Seung-Hui Cho

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Template:Korean name

Seung-Hui Cho
Born(1984-01-18)January 18, 1984
Seoul, South Korea
DiedApril 16, 2007(2007-04-16) (aged 23)
Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
NationalitySouth Korean
EducationUndergraduate student
Known forVirginia Tech massacre
Seung-Hui Cho
Hangul
조승희
Hanja
Revised RomanizationJo Seunghui
McCune–ReischauerCho Sŭng-hŭi
Korean pronunciation (IPA) :
[ʨo.sɯŋ.hi]
Korean pronunciationⓘ
English pronunciation:
/tʃoʊ sʌŋˈhiː/[1]

Seung-Hui Cho[2] (January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007) was a student at Virginia Tech who committed mass murder of 32 people and wounded 25 others in the shooting rampage which has come to be known as the Virginia Tech massacre.[3][4][5] Cho committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the building where he had killed and injured his victims.[6]

Cho was a South Korean national who had permanent resident status in the United States, where he arrived at a young age with his family. He was diagnosed with a severe form of an anxiety disorder known as selective mutism in middle school, as well as depression.[7] That is when he started receiving treatment and he continued receiving therapy and special education support until his junior year of high school.[citation needed] During Cho's last two years at Virginia Tech, several instances of his aberrant behavior, as well as plays and other writings submitted by him containing references to violence and profanity,[citation needed] caused concerns among teachers and classmates.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine convened a panel consisting of various officials and experts to investigate and examine the response and handling of issues related to the Virginia Tech shootings. The panel released its final report in August 2007, devoting more than 30 pages to detailing Cho's troubled history. In the report, the panel criticized numerous failures — by school administrators, educators and mental health professionals who came into contact with Cho during his college years and who failed to notice his deteriorating condition and help him. The panel also criticized misinterpretations of privacy laws and gaps in Virginia's mental health system and gun laws. In addition, the panel faulted Virginia Tech administrators in particular for failing to take immediate action after the first shootings.[8]

Childhood and adulthood

Cho's family lived in a basement apartment in South Korea. Cho's father was self-employed as a bookstore owner, but never made much money from the venture. Seeking economic opportunity, Cho's father emigrated to the United States in September 1992 with his wife and two children. Cho was 8 years old at the time the family immigrated to the United States. The family first lived in Detroit, and they later moved to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area after learning that the Washington, D.C. area had one of the largest Korean populations in the country. When Cho's family arrived in the Washington, D.C. area, they decided to move to Centreville, an unincorporated community located in western Fairfax County, Virginia about 25 miles (40 km) west of Washington, D.C.[9]. Cho's father and mother opened a dry-cleaning business in Centreville. Neither of them have learned to speak English. [10] After the family moved to Centreville, Cho and his family became permanent residents of the United States as South Korean nationals.[11][12] His parents became members of a local Christian church, and Cho himself was raised as a member of the religion.[13]

Family concerns about Cho's behavior during childhood

Cho's family, particularly family members who remained in South Korea, had concerns about Cho's behavior during his early childhood. Cho's relatives thought that he was mute or possibly mentally ill. According to Cho's uncle, Cho "didn’t say much and did not mix with other children."[14] Cho's maternal great-aunt, Kim Yang-soon, described Cho as "cold" and a cause of family concern from as young as 8 years old. According to Kim, who met him twice,[15] Cho was extremely shy and "just would not talk at all." He was otherwise considered "well-behaved," readily obeying verbal commands and cues.[16] The great-aunt said she knew something was wrong after the family's departure for the United States because she heard frequent updates about Cho's older sister, but little news about Cho.[17] During an ABC News Nightline interview on August 30, 2007, Cho's grandfather reported his concerns about Cho's behavior during childhood. According to Cho's grandfather, Cho never looked up to him to make eye contact, never called him grandfather, and never made physical contact to hug him.[18]

Behavior in elementary school

Cho studied at Poplar Tree Elementary School in Chantilly, an unincorporated community in Fairfax County. According to Kim Gyeong-won, who first met Cho in the fifth grade and took classes with him,[19] Cho finished the three-year program at Poplar Tree Elementary School in one and a half years. Cho was noted for being good at mathematics and English, and teachers pointed to him as an example for other students.[20] Back then, according to Kim, nobody disliked Cho and he "was recognized by friends as a boy of knowledge;... a good dresser who was popular with the girls." Cho kept a distance from others because he chose to do so. Kim added that "I only have good memories about him."[20][19] An acquaintance noted that "Every time he came home from school he would cry and throw tantrums saying he never wanted to return to school" when Cho first came to America in about the second grade. [18]

