Virginia Tech Shooter Was Cho Seung-Hui, a U.S. Permanenent Resident From Korea
Police identified the classroom shooter as Cho Seung-Hui, 23, a senior from South Korea who was in the English department and lived in another dorm on campus. They said Cho committed suicide after the attacks, and there was no indication Tuesday of a possible motive. [AP]
Police also report, however, that Cho left behind a “disturbing” note that may give us some idea what kind of ideas took root inside this young man’s fevered mind. I’ll post more when I know more.
And yes, he was described as “a loner.”
Update: Photo cred: ABC News.
Update 2: Some irony from the Korean Embassy:
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry also expressed its condolences, saying there was no known motive for the shootings and that South Korea hoped that the tragedy would not “stir up racial prejudice or confrontation.”
Yes, let’s all learn from Korea’s example. We should never, ever hate or generalize about an entire group based on the crimes — much less the mere accidents — of a few individuals. That would be irrational. I think the Embassy’s statement is at once insulting and telling.
Update 3: Is this perverse vindication for Lee Won Bok? Thank God for a “wall of Jews” that stood bravely in the way of evil. [More.]
Update 4: Much more about the killer’s motives: First, and contrary to the speculation of some commenters below, he was an equal opportunity murderer (thanks to a reader). We also learn that nationalism has once again lured the Chosun Ilbo into a spurious and incorrect line of speculation:
Commenting on reports that the killer was Asian, Lee said it was unlikely to have been Korean since few Korean students have weapons due to the difficulty of obtaining a gun license.
I’m so embarrassed for them, and for Yonhap, which is tersely describing the killer, a Korean citizen, as an “ethnic Korean.” On the other hand, you have to wonder what this poor guy did:
We also learn some unsurprising things about the killer’s mental health:
The gunman suspected of carrying out the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 people dead was identified Tuesday as a English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school’s counseling service.
News reports also said that he may have been taking medication for depression, that he was becoming increasingly violent and erratic, and that he left a note in his dorm in which he railed against “rich kids,” “debauchery” and “deceitful charlatans” on campus.
Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior, arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., officials said. He was living on campus in a different dorm from the one where Monday’s bloodbath began.
[…] Lucinda Roy, the department’s director of creative writing, […] had Cho in one of her classes and described him as “troubled.”
“There was some concern about him,” Rude said. “Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it’s creative or if they’re describing things, if they’re imagining things or just how real it might be. But we’re all alert to not ignore things like this.”
She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.
The Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site that he left a note in his dorm room that included a rambling list of grievances. Citing identified sources, the Tribune said he had recently shown troubling signs, including setting a fire in a dorm room and stalking some women.
Investigators believe Cho at some point had been taking medication for depression, the newspaper reported.
Update 5: OK, I’ve just perused a “play” Cho wrote, now posted at The Smoking Gun, and to me, this truly looks like a case of a deranged individual with some very serious mental health problems. In spite of some unsourced murmurs I see on the net, nothing about Cho or his problems appears to be specifically or uniquely Korean. This guy was just crazy.
Plenty of people have concluded that the answer to this problem is to control guns. I differ from those people (see comments). I wish, for example, that Liviu Librescu had had a gun. I think the answer is to do a better job of controlling (a) criminals, and (b) the unmedicated insane. And whatever medications Cho was on were not enough.
Update 6: For those who want to know more, see Richardson’s post. The killer may have had a Cyworld page, too, but it’s not confirmed, and it’s just more insane ranting.
Update 7: The Korean-American Coalition has published a statement of condolence, which is both well-intentioned, and in my view, unnecessary. Maybe it’s this idea of group identity that I’ve never felt comfortable with, but this guy was just a crazy individual. Other Koreans or Korean-Americans are not responsbile for his actions any more than most American soldiers are responsible for a small number of thugs wailing on Korean taxi drivers at Camp Casey. This was not a crime of nationalism. There is not a need for the kind of introspection the Muslim world failed to have after 9/11. This was one insane, evil, individual SOB.
