Seung Hui Cho

The 23-year-old student who went on a bloody rampage at Virginia Tech had prepared the attack for weeks -- buying two semiautomatic pistols and writing a dark, hate-filled rant in his dormitory room before setting out with a backpack of ammunition to kill students and teachers, authorities said Tuesday.

A suspect has been taken into custody after a shooting at a community college office in a Virginia shopping mall where two women were wounded, officials said Friday. The first reports of the shooting came in to officials at 1:55 p.m., police said at a televised news conference, and authorities responded within moments to the New River Community College satellite office in the mall just south of Blacksburg, Va., home to Virginia Tech, police said. One woman was airlifted to a hospital and the other was taken for treatment by ambulance, police said.

The Virginia Tech gunman's missing mental health records have been found at the home of a former university counseling official more than two years after the bloodbath. The belated emergence of Seung-hui Cho's file, a development disclosed in a memo obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press, represents another embarrassing lapse in the case and raises questions about how such evidence could be lost for so long.

Virginia Tech did not violate federal law in its email response time that notified students of a campus rampage that left 33 people dead, the worst mass shooting by a gunman in U.S. history, a judge ruled Friday. The Department of Education had fined the university $55,000 for waiting more than two hours after the first round of gunfire to send out an email warning students, teachers and others to take cover. But the department's chief administrative judge, Ernest C. Canellos, found that the university did not violate a law requiring timely warnings of safety threats and overturned the fine.

The bloodbath lasted nine minutes -- enough time for Seung-hui Cho to unleash 170 rounds from his two pistols. During that time, Virginia Tech and Blacksburg police spent three minutes dashing across campus to the scene. Then they began the process of assembling a team, clearing the area and trying to break through the doors, which took another five minutes.

About 100 members of the Virginia Tech marching band played in a memorial service Saturday for bandmate Ryan Clark, remembered as a gregarious young man who went to lengths to make fellow students feel included. Clark, a 22-year-old from Martinez, Ga., was one of the first victims Monday of gunman Seung-hui Cho on the campus of Virginia Tech.

The Virginia Tech campus, where 33 people died in a shooting spree in 2007, was on lockdown Thursday morning after reports by school officials that a gunman had been sighted. In an alert posted on its website, the university said a person with what may be a gun had been sighted near Dietrick Hall at the campus in Blacksburg, Va. "Stay inside. Secure doors," the alert urged the campus community. "People on campus stay indoors until further notice," the university ordered.

The three-story beige town house on Truitt Farm Drive stands as the Cho family's symbol of middle-class success, precisely what they were searching for when they left a dank basement apartment and a life of struggle in South Korea 15 years ago. But the dream house is empty now, abandoned by a family on the run, not from the law but from a world seeking some sort of explanation.

A suspect has been taken into custody after a shooting at a community college office in a Virginia shopping mall where two women were wounded, officials said Friday. The first reports of the shooting came in to officials at 1:55 p.m., police said at a televised news conference, and authorities responded within moments to the New River Community College satellite office in the mall just south of Blacksburg, Va., home to Virginia Tech, police said. One woman was airlifted to a hospital and the other was taken for treatment by ambulance, police said.

The raindrops had just started falling late Thursday afternoon in front of Montgomery Regional Hospital when the Marching Virginians showed up, instruments in hand. Inside, six of their Virginia Tech classmates -- including four who remained in intensive care -- were being treated for gunshot wounds. Three others were being treated at nearby hospitals. All had witnessed Monday's carnage firsthand, both in body and in spirit.

The Virginia Tech campus, where 33 people died in a shooting spree in 2007, was on lockdown Thursday morning after reports by school officials that a gunman had been sighted. In an alert posted on its website, the university said a person with what may be a gun had been sighted near Dietrick Hall at the campus in Blacksburg, Va. "Stay inside. Secure doors," the alert urged the campus community. "People on campus stay indoors until further notice," the university ordered.

Virginia Tech lifted a lockdown Thursday more than five hours after three youths reported seeing a man carrying what may have been a gun covered with a cloth on the campus where 33 people died in a mass shooting four years ago. Authorities scoured the campus and even released a composite police sketch of the man, but uncovered no new information. At 2:41 p.m. EDT, the university posted a note on its website declaring an end to the lockdown under which students, faculty and others had been asked to remain indoors.

The Virginia Tech gunman's missing mental health records have been found at the home of a former university counseling official more than two years after the bloodbath. The belated emergence of Seung-hui Cho's file, a development disclosed in a memo obtained Wednesday by the Associated Press, represents another embarrassing lapse in the case and raises questions about how such evidence could be lost for so long.

A misunderstanding of federal privacy laws among Virginia Tech officials, including a failure to notify his parents, was a major reason why Seung-hui Cho did not receive sustained mental-health counseling that might have prevented his rampage, according to a report released last week. The analysis -- from a special panel reporting to Virginia Gov. Timothy M.

The bloodbath lasted nine minutes -- enough time for Seung-hui Cho to unleash 170 rounds from his two pistols. During that time, Virginia Tech and Blacksburg police spent three minutes dashing across campus to the scene. Then they began the process of assembling a team, clearing the area and trying to break through the doors, which took another five minutes.

The first pops echoed from a distance, but nobody thought much of it. Construction crews had been hammering and drilling for weeks below the window of Room 211 in Norris Hall at Virginia Tech. Professor Jocelyne Couture-Nowak went on teaching. The pops turned to muffled bangs -- then loud staccato blasts. They sounded close, like they were coming from the hall. Please tell me that isn't what I think it is, Madame Couture said. It's just hammers, a student reassured her.

A persecution complex. Paranoid schizophrenia. Psychotic depression, with both homicidal and suicidal characteristics. Severe bipolar disorder. Though no one can now diagnose Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho, mental health experts who watched his videotaped message about Monday's rampage say there was evidence of all of those mental disorders. His desire to kill others as well as himself is "not an unusual combination for a school shooter," said Dr.

A misunderstanding of federal privacy laws among Virginia Tech officials, including a failure to notify his parents, was a major reason why Seung-hui Cho did not receive sustained mental-health counseling that might have prevented his rampage, according to a report released last week. The analysis -- from a special panel reporting to Virginia Gov. Timothy M.

About 100 members of the Virginia Tech marching band played in a memorial service Saturday for bandmate Ryan Clark, remembered as a gregarious young man who went to lengths to make fellow students feel included. Clark, a 22-year-old from Martinez, Ga., was one of the first victims Monday of gunman Seung-hui Cho on the campus of Virginia Tech.

The three-story beige town house on Truitt Farm Drive stands as the Cho family's symbol of middle-class success, precisely what they were searching for when they left a dank basement apartment and a life of struggle in South Korea 15 years ago. But the dream house is empty now, abandoned by a family on the run, not from the law but from a world seeking some sort of explanation.