VA Tech In Lockdown After Report Of Gunman

[tt11758]

http://www.lawofficer.com/article/news/virginia-tech-goes-lockdown-af

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (AP) — Virginia Tech  was locked down Thursday when three children attending a summer camp said they saw a man holding what looked like a gun, an unsettling report on the campus where a 2007 massacre left 33 people dead.

The university issued an alert on its website at 9:37 a.m. Thursday telling students and employees to stay inside and lock their doors. University spokesman Larry Hincker said during a news conference later in the morning that the campus alert remained in effect and that people should stay indoors until further notice.

The children said they saw the man walking fast toward the volleyball courts, carrying what might have been a handgun covered by some type of cloth. Police swarmed the area but said they could not find a gunman matching their description. The university said on its website that no one else has reported a person with a gun or anything suspicious.

Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said that the three children were interviewed, and that the information they gave was deemed credible.

An alert on the school's website said the gunman was reported near Dietrick Hall, a three-story dining facility steps away from the dorm where the first shootings took place in the 2007 rampage.

"We're in a new era. Obviously this campus experienced something pretty terrible four years ago ... regardless of what your intuition and your experience as a public safety officers tells you, you are really forced to issue an alert, and that's where we believe we are right now," said Hincker, the Virginia Tech spokesman.

Federal authorities fined the school in March after ruling that administrators violated campus safety law by waiting too long to notify staff and students about a potential threat after two students were shot to death April 16, 2007, in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dorm near the dining facility.

An email alert went out more than two hours later that day, about the time a student from South Korea, Seung-Hui Cho, was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more students and faculty and himself. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The school's alert system also was activated in 2008, when an exploded cartridge from a nail gun produced sounds similar to gunfire near a campus dormitory. It was the first time the system was activated after the 2007 massacre. After the shootings, Virginia Tech started using text messages and other methods besides emails to warn students of danger.

On Thursday, officials said they were looking for a 6-foot-tall (1.83-meter-tall) white man with light brown hair. Officials said the person was wearing a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts and brown sandals. He was described as clean shaven, according to the university's website.

Police from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg and Christiansburg searched for the man along with Virginia State Police and Montgomery County sheriff's deputies. FBI spokeswoman Dee Rybiski said agents also were on their way to assist.

Gov. Bob McDonnell, who was attending meetings of the Republican Governors Association in Wisconsin, was in contact with law enforcement to ensure all state resources were available to police, said spokeswoman Taylor Thornley.

How is this possible.  Isn't VA Tech a gun-free zone?

[tombogan03884]

Yes, it is.
That's why 32 people died in '07.

[MikeBjerum]

I just saw the latest AP update, and so far it is just three children that saw what they thought looked like a gun under some cloth.

I don't want to dimminish the importance of acting on hunches and feelings, because that is what we base our preparedness and self defense on.  However, I fear that the anit's are going to latch on to this even if nothing is ever found.

[PegLeg45]

How is this possible.  Isn't VA Tech a gun brain-free zone?

Sounds better.

[MikeBjerum]

Quote from: tt11758 on Today at 10:59:59 am


How is this possible.  Isn't VA Tech a gun brain-free zone?



Sounds better.

A couple of generations of breeding liberals caused that 

[Sponsor]

[Solus]

MAN WITH UMBRELLA!  MAN WITH UMBRELLA!

[billt]

Children said they saw a man with, "what looked like to be a gun." On that they lock down a college campus. No adult reporting what so ever. Children....This is what we now go on? And we're worried about a stock sell off? Jesus Christ!   Bill T.

[kmitch200]

Children said they saw a man with, "what looked like to be a gun." On that they lock down a college campus. No adult reporting what so ever. Children....This is what we now go on? And we're worried about a stock sell off? Jesus Christ!   Bill T.

It's even worse than that. What looked like a gun under a towel. Could have been a freaking blow dryer.