Update 8, 19 April 2007: OK, I see a whole new kind of madness taking shape: Korean and, yes, American media are spreading junk “news” — which turns out to be based on a few anonymous idiotic blog comments and some active imaginations — that South Koreans and Korean-Americans are hiding in their basements and keeping their kids home from school over the fear of reprisal attacks. See also GI Korea’s extensive post.
Now, I don’t know about you, but this weekend, I’m going to be in a crowded shopping mall somewhere with the three people in this world I love the most — all of them at least 50% Korean by ethnicity — without a hint of fear for their safety. I call bullshit — evil, fetid, manipulative, cynical, fear-mongering bullshit — and I challenge anyone to find a substantial factual basis for it.
Since I’m not seeing one, how can I explain the inexplicable? I mean, what kind of a society would break out into mass mobbery in reaction to one isolated tragic event? Who would turn hatred of a friendly allied nation into fodder for popular movies and songs? Who would use another nation’s most painful living memory as an occasion to show its hatred? Who would discriminate against an entire national group, commit multiple acts of random violence (here, here, here, here, here), or peddle hate to the kiddies in school (here, here, here, with extra points for the approving reference to 9-11)? What nation would seek political advantage from one tragic event by propogating hatred for an entire nation (here, here, and here), much less find it to be a winning electoral strategy? And where would such hatred find broad societal acceptance? Surely not in an educated, developed, industrialized society. No civilized people in our times could subscribe to the inspiration of the world’s most brutal and backward system of government, one that openly espouses racism and is willing to kill as many babies as necessary to prove its commitment to that notion of purity.
Now, let me just briefly speak to that two percent of you who are not mature adults for a moment. My point here is not to justify in any way this kind of bigotry toward persons of Korean ancestry or any other. (Fair warning: anyone leaving a comment to that effect can expect to see it removed, and to be banned for good.) Nor is my point to deny that bigotry exists here, although I submit that our society overwhelmingly rejects it, and will severely punish anyone a court of law convicts of acting on it.
Now, directing my voice to back the adults … my point here is to suggest that the great majority of the bigotry and generalizing — both of Americans and of Koreans — is happening in South Korea, where I sense a lot of mental role reversal happening. I also suspect that for many of the same people, the acceptance of collective guilt is just a stepping stone to a claim of collective victimhood, which leads right back to collective scapegoating. Does anyone else see a pattern here?
This is wrong on several levels, starting with the fact that the 32 actual victims haven’t even buried yet. We should be mourning them. We live in a world where there’s plenty of real victimhood and little need to invent more. I’d like to see a whole lot less of all of this “collective” b.s. on all sides of all oceans, regardless of the nationalities of those concerned. I mean, didn’t Brian express it best? So please, let’s call off the Category 5 pogrom alert.
103 Responses
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There is absolutely no reason for this. This is beyond an act of terror.
How come no one rushed him like they did on the plane in 911?
If they bring up some tragic past of his they need to be fired. And no one should blame this on Video Games and violent videos.
“Guns don’t kill people stupid people with guns kill people.”
I play violent games and I love violent movies. It doesn’t mean I am going to go kill anyone. Crazy or not he deserves to die twice.
It’s unfathomable how someone would kill so many for NO good reason. I also feel grief for this young man’s family in South Korea. May God have mercy on them as well.
Review my blog for many details on this case — as they developed.
“How come no one rushed him like they did on the plane in 911? ”
I was asking myself the same thing all day long. Maybe because the story of the American’s rushing the cockpit is fake. Or maybe because people are so passive these days and just hope the duck and cover will save their lives.
As sad as this is I hate that there is so much media attention for these kids while kids the same age are dieing every day in Iraq.
Everyone watch out for people [deleted by OFK]. These violence-loving monsters are the one’s who do these horrible things. We Koreans should NOT be allowed to have guns or view ANY media that is rated over PG-13 or Teen. It is in our blood to do these terrible acts when provoked by movies and video games. It is time that we stopped these horrible things and went back to Korea.