Behavior in middle school and high school

Cho attended secondary schools in Fairfax County, including Stone Middle School in Centreville[17] and Westfield High School in Chantilly,[9] and by eighth grade had been diagnosed with selective mutism, a social anxiety disorder which inhibited him from speaking.[21]

During Cho's time in middle school and high school, he was teased for his shyness and unusual speech patterns. Some classmates even offered dollar bills to Cho just to hear him talk.[17] According to Chris Davids, a high school classmate in Cho's English class at Westfield High School, Cho looked down and refused to speak when called upon. Davids added that, after one teacher threatened to give Cho a failing grade for not participating in class, he began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth." "The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, 'Go back to China.'" Another classmate, Stephanie Roberts, stated that "there were just some people who were really cruel to him, and they would push him down and laugh at him. He didn't speak English really well, and they would really make fun of him."[22] Cho was also teased as the "trombone kid" for his practice of walking to school alone with his trombone. Other students recall crueler names and that most of the bullying was because he was alone.[23] Christopher Chomchird and Carmen Blandon, former classmates of Cho, stated that they heard rumors of a "hit list" of other students Cho wanted to kill. Blandon stated that she saw the "list" as a joke at the time.[24] While several students recalled instances of Cho being teased and mocked at Westfield, most left him alone and were not aware of his anger.[25][26] Cho graduated from Westfield High School in 2003.[5] In 1999, during the spring of Cho's Eighth grade year, the Columbine High School massacre made national news. Cho was transfixed by it and soon became dark and menacing. "I remember sitting in Spanish class with him, right next to him, and there being something written on his binder to the effect of, you know, '"F"' you all, I hope you all burn in hell,' which I would assume meant us, the students," said Ben Baldwin, a classmate of Cho.[18] Also, Cho wrote in a school assignment about wanting to "repeat Columbine." The school contacted Cho's sister, who reported the incident to their parents. Cho was sent to a psychiatrist. [1]

Selective mutism diagnosis

Immediately after the incident, reports carried speculation by family members in Korea that Cho was autistic.[27] However, no known record exists of Cho ever being diagnosed with autism,[28][29] nor could an autism diagnosis be verified with Cho's parents. The Virginia Tech Review Panel report dismissed an autism diagnosis[30][31] and experts later doubted the autism claim.[32]

More than four months after the attack, the Wall Street Journal reported on August 20 2007 that Cho had been diagnosed with selective mutism, a social anxiety disorder which inhibited him from speaking. The Virginia Tech Review Panel report, also released in August 2007, placed this diagnosis in the spring of Cho's eighth grade year, and his parents sought treatment for him through medication and therapy.[30] In high school, Cho was placed in special education under the 'emotional disturbance' classification." He was excused from oral presentations and participation in class conversation and received 50 minutes a month of speech therapy.[21] He continued receiving mental health therapy as well until his junior year, when Cho rejected further therapy.[30]

To address his problems, Cho's parents also took him to church. According to a pastor at Centreville Korean Presbyterian Church, Cho was an intelligent student who understood the Bible, but he was concerned about Cho's difficulty in speaking to people. The pastor added that, until he saw the video that Cho sent to NBC News, he never saw him complete a sentence. The pastor also recalled that he told Cho's mother that he speculated Cho was a little autistic and he asked her to take him to a hospital, but she declined.[33]

Forbidden by federal law to disclose (without Cho's permission) any record of disability or treatment, Westfield officials disclosed none of Cho's speech and anxiety-related problems to Virginia Tech.[32]

Demeanor at Virginia Tech

During 2003, Cho's freshman year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), he enrolled as an undergraduate major in business information technology, a program that included "a combination of computer science and management coursework offered by the Pamplin College of Business."[34] The program was considered one of the most challenging disciplines at Virginia Tech and was listed as No. 6 on the "list of majors with the highest median starting salary after graduation."[34] By his senior year, Cho was majoring in English. Virginia Tech declined to divulge details about Cho's academic record and why he changed his major, citing privacy laws.[34]

