BLACKSBURG, Virginia (AP) _ A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dormitory and then in a classroom building across campus two hours later Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.Students said there were no public-address announcements or other warnings on campus until an e-mail more than two hours after the first shooting of two people. By then, the gunman had struck again, killing 31 others, including himself.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities at first believed that the shooting at the dormitory was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.
“We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur,” he said.
Investigators offered no motive for the attack. The gunman’s name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student. At least 26 people were injured.
Earlier in the day, the police chief said he believed there was only one gunman, but at an evening news conference, he and the university president said they were still investigating whether the shootings were related.
The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus, with witnesses reporting students jumping out classroom windows to escape the gunfire. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. A police commando unit with flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed the campus.
Police said doors in the classroom building were chained shut from the inside.
“Schools should be places of safety, sanctuary and learning,” President George W. Bush said Monday afternoon. “When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom in every American community.’
Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II was “shocked and saddened” after hearing of the shootings. She had planned to visit Virginia in May to mark the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement.
Monday’s bloodbath took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a coed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” Steger said. `
Steger said the university decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to notify members of the university, but with 11,000 people driving onto campus in the morning, it was difficult to reach everyone. He said the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to spread the word.
A law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete, said the gunman had two pistols and multiple clips of ammunition.
Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.
Some students bitterly questioned why the gunman was able to strike a second time.
Students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said the first notification they got of the shootings came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the first shooting.
The e-mail had few details. It said: “A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.” The message warned students to be cautious and contact police about anything suspicious.
At least 26 people were being treated at three area hospitals for gunshot wounds and other injuries, authorities said. Their exact conditions were not disclosed, but at least one was sent to a trauma center and six were in surgery, authorities said.
Edmund Henneke, associate dean of engineering, said he had just read the e-mail advisory regarding the first shooting when he heard gunfire. Moments later, police commando members rushed him and others downstairs “but the doors were chained and padlocked from the inside.” They left the building through a construction area that had not been locked.
Henneke said it is unfair to criticize the school over the delay in warning.
“People are absolutely making too much of that. You do what you can,” Henneke said. “We have a huge campus. You have to close down a small town and you can’t close down every way in or out.”
Before Monday, the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire. He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police.
Previously, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks, but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.
It was the second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.
In August 2006, the opening day of classes was canceled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area. A sheriff’s deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.
The accused gunman, William Morva is currently facing capital murder charges.