Investigation Into Virginia Tech Shooter Continues

As someone who grew up in Virginia and was about to finish up my undergraduate degree at GMU in April of 2007, I was a little shaken up when I heard the news of the massacre at Virginia Tech. The shooter had actually gone to my high school before transferring to Westfields High School when it opened and many of my friends and neighbors were actually students at Tech. I still wasn't a student there, so I can only imagine what students went through at the time.

Although many of the same students that were there back in 2007 have already graduated, I still couldn't help but feel sorry for the Tech community when the news came out that there was yet another shooting. What makes this second shooting disturbing is that they still haven't been able to determine the shooter's motive. Plus, the authorities don't think there was any connection between the part time Radford student and the Virginia Tech police officer he shot.

Why Ashley shot Crouse as he sat in his unmarked police car after a midday traffic stop remains a subject of investigation, police said. Radford officials said the student originally from Partlow, in Spotsylvania County near Fredericksburg, was enrolled as a business management major.

"At this time, there remains no prior connection or contact between Ashley" and Crouse, Virginia State Police said in a statement. "Investigators are continuing their work to establish a motive in the killing and to re-create Ashley's movements in the days and hours leading up to the murder-suicide

I don't know about you, but I've noticed the media always to find neighbors who claim that "there was something off" about a shooter when they're interviewed about him/her afterwards. In this case, that doesn't really seem to be true as there are reports that claim he was a mostly quiet kid who actually made the Dean's List.

The only thing that really appears to be off -- if you even would want to call it that -- is that he would run down the hallways of his apartment complex and had recently shaved his head. One commenter, however, did say that "He was a clean-cut young guy but standoffish."

This seems to be a lot different that the last shooting at Tech, where there had been plenty of signs that Seung-Hui Cho was disturbed and needed help. Although charges weren't filed, for instance, Cho had been accused of stalking two female students at Tech and the mental health facilities at Tech had been notified that he might be suicidal. That's why so many people believe the first tragedy could have been avoided.

The good news is that because of all the policy changes that resulted from the 2007 shootings, the notification programs appeared to work well and Tech campus was quickly locked down. While the motive and a lot of the details of what happened still haven't been announced, there's a good chance that this quick action could have saved some lives. At the very least, based upon what I've heard from Tech students, it made the Tech community feel as safe as possible during the tension filled hours immediately following the shooting.

With all that being said, I still can't help but feel for the Tech community and wonder why that school has been the target of two shootings in the last four years. If nothing else, it seems like this week's events should cause Ken Cuccinelli to re-consider his comments that my alma mater (GMU) is "crazy" for wanting to ban guns on its campus.