At the time of the attacks, Cho lived with five roommates in Suite 2121, a three-room dormitory at Harper Hall,[35][36] located just west of West Ambler Johnston Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.[37]

Relationship with professors

Professor and acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in a poetry class, stated that she had him removed from her class because she found his behavior menacing. She recalled that Cho had a "mean streak" and described his writing as "intimidating." After Giovanni was informed of the massacre, she remarked that "[she] knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," and "would have been shocked if it wasn't."[38] Giovanni insisted that Cho be removed from her class in 2005, about six weeks after the semester began in September. Cho had intimidated female students by photographing their legs under their desks and by writing obscene, violent poetry.[39] Giovanni offered that "[she] was willing to resign before [she] would continue with him."[40] Because of her concerns about Cho, Giovanni wrote a letter to then-department head Lucinda Roy, who removed Cho from the class. Roy alerted the student affairs office, the dean's office, and the campus police, but each office responded that there was nothing they could do if Cho made no overt threats against himself or others.[41]

Roy described Cho as "an intelligent man," and she stated that Cho seemed to be an awkward, very lonely and an insecure student who never took off his sunglasses, even indoors. She described Cho's behavior as "arrogant" and "obnoxious" at times,[42] and that she tried several different ways to help him.[43] Roy declined to comment about Cho’s writings, saying only in general that the writings "seemed very angry." She added that Cho whispered his response after taking 20 seconds to answer questions, and he also took 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 to work with him one-on-one. As Roy worked with Cho, she became concerned for her safety. She told her assistant that, if she uttered the name of a dead professor (which served as a duress code), the assistant was to call security.[44] After Roy notified legal authorities about Cho's behavior, she urged Cho to seek counseling. Roy said that, to her knowledge, Cho never followed through with the request.[5]

When Virginia Tech creative writing professor Lisa Norris, who taught Cho in both Advanced Fiction Writing and Contemporary Fiction, inquired about Cho from Mary Ann Lewis, associate dean for Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, she was not told that Cho was suffering from mental health issues or about prior police reports concerning the harassment of female students. Norris noted that, "my guess is that either the information was not accessible to her or it was privileged and could not be released to me."[45] Lewis told Norris to recommend that Cho seek counseling at the on-campus Cook Counseling Center, which she had already done.[45]

Relationship with students

Fellow students described Cho as a "quiet" person who "would not respond if someone greeted him." Student Julie Poole recalled the first day of a literature class the previous year when the students introduced themselves one by one. When it was Cho's turn to introduce himself, he did not speak. According to Poole, the professor looked at the sign-in sheet and found that, whereas everyone else wrote out their names, Cho wrote only a question mark. Poole added that "we just really knew him as the question mark kid."[46]

Karan Grewal, who shared a room with Cho at Harper Hall, reported that Cho "would sit in a wood rocker by the window [in his room at the dormitory]; and stare at the lawn below". According to Grewal, "Cho appeared to never to go to class or read a book" during his (Cho's) senior year," adding that Cho just typed on his laptop, went to the dining hall and clipped his hair in the bathroom, cleaning up the hair afterwards. Grewal also reported that he witnessed Cho riding his bicycle in circles in the parking lot of the dormitory.[34]

Andy Koch and John Eide, who once shared a room with Cho at Cochrane Hall during 2005 and 2006,[47][48] stated that Cho demonstrated other repetitive behaviors, such as listening repeatedly to "Shine"[49] by the alternative rock band Collective Soul, a 1994 singles chart hit from their album Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid.[50] Cho wrote the song's lyrics "Teach me how to speak; Teach me how to share; Teach me where to go" on the wall of his dormitory room.[38][51][52] Koch described two further unusual incidents, including one where Cho stood in the doorway of his room late at night taking photographs of him (Koch) and a second incident where Cho repeatedly placed harassing cell phone calls to Koch as "Cho's brother, 'Question Mark,'" a name Cho also used when introducing himself to girls with whom he was allegedly obsessed. Koch and Eide searched Cho's belongings and found a pocket knife, but they did not find any items that they deemed seriously threatening to them.[48]

During Autumn 2005, Cho told Koch and Eide that he had an imaginary girlfriend by the name of "Jelly," a supermodel who lived in outer space and who called Cho by the name "Spanky" and traveled by spaceship.[53] Koch also described a telephone call that he received from Cho during the Thanksgiving holiday break from school. During that call, Koch said that Cho claimed to be "vacationing with Vladimir Putin," with Cho adding "Yeah, we're in North Carolina." In response to Cho's claim, Koch told him "I'm pretty sure that's not possible, Seung."[54] Because of Cho's troubling behavior, Koch and Eide, who had earlier tried to befriend Cho, gradually stopped talking to him and told their friends, especially female classmates, not to visit their room.[55]

