Disturbing Video Gives Few Clues to Killer's Motives

By BRAD WOLVERTON

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News Headlines From The Chronicle

Disturbing video gives few clues to killer's motives

Counselors say cases like Cho's are hard to spot as students' behavior becomes more extreme

Could officials have stopped Cho? A Q&A with a campus counseling expert

Opinion: Finding causes of rampage shootings is one thing; preventing them is another

College police departments have become more professional, experts say

Campus safety gains sharper vision with new breed of surveillance cameras

Timeline of a massacre

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Commencement speakers are announced by 18 colleges

NBC News broadcast a chilling videotaped message on Wednesday night from the man who gunned down 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus earlier this week, providing an eerie glimpse into the mind of the killer.

In an angry, rambling voice, Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old Tech student responsible for the worst shooting spree in American history, railed against wealthy people and materialism, and compared himself to Jesus and the two shooters at Columbine High School, saying he had no choice but to exact revenge for a multitude of grievances, none of which he made very clear.

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," said the shooter, who had close-cropped hair and wore a tan vest. "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 the video Wednesday morning in a package that also included more than two dozen photographs of the shooter, many showing him angrily thrusting pistols at the camera.

The package was time-stamped 9:01 a.m. Monday, shortly before the second set of shootings occurred. NBC said Mr. Cho had put together some of the materials at least six days before the shootings.

In a news conference after the video was released, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said the package could provide a "critical component of this investigation."

Earlier Wednesday, the Virginia Tech police released new information about Mr. Cho, saying that university police officers had met with him twice in the past two years after complaints about his behavior from two female students. The police had also asked him to speak to a counselor, and at one point he was admitted to a local mental-health facility.

According to court records, Mr. Cho was deemed an "imminent danger" to himself or others, or was so seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for himself, The New York Times reported.

The new details led some experts to question whether Virginia Tech officials had done enough to intervene in Mr. Cho's case.

"More information keeps piling on that this person was a dangerous person," Peter F. Lake, co-director of the Center for Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University and an expert in campus-safety issues, said in an interview on Wednesday. "The verdict is hardly in yet, but the question every parent is going to have is, How could they not see this kid coming?"

But Robert B. Smith, a lawyer in Boston who specializes in higher-education issues, said Wednesday in an interview that the newest information about Mr. Cho suggests that the university had no way of stopping what was coming.

"Where is any shred of evidence that the college was a cause or a contributing factor in this man's unspeakably sad behavior?" Mr. Smith said. "It seems wholly unfair to lay blame for this at the doorstep of any college or university in this country."

Eric Hoover contributed to this article.

• Gunman Was a Troubled Student Who Ate Alone and Worried Professors and Classmates (4/18/2007)

• After Deadly Massacre at Virginia Tech, Students Question University's Response (4/17/2007)

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