Virginia Tech: Cops look for answers

Blacksburg, Virginia: Police in Virginia, USA, have a preliminary identification of the man who methodically shot and killed at least 30 people on the campus of Virginia Tech, but they are not yet ready to release it.

Did the same gunman kill two people in a dormitory and then two hours later chain the doors of an academic building and begin to kill as many as he could? Investigators are trying to answer this question.

The gunman killed 30 people in Norris Hall classrooms before taking his own life. University President Charles Steger told reporters that officers found the front doors of Norris Hall chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped.

A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a .22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene.

University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that authorities had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.

Playing dead to live

The gunman was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," said a student who survived by pretending to lie dead on a Norris Hall classroom floor.

"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan.

She described the gunman as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest. "He seemed very thorough about it—getting almost everyone down—I pretended to be dead," she said.

"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.

The gunman left but returned in about 30 seconds. "I guess he heard us still talking," said Sheehan.

"We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, because the door would not lock."

PAGE_BREAK

The man tried three more times to force his way in and then began firing through the door, she said.

Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher's office.

Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area. "They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot," Otey said. "I guess they were afraid, like us—like the shooter was going to be among one of us."

The day's first shooting, at the dormitory, left two people dead. Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the dorm and Norris Hall shooting incidents were related.