Koch and Eide also stated that Cho was involved in at least three stalking incidents, two of which resulted in verbal warnings by the Virginia Tech campus police.[55][38][51] The first stalking incident occurred on November 27 2005.[56] After the incident, according to Koch, Cho claimed to have sent an instant message online to the female student by AIM and found out where she lived on the campus. Eide stated that Cho then visited her room to see if she was "cool," adding that Cho remarked that he only found "promiscuity" in her eyes.[57] Eide added that, when Cho visited the female student, Cho said, "Hi, I'm Question Mark" to her, "which really freaked her out."[55] The female student called the campus police, complaining that Cho had sent her annoying messages and made an unannounced visit to her room.[56] Two uniformed members of the campus police visited Cho’s room at the dormitory later that evening and warned him not to contact the female student again. Cho made no further contact with the student.[57]

The final stalking incident came to light on Tuesday December 13 2005.[56][57] In the preceding days, Cho had contacted a female friend of Koch via AIM and wrote on her door board a line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene II, in which Romeo laments to Juliet:

By a name, I know not how to tell who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word.[58][59]

The young woman was initially unconcerned by Cho's AIM messages and the Shakespearian graffiti he left on her door board, until she was contacted by Andy Koch via AIM. Koch told her that Cho was involved in an earlier stalking incident and that, "i think he is schophrenic[sic] or however you spell it".[60] Upon Koch's encouragement, the young woman contacted the campus police, who again warned Cho against further unwanted contact.[56] After that warning, Cho made no further contact with the second female student.

Later the same day, Cho sent a text message to Koch with the words, "I might as well kill myself now."[57] Worried that Cho was suicidal, Koch contacted his father for advice, and both of them contacted campus authorities. The campus police returned to the dormitory and escorted Cho to New River Valley Community Services Board, the Virginia mental health agency serving Blacksburg, Virginia.[61]

Psychiatric evaluation

Court-ordered psychiatric assessment

On December 13 2005, Cho was found "mentally ill and in need of hospitalization" by New River Valley Community Services Board.[62] The physician who examined Cho noted that he had a flat affect and depressed mood, even though Cho "denied suicidal thoughts and did not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder."[62] Based on this mental health examination and because Cho was suspected of being "an imminent danger to himself or others," Cho was detained temporarily at Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Christiansburg, Virginia, pending a commitment hearing before the Montgomery County, Virginia district court.[62]

Virginia Special Justice Paul Barnett certified in an order that Cho "presented an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness," but instead recommended treatment for Cho as an outpatient. On December 14, 2005, Cho was released from the mental health facility after Judge Barnett ordered Cho to undergo mental health treatment on an outpatient basis,[63] with a directive for the "court-ordered [outpatient] to follow all recommended treatments." Since Cho underwent only a minimal psychiatric assessment,[62] the true diagnosis for Cho's mental health status remains unknown.

Virginia state law on mental health disqualifications to firearms purchases, however, is worded slightly differently from the federal statute. So the form that Virginia courts use to notify state police about a mental health disqualification addresses only the state criteria, which list two potential categories that would warrant notification to the state police: someone who was "involuntarily committed" or ruled mentally "incapacitated."[64]

Because Cho was not involuntarily committed to a mental health facility as an inpatient, he was still legally eligible to buy guns under Virginia law.[64] However, according to Virginia law, "A magistrate has the authority to issue a detention order upon a finding that a person is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization or treatment." The magistrate also must find that the person is an imminent danger to himself or others.[63][65] Virginia officials and other law experts have argued that, under United States federal law, Justice Barnett's order meant that Cho had been "adjudicated as a mental defective" and was thus ineligible to purchase firearms under federal law.[64]

