The Virginia Tech Shooter (from Gothamist.com)

The man who shot 32 people at Virginia Tech yesterday morning (April 16, 2007) was identified by authorities as Cho Seung Hui. He is described as a 23-year-old student, a senior majoring in English, who lived in one of the dorms. He is also a legal resident from South Korea.

Additionally, ballistics from one of the guns retrieved at Norris Hall, where the second shooting of 30 students took place, matched ballistics evidence from the first shooting at a dormitory. (NBC News says that it appears he legally purchased the guns in the past few days -and it’s legal for legal residents to buy guns.) The authorities are starting to release the names of victims, after they have been identified and next of kin have been notified.

Some of the Virginia Tech Victims (from msnbc.msn.com)

They came to Blacksburg, Va., from all over the country — and all over the world. They came to study, and they came to teach. They had plans. They had friends. They had families.

As the list of confirmed victims in Monday’s massacre on the Virginia Tech campus grew, so too did the number of stories about the individuals who fell victim to the gunman, 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui of Centreville, Va.

There were stories of heroism. Students of Liviu Librescu, an engineering science and mechanics lecturer, say he blocked the door of his classroom with his body to protect those inside. Librescu, 76, was a Holocaust survivor.

Ryan Clark, a popular and gregarious member of the Marching Virginians band, was just weeks away from graduation. A resident adviser on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston dorm, Clark came to the aid of a student the morning of April 16. It cost him his life.

Students told of teachers who inspired them. Neighbors spoke of children they’d seen grow up and leave for college, lives filled with promise.

Kevin Granata was one of the top five biomechanics researchers in the country working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy. He coached his children in many sports and extracurricular activities.

Reema Samaha, a freshman who performed with the school’s Contemporary Dance Ensemble, was shot dead in French class.

Juan Ramon Ortiz, from Puerto Rico, decorated his parents’ one-story concrete house each Christmas. A neighbor heard Ortiz’s mother scream when she learned of her son’s death.

One Blog Silence

One Day Blog Silence

This blog will participate in the One Day Blog Silence on April 30th 2007. In honor of the 33 victims at Virginia Tech. Read more about it here.