[OFK: I run a clean house here, and we don’t do flame wars. Argue against ideas, not other people.]
“guns dont kill people, men who come home early kill people
this was a racial incident. just watch. why would some kid from korea just snap like this? my bet: they made fun of him forever, even at school, he never got laid, and snapped. I’d love to see whether he killed any asians.
First and foremost to the families involved. Please, Please… feel our love and prayers going out to you. Know that we feel for you and at anytime you can/should just ask for help and someone will be there. There is such controversy as to what the school did right/wrong/lockdowns etc. This young man had a plan that he would have carried out no matter what. He was on a mission that may not have been possible to prevent. Learn from this, grow and help others.
I think we should ALL look at how we raise our children and the time we spend teaching them right from wrong. I listened to horrible music growing up. It didnt make me want to kill cops, people, etc. HOWEVER, sometimes all those “good Things” dont help. there is the occasional person who needs more help than a parent or friend can give. They may need meds, couseling etc. It is our job as a society, neighbors teachers friends to notice these things, make others aware of them. And NOT be made to feel as if we are “ratting someone out”. And maybe we are not educated enough to see those signs. Maybe it should be a required class we all have to take, or our teachers should be more aware. I dont know, but too many kids “slip thru the cracks”.
It is so sad.
this is by far the worst thing that could happen. i feel for the families that were left behind by the 32 that have pasted. to think of the lifes of each one of them taken with no reason for it. i’m at loss try to put together a reason why he (Cho Seung-Hui) would do this. each of thoes students had a bright future in front of them and he stole it right out from under them. he is wrong for what he did to them i have to say i’m happy he took his own life.
I dont think anyone should jump to any conclusion behind a motive. Nobody has the right to say it was culture (video games, movies, etc), rascism, or anything else. I dont think any of us would know what we would do in this situation (rush them, hide, etc) unless we were in this situation. Let the authorities do a good job, hopefully, and pray for the victims and their families. Go home and give ur family a hug, cause its needed in these sort of times more than ever.
There is no evidence at this point to say this was racially motivated. From everything I hear, he was just upset over a breakup.
I think the real story here may be asian guilt. an Asian english major at Va Tech? There’s something there. I bet the parents put an outrageous amount of pressure on him, probably didnt know he was really majoring in english, they found out, flipped…that plus he couldnt relate to girls cause all the asian girls are with white (or black) guys……sucks to be an asian dude sometimes i think. (i’m not asian–but I date one…)
And you base that on absolutely nothing ….
back when this country was founded the right to bear arms only was men pushing a cannon up a hill and some muskets… now we have automatic weapons to kill mass quantities of young adults in an hour of time. every civilized country except ours has gun control we should too. Oh and by the way the kids did try to baracade themselves and they are as brave as those WHO DID TRY TO STOP the terrroist on that flight on 911. We do glorify violence in this country via media and it is sick and although many see it as nothing to act out those who have sick minds see it as someting to emulate. Just like superthin models may not make someone anorexic but it shore doesn’t take away the notion either.
Responding to the 911 comment.
You cant expect the reactions to these two enormously different situations to be the same. They were on a plane and these students were in a classroom. They were operatives from an educated terrorist group. he was a student that has no training. the timing is different, as the news says he came, he shot, he killed. the premeditation of both situations might relate to each other but by far they are different situations and you shouldnt bash the media or blame the american people. if you were in that classroom, what would you have done?
It’s never a matter of glory. It’s a matter of survival.
America is No 1. “pause ” “nooot”
nothing to say he did it over a girlfriend. that was what was floated out initially, as was that it was a “chinese” national, probably becuase the students can’t tell the difference b/w chinese and koreans. And as it regards the Second Amendment. If it is so abhorrent, then let the citizens repeal it. If not, we have to live with it because it is the law.