Family efforts to help Cho

The Virginia Tech Review Panel report shed light on numerous efforts by Cho's family to secure help for him beginning as early as middle school.[30] However, when Cho reached 18 and went away to college, the family's ability to help waned. Cho's mother, becoming increasingly concerned about Cho's inattention to classwork, his time spent out of the classroom and his asocial behavior, sought help for Cho during summer 2006 from various churches throughout the Northern Virginia community.[34] According to Dong Cheol Lee, minister of One Mind Church – a Presbyterian church in Woodbridge, a community in Prince William County, Virginia, Cho's mother sought help from the church for Cho's problems. Lee added that "[Cho's] problem needed to be solved by spiritual power ... "that's why she came to our church – because we were helping several people like him." Members of Lee's church even told Cho's mother that "Cho was afflicted by demonic power and needed deliverance." Before the church could start its work, Cho returned to school to start his senior year at Virginia Tech.[34]

Virginia Tech massacre

Part of a series of articles
on the
Virginia Tech
shooting
A photo of one of the commemorative stones at the memorial with flowers laid on top of it.
Location
Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, Virginia)
Perpetrator
Seung-Hui Cho
Victims
Related
Main article: Virginia Tech massacre

Around 7:15 a.m. EDT (11:15 UTC) on April 16, 2007, Cho 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.[43]" 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 dorm room where he had stashed them after the attack. [66]

Within the next two and a half hours, Cho returned to his room to re-arm himself and mailed a package to NBC News that contained pictures, digital video files and documents.[67] At approximately 9:45 a.m. EDT (13:45 UTC), Cho then crossed the campus to Norris Hall, a classroom building on the campus where, in a span of nine minutes, Cho shot dozens of people, killing 30 of them.[43][68] As police breached the area of the building where Cho attacked the faculty and students, Cho committed suicide in Norris 211 with a gunshot to his temple.[69] Cho's gunshot wounds destroyed his face, frustrating identification of his body for several hours.[70] The police identified Cho by matching the fingerprints on the guns used in the shootings with immigration records.[5] Before the shootings, Cho's only known connection to Norris Hall was as a student in the sociology class, Deviant Behavior, which met in a classroom on the second floor of the building.[34] Although police had not stated positively at the time of the initial investigation that Cho was the perpetrator of the Norris Hall shootings and the earlier one at West Ambler Johnston Hall, forensic evidence confirmed that the same gun was used in both shooting incidents.[39]

Preparation

Weapons

Glock 19 semi-automatic pistol, one of the models of handguns used by Cho.
Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol, another model of handgun used by Cho.
An expanded 124 grain 9 mm jacketed hollow point similar to the bullets used by Cho.[71]

During February and March 2007, Cho began purchasing the weapons that he later used during the killings. On February 9 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 and the operator of the website through which Cho ordered the gun.[72][73][74][75] TGSCOM Inc. shipped the Walther P22 to JND Pawnbrokers in Blacksburg, Virginia, where Cho completed the legally-required background check for the purchase transaction and took possession of the handgun.[76] Cho bought a second handgun, a Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol, on March 13 2007 from Roanoke Firearms, a licensed gun dealer located in Roanoke, Virginia.[72][77]

Cho was able to pass both background checks and successfully complete both handgun purchases after he presented to the gun dealers 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, in addition to waiting the required 30-day period between each gun purchase. He was successful at completing both handgun purchases, even though he had failed to disclose information on the background questionnaire about his mental health that required court-ordered outpatient treatment at a mental health facility.[78][79][80]

On March 22, 2007, Cho purchased two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22 pistol through eBay from Elk Ridge Shooting Supplies in Idaho.[81] Based on a preliminary computer forensics examination of Cho's eBay purchase records, investigators suspected that Cho may have purchased an additional 10-round magazine on March 23 2007 from another eBay seller who sold gun accessories.[82]

Cho also bought jacketed hollow-point bullets, which result in more tissue damage than full metal jacket bullets against unarmored targets[83] by expanding upon entering soft tissue.[71] Along with a manifesto, Cho later sent a photograph of the hollow point bullets to NBC News with the caption "All the [shit] you've given me, right back at you with hollow points."[84][85][86]

Motive

During the investigation, the police found a note in Cho's room in which he criticized "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans." In the note, Cho continued by saying that "you caused me to do this."[87][5] Early media reports also speculated that Cho was obsessed with fellow student Emily Hilscher and became enraged after his romantic overtures were rejected.[88][89][90][91] Law enforcement investigators could not find evidence that Cho knew Hilscher.[92] Cho and one of his victims, Ross Alameddine, attended the same English class during Autumn 2006.[93]

