Shots fired on the Virginia Tech campus: Details limited. Still learning more. Will keep an eye on it. Edit: MSNBC reports that the shooting began as the result of a traffic stop, and the gunfire was between an officer and the person stopped by police.
Pictured is a police sketch of the person allegedly seen to have been carrying a gun in the Virginia Tech campus.
Press conference regarding Virginia Tech gunman. “No further sightings,” according to spokesperson. Police scouring campus. The alert is still in effect. EDIT: To us, this sounds like them being super-careful considering the school’s failings with the 2007 shooting.
According to NBC’s Pete Williams, federal officials are waiting to hear if they’re needed on campus as they say there’s been no verification that there was actually a gun on campus.
Please keep in mind that this hasn’t been confirmed yet, according to federal officials.
At 9:09 a.m. three juveniles attending a camp at the university reported seeing a white male, 6 feet tall, with light brown hair outside of New Residence Hall East holding what may have been a handgun. They say the weapon was covered by a cloth or covering of some sort. He was walking fast in the direction of the volleyball courts. He was wearing a blue and white striped shirt (stripes were vertical), gray shorts and brown sandals. The subject had no facial hair or glasses.From Virginia Tech’s temporary site explaining the gunman situation.
Virginia Tech gunman: “Person with a gun reported near Dietrick. Stay Inside. Secure doors. Emergency personnel responding. Call 911 for help.” One big difference from 2007 is that Virginia Tech has greatly improved its alerts system (in part because it had to). The site is down for now, unfortunately, probably because of the nature of the news. But we’re going to link there in case it goes back up.
More: Richmond Times-Dispatch | Reuters
The 2007 shooting there was one of my least favorite days in a long time. Fingers crossed that this isn’t too bad. Fortunately it’s August. We’ll be keeping an eye on this.
» Why the fine? SImple explanation. Despite the fact that the university knew about the slayings of two students in a dorm room, it took them 2 hours and 15 minutes to warn people what was going on — a requirement under the Clery Act. Shooter Seung-Hui Cho attacked a lecture hall 2 hours and 30 minutes after the initial killings — attacks which were much deadlier. To put it simply, they could have saved lives if warnings were put out sooner.
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The Virginia Tech campus shootings in 2007 are a tragic, real-life reminder of the technological limitations that 911 is now saddled with. Some students and witnesses tried to text 911 during that emergency and as we know, those messages never went through and were never received by local 911 dispatchers.Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski • Evoking the 2007 Virginia Tech school shooting to explain why 911 needs a texting function. 911, a system around in its current form since 1968. And it’s one that hasn’t kept up with the fast pace of technology, either with mobile phones (which are now the primary source of 911 calls) or broadband technology: “Many 911 call centers don’t even have broadband, and some are in communities where broadband isn’t even available,” Genachowski said. “That is unacceptable.” All this stuff is on the list for things to improve thanks to the stimulus plan, by the way. source (via • follow)
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