Yeah, well, I’d argue that this guy might have been able to stop the massacre if he hadn’t been so law-abiding as to obey Virginia Tech’s gun ban, which seems not to have been as effective in deterring the killer for some reason.
They probably did try to rush him. He was holding 2 guns, shooting rapidly; not a box cutter. It has been stated that most of the wounded had a least 3 bullets in them.
yes i agree the situations are different 911 flight had time to react these kids where basically had minutes but what i am saying is that these kids where just as brave. And that is the same in that flight. I am not blaming the american people i am just saying in this free nation we should not ask why this happened when we have the freedom to VOTE on gun laws to prevent this. Let us face it our four-fathers did not imagine anything beyond muskets and cannons. This kid should have not been able to obtain a gun.
he purchased the gun in april legally just so you know. you got to get the problem at the root.
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Either way, you have acomplete lack of understanding of our constitutional process. “gun control” can go only as far as it does not violate the 2nd Amendment. Period. And to outlaw weapons at this late stage (which would affect law abiding citizens only) and expect the criminals to simply hand in thei weapons is ludicrous. If more students were packing yesterday, they’d have shot this freak a lot sooner. And I hear that at least two students put themselves in harms way by holding the door shut when the freak left and then wanted to come back in. They were courageous kids yesterday. No one expects to be shot in German Class.
A LOT of presumptions here about the killer’s background and motives. He is from Centreville in Fairfax County, which we NoVa folks all know is a racially diverse area with a large and growing Asian population. If Cho was indeed a loner, it was not owing to his ethnicity.
just because i grew up with a public education and depend on spell check does not make me stupid. no i don’t think everyone will turn in the guns. But in this day in age while guns are getting more and more sophisticated and deadly would you want to have more stringent laws to prevent a kid like this to get one? And they do have programs where people turn in firearms for gift certificates. My father was a city of pittsburgh cop r.i.p. I know what is like to grow up with guns, they don’t need to be around young people trust me. When I was 17 i was depressed and thought about shooting myself after a breakup with a boyfriend. The fact that i even had thought option in my house well u can say i had the gun in my hand but i am alive today. who gives a shit if i don’t know to spell everything perfect you obviously get what i am saying to you. By the way I am 34 probably could have changed your diapers. Foreign national I never made it off the northside of pittsburgh. I bet your some WHITE SUBURBAN racial profilling type of dude….if you want to pass judgement on someone although that is not my style. Only god is to judge and truthfully i dont want his job.
I think the root of the problem in today’s society is the family core. We are straying away with the basic family fundamentals that were so important long ago. We live in a society were the divorce rate is up to 55 percent and growing. Children having children. Children being exposed to themes on television that was unheard of 20 years ago. This, however, is the tip of the problem that has caused a decay in not only our country but the rest of the world
My first thought on hearing how long the shooting went on and where it took place also made me surprised he was not rushed. I’ve been trying to explain this on other blogs without much luck. I’m glad at least someone else (I see from here) had similar thoughts.
It is about the fight-or-flight instinct. If you have such a large group of people as you would in a college building, once it became clear the guy was going to keep shooting and shooting, I would figure there would be some percentage of potential victims whose “fight” instinct would be strong enough that they would start to rush him and seeing that would push (instinctively – not cognatively) a couple others to do the same.
How many of you have ever first a handgun?
It isn’t easy to hit even stationary targets from even as close as under 10 yards. And if this guy were using both guns at the same time, that would mean he was shooting each with one hand – making his accuracy suffer.
I’ve been trained in shooting a pistol and reloading quickly and shooting again. You would be surprised at how much more difficult it is than what people generally believe.
And even trained shooters, in a setting like this, would probably prefer a pumpaction shotgun over a pistol.