Aftermath

Crime investigation

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 on the Virginia Tech campus.[94][95][96] Police investigators found that Cho fired 170 shots during the killing spree, with evidence technicians finding at least 17 empty magazines at the scene.[97][98] During the investigation, federal law enforcement investigators found that the serial numbers were illegally filed off both the Walther P22 and the Glock 19 handguns used by Cho during the rampage.[99] Investigators also learned that Cho practiced shooting during mid-March at a firing range in Roanoke, about 40 miles from the Virginia Tech campus.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). According to former FBI agent Brad Garrett, "This was no spur-of-the-moment crime. He's been thinking about this for several months prior to the shooting."[72]

Autopsy report

Recent toxicology test reports show that Cho did not have any drugs in his system during the time of the killings; neither psychiatric nor any kind of illegal drugs were found.[100]

Review of Cho's medical records

During the investigation, the matter of Cho's court-ordered mental health treatment was also examined to determine its outcome. Virginia investigators learned after a review of Cho's medical records that Cho never complied with the order for the mandated mental health treatment as an outpatient.[61] The investigators also found that neither the court nor New River Valley Community Services Board exercised oversight of Cho's case to determine his compliance with the order for outpatient treatment. In response to questions about Cho's case, New River Valley Community Services Board maintained that its facility was never named in the court order as the provider for Cho's mental health treatment, and its responsibility ended once Cho was discharged from its care after the court order.[61] In addition, Christopher Flynn, director of the Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech, mentioned that the court did not notify his office to report that Cho was required to seek outpatient mental health treatment. Flynn added that, "When a court gives a mandatory order that someone get outpatient treatment, that order is to the individual, not an agency ... The one responsible for ensuring that the mentally ill person receives help in these sort of cases ... is the mentally ill person."[61]

As a result, Cho escaped compliance with the court order for mandatory mental health treatment as an outpatient, even though Virginia law required community services boards to "recommend a specific course of treatment and programs" for mental health patients and "monitor the person's compliance."[61] As for the court, Virginia law also mandated that, if a person fails to comply with a court order to seek mental health treatment as an outpatient, that person can be brought back before the court "and if found still in crisis, can be committed to a psychiatric institution for up to 180 days." Cho was never summoned to court to explain why he had not complied with the December 14 2005 order for mandatory mental health treatment as an outpatient.[61]

The investigation panel had sought Cho's medical records for several weeks, but due to privacy laws, Virginia Tech was prohibited from releasing them without permission from Cho's family, even after Cho's death. [101] The panel had considered using subpoenas to obtain his records. On June 12, 2007, Cho's family released his medical records to the panel, although the panel said that the records were not enough.[102][103] The panel obtained additional information by court order.[104] Like the Columbine massacres, and Jokela school massacres, the perpetrators of the Virginia Tech masascre, Cho Seung-Hui, was also prescribed an anti-depressant (Prozac) prior to his suicidal rampage, a substance suspected by Peter Breggin and David Healy of leading to suicidal behaviors[105].

Investigative panel report

In the aftermath of the killing spree, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine (D) appointed a panel to investigate the campus shootings, with plans for the panel to submit a report of its findings in approximately two to three months. Governor Kaine also invited former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to join the panel to "review Cho’s mental health history and how police responded to the tragedy."[106] To help investigate and analyze the emergency response surrounding the Virginia Tech shootings, Governor Kaine hired the same company that investigated the Columbine High School massacre.[107]

The panel's final report devoted more than 30 pages to detailing Cho's mental health history. The report criticized Virginia Tech educators, administrators and mental health staff in failing to "connect the dots" from numerous incidents that were warning signs of Cho's mental instability beginning in his junior year. The report concluded that the school's mental health systems "failed for lack of resources, incorrect interpretation of privacy laws, and passivity."[30] The report called Virginia's mental health laws "flawed" and its mental health services "inadequate". The report also confirmed that Cho was able to purchase two guns in violation of federal law because of Virginia's inadequate background check requirements.[30]

Reaction of Cho's family

Cho's older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, a 2004 graduate of Princeton University who works as a contractor for the United States Department of State,[108][109] prepared a statement on her family's behalf to apologize publicly for her brother's actions, in addition to lending prayers to the victims and the families of the wounded and killed victims.[110] "This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person," she said in the statement issued through a North Carolina attorney. "We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence."[110] Cho's grandfather stated, "My grandson Seung-Hui was very shy. I can't believe he did such a thing."[111]

Media package sent to NBC News

Screenshot from the MSNBC coverage of several videos Seung-Hui Cho sent to NBC News.
One of the self-portraits Cho included with manifesto sent to NBC News.

