts shared by NBC

During the April 24, 2007 edition of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Capus stated NBC decided to show two minutes of 25 minutes of video, seven of 43 photographs and 37 sentences of 23 pages of written material.

University and government response

Virginia Tech canceled classes for the rest of the week and closed Norris Hall for the remainder of the semester. The university offered counseling assistance and held an assembly on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. Red Cross crisis counselors were dispatched to Blacksburg.

Governor Timothy Kaine appointed a panel to investigate and invited former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to join.

A final report was released in August 2007, devoting more than 30 pages to detailing Cho’s troubled history, criticizing failures by educators and mental health professionals and misinterpretations of privacy laws and gaps in Virginia’s mental health system and gun laws, while also acknowledging Cho remained primarily responsible for not seeking assistance and for his murderous rampage.

Name order dispute

The record describes differences in how the name was rendered in media, including Korean order “Cho Seung-hui” versus Western order “Seung-Hui Cho,” and states that Virginia Tech and many news media originally used the Korean ordering due to his South Korean citizenship. It also states that Western ordering became standard after family statements, and that Cho wrote plays under the name “Seung Cho.”