And again, this isn’t about bravery or cowardice, at least not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about human/animal instinct. I am suprised given what I’ve read about the shooting that a certain percentage of the people in the area didn’t feel cornered and have their “fight” instinct kick in.
this a kid who was a loner held everything inside went nuts about some vapors he caught about his girl and the pressure of college at that age problems cut deeper as you get older you get a tolerance to it or numb. It is not a racial thing he killed all kinds of people male female old young black white. It doesn’t excuse it. But the oppurtunity should have not been there.
haven, i was responding to the 911 statement before yours
As for motives — how many of these shooting do we have to witness before we learn that guessing motives for something like this is pretty much wasted? I can remember the fast food copycat shootings in the 1980s. There was also a span of few years in New York where the wackos were launching their car onto sidewalks mowing down pedestrians. The phrase “going postal” came from a string of incidents spread over a few years….
…..all kinds of people have problems.
Much of the time, when someone goes over the edge, they just take themselves out — possibly a significant other too.
But every so often, one decides to take as many others out as possible…
It’s possible to agree with that statement and disagree that gun control over responsible citizens is the answer. Go to Israel sometime and you’ll see people with guns on every bus, taxi, and coffee shop. Unnerving? Yes, at first. But incidents like this are fairly infrequent in places like Israel or Switzerland; on the other hand, incidents of this kind happen in places like Germany and Russia where guns are supposedly controlled. And on further thought, do you really want to have a society like Germany’s, or Russia’s?
On the other hand, violent crime dropped significantly in Texas when that state passed a concealed carry law.
I do believe that you should have to pass mental health and criminal background checks to possess a gun, and that the penalties for unauthorized possession should be much more serious. And from the sound of it, this individual had some history.
There is supposed to be some good info to check out on gun violence in England before and after they passed more restrictive gun laws than they already had.
My website hits has gone through the roof. I have half a mind to pull the site down for a week or more until this thing blows over…
I’ve already gotten hate mail.
To think of how many hours I’ve put into that site over the years trying to infor people only to have those who bother to take a look miss the whole f-ing point……It’s depressing…
CAUSALITY.
i tend to place immediate doubt on claims of reduced crime as a result of easing of gun/armed weapon restrictions.
on that note, all this speculation about the shooter’s motives…
basically, the nation and the international community…is searching for someone, something to blame. blame targeted at the university president, blame targeted at the shooter’s ethnic/national background, even blame towards the students trapped in the building?
ridiculous! how can you ask ‘why no one tackled the shooter’ when they were in classrooms (cornered, if you will) at 9am, the doors to the building chained shut, and a gunman with a malicious deliberate aim at killing as many people as he could.
and what does placing blame matter if we make no tangible effective changes to improve our societies?
a little point on the defense of the university president, the school’s response to emergency/warning situations was obviously failed from the beginning and targeted as such. it was tested, and the weaknesses seemed to be taken in accordingly. shooting at 7am then going half a mile across campus to massacre at 9am. he knew what he was doing.
p.s. “usinkorea”: my condolences. i understand the intent behind your blog and im really sorry to see such misplaced anger directed towards you and your work.
a question.
is there a statement from the police on how they let him get to Norris?
one more thing.
i know there will be a lot of hate and anger directed towards them…
but my heart breaks for his parents and sister. to live with the guilt, … i couldnt even imagine.
I put up a couple of messages at the start of the site that should help.
On the gun laws, I think I mentioned above, I don’t know the details, but I have heard reference in the US press about studies done in England since they got much tougher with their gun laws when they already had much stronger ones by American standards – and as I remember it, they not only failed to find a coorelation between stricker laws and a drop in violent crime, it actually increased – and one explanation offered was that criminals were more confident in breaking into houses and other such crimes because they would be the only ones with a weapon most of the time.
Joshua wrote:
“On the other hand, violent crime dropped significantly in Texas when that state passed a concealed carry law.”
Links. please. Both pro and anti-gun control have loads of statistics to support their claims. My guess is that violent crime dropped elsewhere, too. Violent crime rates ebb and flow with changes in demographics and the drug trade.
There’s a link in there.