During the time period between the two shooting events on April 16, Cho visited a local post office near the Virginia Tech campus where he mailed a parcel containing a DVD to the New York headquarters of NBC News containing video clips, photographs and a manifesto explaining the reasons for his actions.[112][113] The package, addressed from "A. Ishmael" as seen on an image of the USPS Express Mail envelope (incorrectly printed as "Ismail" by The New York Times[114]) and apparently intended to be received on April 17, was delayed because of an incorrect ZIP code and street address. The words "Ismail Ax" were scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm.[115][116]

Release of material

Upon receiving the package on April 18, 2007, NBC contacted authorities and made the controversial decision to publicize Cho's communications by releasing a small fraction of what it received.[117] After pictures and images from the videos were broadcasted in numerous news reports, students and faculty from Virginia Tech, along with relatives of victims of the campus shooting, expressed concerns that glorifying Cho's rampage could lead to copycat killings. The airing of the manifesto and its video images and pictures were especially upsetting to those persons affected by the shootings. Peter Read, the father of Mary Read, one of the students who was killed by Cho during the rampage, asked the media to stop airing Cho's manifesto.[118]

Police officials, who reviewed the video, pictures and Cho's manifesto, concluded that the contents of the media package had marginal value in helping them learn and understand why Cho committed the killings.[119][120] Dr. Michael Welner, who also reviewed the materials, believed that Cho's rantings offer little insight into the mental illness that may have triggered his rampage.[121][122][123] Dr. Welner stated that "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."[122]

During the April 24, 2007 edition of the Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC News President 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 or 5 of the 23 PDF files that were last modified at 7:24 a.m., after the first shooting.[124] He also stated that the content not shown included "over the top profanity" and "incredibly violent images." He expressed hope that the unreleased material is never made public.[125]

Contents

File:ChoSeungHuiNBC1.jpg
Cho posing with a Glock 19 in one of the pictures sent to NBC News.

In his manifesto, Cho mentioned the Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, denigrated former teachers John Mark Karr and Debra Lafave, and made threatening messages to U.S. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In one of the videos, Cho said:

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.[126]

Pete Williams, a MSNBC justice correspondent, said that Cho lacked logical governance, suggesting that Cho was under severe emotional distress.[127] In the video, Cho also railed against deceitful charlatans on campus, rich kids, materialism, and hedonism while, in another video, he compared himself to Jesus Christ,[128] explaining that his death will influence generations of "defenseless people". Media organizations, including Newsweek, MSNBC, Reuters and the Associated Press, even raised questions and speculated the similarity between a stance in one of Cho's videos, which showed him holding and raising a hammer, and a pose from promotional posters for the South Korean movie Oldboy, a film based on the Japanese manga of the same name about a businessman who was kidnapped away from his wife and infant daughter by an unknown assailant and imprisoned in a small room for 15 years.[129][130][131] Investigators found no evidence that Cho had ever watched Oldboy, and the professor who made the initial connection to Oldboy had since discounted his theory that Cho was influenced by the movie.[132]

Writings

Plays

In 2006, Cho wrote a short, profanity-laden one-act play entitled Richard McBeef in connection with a class assignment. The play focused on John, a 13-year-old boy whose father died in a boating accident, and Richard McBeef, John's stepfather and ex-football player. When Richard touches John during an attempt at a father-to-son talk, the boy abruptly claims that his stepfather is molesting him. John then accuses his stepfather of murdering his actual father and repeatedly says that he will kill Richard. John, Richard and Sue (John's mother) are embroiled suddenly in a major argument. Richard retreats to his car to escape the conflict, but John, despite claiming repeatedly that Richard was abusing him, joins his stepfather in the car and harasses him. The play ends with John trying to shove a banana-flavored cereal bar into his stepfather's throat; Richard, hitherto a passive character, reacts "out of sheer desecrated hurt and anger" by "swinging a deadly blow" at the boy.[133]

