As the story broke, users of Digg, a popular news-sharing site, posted stories by CNN and ABC News, then returned to those posts all day to share fatality counts, warm wishes to survivors, condolences to families of the dead and links to a cellphone video recorded by a Virginia Tech student outside Norris Hall as the shooting happened.
"What this link became was a place to learn what happened in the last five minutes," said Jay Adelson, chief executive of San Francisco-based Digg.
Anthony Le, 19, a civil engineering student at Virginia Tech, kept his ear to a police scanner all morning as the drama unfolded, then posted whatever information he learned on Digg.
"The count of the fatalities was a lot slower on CNN than on Digg," Le said.
Carter, 18, left class shortly before 10 a.m., saw police cars and wondered what was brewing. A message began blaring over the campus loudspeaker: "This is an emergency. Take shelter indoors immediately. Stay away from windows and remain inside."
Gunshots sounded. Carter headed for his dorm.
He managed to make two calls before the cellphone networks jammed. He sent instant messages to friends on the other side of campus.
"We didn't know anything," Carter said. "So we kept trying to find out things online."
He began to blog. At 10:48, he posted the photos and a quick account of the morning's events. An hour later he posted video he shot on his digital camera. Soon, the death toll began to emerge.
"We topped Columbine," he wrote at 12:40. "Please God, have none of them be my friends."
Carter's firsthand account, linked to by latimes.com and many other websites, drew dozens of comments.
"I just tried to share my story with friends, what it's like to be here," Carter said in an interview.
Reporters seeking interviews began to post messages on Carter's blog. Some of his readers objected, calling the journalists "vultures."
Timothy Campbell, a forensic scientist in Toronto, posted encouragement, telling Carter, "Everyone is watching."
"I like to get a mixed viewpoint, both from big media, which can be detached, and from Bryce, who's intimately connected with the event," Campbell said.
By the end of the day, Carter said he had heard from countless friends and strangers. With phone lines flooded, they contacted him via instant messenger, e-mail, Facebook and other electronic methods.
"My postings are simply what I always do," he wrote, "except I left my thoughts for the public instead of just my friends."
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michelle.quinn@latimes.com
alex.pham@latimes.com
Times staff writer Tony Barboza contributed to this story.