[Update: I agree with you on one point, Sonagi, which is that a subsequent drop in crime is not direct evidence that the carry permit law caused that drop. However, I can tell you that in my home state, where we have lots of guns, home invasions and burglaries are almost completely unknown. Part of the reason for that is that a home invasion would be sheer suicide in South Dakota, and I’m sure most of the crooks know that.]
Jane Chung wrote:
“on that note, all this speculation about the shooter’s motives…
basically, the nation and the international community…is searching for someone, something to blame. blame targeted at the university president, blame targeted at the shooter’s ethnic/national background, even blame towards the students trapped in the building?”
I’ve not heard or read anyone placing blame directly on the killer’s ethnic background. South Korea media and netizens have questioned whether the young man had adjustment difficulties, but no one is attributing this act of violence to his Koreanness. In fact, when I stopped by my northern Virginia town’s most popular coffee shop, I asked the manager if there was any chatter about the shooter being South Korean, mentioning my long sojourn in South Korea and Korean fears of reprisals as the reason for my inquiry. He shook his head and gave a firm “NO.” People have been talking about event all day long, but the gunman’s ethnicity has not been an issue.
Just as I suspected. Crime rates nationally peaked in the early nineties and have fallen since:
http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/fischer/soc180/members/Rosenfeld%20-%20Crime%20Decline.pdf
According to this report, there is no single clear reason to explain the drop.
Crime dropped even in NYC, which has long had strict gun control laws:
http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/fischer/soc180/members/Rosenfeld%20-%20Crime%20Decline.pdf
It took me all of two minutes to google “crime rates decline 1990s” to come up with a boatload of sources to debunk that nifty statistic.
Ah, yes. UC Berkeley’s Sociology Department ….
The Virginia Tech tragedy brings to mind a similar school shooting in 1979 California. 16 year old Brenda Spencer wounded nine and killed two in a shooting spree at an elementary school. She said, “I had no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun,” “It was just like shooting ducks in a pond,” and “(The children) looked like a herd of cows standing around, it was really easy pickings.”
I Don’t Like Mondays Either, But …
well it is naive to say that noone is discussing his ethnicity The post above poster said that a brief survey says the coffee owncer said noone is tallkin about his race.
People never reveal true feelings about race when asked to do so..it is a bit like polling pre-/post-election.
Sonagi,
The correlation between gun ownership and the murder rate is weak to non-existent, by definition (0.128448 between 1959 and 2000).
http://www.dprkstudies.org/images/guns-vs-murder.PNG
I can send the Excel spreadsheet upon request
here’s my 2 cents: u have no right to say anything about mental health issues. You know nothing about them. You know nothing really about Cho’s health or health care. Who’s to say his doctor gave him the correct medication anyway? If it was saying he was taking meds and then becoming increasingly violent, then obviously the meds were not working and he should have been taken off immediately. And I am offended by your use of the word “insane” and your repetitious “mental health” lines. You seem opinionated and ignorant of mental health issues. I suggest you do research on their plight before you ever make a comment about them again.
I suggest you do research on their plight before you ever make a comment about them again.
And I suggest you get back ON your own meds before flying off the handle like this again.
Sheesh, are you the only person here who has a right to voice an opinion?
Just read through various posts…as a Korean American, I think many are indeed ashamed to be loosely connected to the VT shooter. While this is quite unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but I wanted others to see that none of us condone this, and are equally shocked/saddened.
Ultimately, as many have noted, this is not a reflection on Koreans as a whole, it was an isolated person with mental/social problems. Sadly, there was many more controbuting factors that many do not want to explore, as its easy to jump on bandwagons and run with generalizations.
I find “Marx Roh” to be off his rocker with his typical lame comments. Roh’s main concern (most likely not genuine) was mobilizing efforts to minimize any retaliatory hate against innocent Koreans living in the US. Thanks Roh…quite infuriating coming from a president that built his entire campaign and presidency over anti US rhetoric and ratcheting up populist class warefare. We Korean Americans don’t need your assistance; you have done us enough harm.