In a second play, Mr. Brownstone, written by Cho for another class assignment, three 17-year-olds (John, Jane, and Joe) sit in a casino while discussing their deep hatred for Mr. Brownstone, their 45-year-old mathematics teacher. The three characters claim that Mr. Brownstone mistreats them (using the phrase "ass-rape"). John wins a multimillion-dollar jackpot from one of the slot machines, and Mr. Brownstone, amid volleys of profanity, reports to casino officials that the three characters were underage and had picked up the winning ticket. Mr. Brownstone tells the casino officials that he had won the jackpot and that the minors took it from him.[134] "Mr. Brownstone" was also the name of a Guns N' Roses song about heroin,[135][136] and one page from Cho's play consisted of lyrics from the song.[134]

Paper written by Cho for a fiction writing class

Approximately one year before the carnage at Virginia Tech, Cho also wrote a paper for an assignment in the "Intro to Short Fiction" class that he took during the spring 2006 semester. In that paper, Cho wrote about a mass school murder that was planned by the protagonist of the story but, according to the story, the protagonist did not follow through with the killings. During the proceedings of the Virginia Tech panel, the panel was unaware of the existence of the paper written by Cho for his fiction writing class.[137]

When information surfaced about the paper, the Virginia Tech panel learned at that time that only the Virginia State Police and Virginia Tech had copies of the unreleased paper in their possession. The Virginia State Police reported that, although it had a copy of the paper, Virginia law prevented them from releasing the paper to the panel because it was part of the investigative file in an ongoing investigation.[137]

Virginia Tech, on the other hand, had known about the paper, and officials at the school discussed the contents of the paper among themselves in the aftermath of the shootings. According to Governor Kaine, "[Virginia Tech] was expected to turn over all of Cho's writings to the panel" during the proceedings of the Virginia Tech panel.[137]

After some members of the Virginia Tech panel complained about the missing paper, Virginia Tech decided to release a copy of the paper to the panel during the latter part of the week of August 25 2007.[137] Although the Virginia Tech panel has since received the paper written by Cho for the fiction writing class, the precise contents of that paper have not been released to the public.[137]

Reactions to writings

Edward Falco, a playwriting professor at Virginia Tech, has acknowledged that Cho wrote both plays in his class. The plays are less than 12 pages long and have several grammatical and typographical errors. Falco believed that Cho was drawn to writing because of his difficulty communicating orally. Falco said of the plays, "They're not good writing, but at least they are a form of communication."[138] Another professor who taught Cho characterized his work as "very adolescent" and "silly," with attempts at "slapstick comedy" and "elements of violence."[139] Novelist Stephen King examined the plays written by Cho, and he discounted the merit of the plays in an essay for Entertainment Weekly.[140]

Classmates believed "the plays, were really morbid and grotesque."[141] Ian MacFarlane, Cho's former classmate, stated that, "when we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of."[142] When Stephen Davis, a senior who was also in Cho's class, read "Richard McBeef," he turned to his roommate and said "this is the kind of guy who is going to walk into a classroom and start shooting people."[143] Anna Brown, another student in the class, sometimes joked with her friends that Cho was "the kind of guy who might go on a rampage killing."[144]

According to CBS News, "Cho Seung-Hui's violent writing [and] loner status fit the Secret Service shooter profile,"[145] referring to a 2002 U.S. Secret Service study that was conducted after the Columbine massacre, with violent writing cited as one of the most typical behavioral attributes of school shooters. The U.S. Secret Service concluded the study by saying that "[t]he largest group of [school shooters] exhibited an interest in violence in their own writings, such as poems, essays or journal entries," while other school shooters showed an interest in violent video games, violent movies and violent books.[146]

Users of YouTube created filmed adaptations of "Richard McBeef."[147] Something Awful created a parody "CliffsNotes" entry describing Richard McBeef.[148]

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  143. ^ Before Deadly Rage, a Life Consumed by a Troubling Silence, NY Times, 4-22-2007, Corrections Appended
  144. ^ Wingert, P., Waddell, L. & Campo-Flores, A. (2007, April 17). "He was just off." Newsweek. Retrieved on May 6, 2007.
  145. ^ "Warning Signs From Student Gunman". CBS News. April 17 2007. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |coauthors= (help)
  146. ^ Vossekuil, Bryan (May 2002). "Safe School Initiative Final Report" (PDF). U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education. p. 26. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  147. ^ Coyle, J. (2007, April 20).YouTube gets Va. Tech shooting footage.The Kindred Times. Retrieved on May 6 2007
  148. ^ Something Awful: Richard McBeef

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