VTECH shooting: another suspect; no motive, hard-drive or cell phone

[Hildegarda]

Did you guys grab this one yet and put in on the site ?????

http://news.[]yahoo.com/s/ap/20070810/ap_on_re_us/virginia_tech_investigation

Suspicious man seen before Va. massacre

By SUE LINDSEY and ZINIE CHEN SAMPSON, Associated Press Writers 1 hour, 38 minutes ago

ROANOKE, Va. - Two days before the Virginia Tech massacre, witnesses saw a suspicious man in a hooded sweat shirt and found at least one exit door chained shut in the building where Seung Hui Cho killed 30 people, police said Friday.


Cho chained most of the exits of Norris Hall before firing 174 rounds of ammunition in just more than nine minutes there, but investigators said they had no indication he was the person who had chained the exit the first time.

"It would be speculation to suggest that he was practicing locking the doors," State Police Superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty said in the first update on the investigation in months.

Police did not learn of the April 14 incident until after Cho killed 25 fellow students and five faculty members in four Norris Hall classrooms April 16, State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. Police would not say who reported seeing the man, or who found the door chained.

Cho, a mentally disturbed student, also killed two people in a dormitory and fatally shot himself as police broke through the chained doors. Another 23 people were wounded, Flaherty said.

Authorities said Friday they have yet to find evidence linking Cho to any of his victims, nothing suggesting he had an accomplice and nothing to clear up his motive.

"Why West Ambler-Johnston? Why room 4040? And why Emily Hilscher? We just don't know," Virginia Tech police Chief Wendell Flinchum said, referring to one of Cho's first victims and the dorm in which she died.

Because the dormitory was locked early that morning, "we believe Cho waited for some unsuspecting individual to walk in or out of West Ambler-Johnston and then took the opportunity to enter the dorm," Flinchum said.

Investigators have not found the hard drive to Cho's computers, Flaherty said.

"That's a piece of evidence we would love to find, along with his cell phone and possibly some other documents," he said.

A state panel that Gov. Timothy M. Kaine appointed to look into the shootings — the worst in modern U.S. history — is expected to issue a report this month.

(This version CORRECTS that at least one exit door was found chained shut; also corrects the quote from Flinchum.)

I mean, HOW OBVIOUS CAN IT GET???!!!???

 

[OCKHAM]

There is also something funny about chaining doors shut that doesn't make sense. How do you do that? I can see chaining two doors together using a cross bar which replaces the plunger on a door that a knob usually controls, but on a single door with a cross bar, what do you tie the chain to?

The whole chain story is also suspicious and no explanation seems to come forward.

 

[mudrabbit]

There is also something funny about chaining doors shut that doesn't make sense. How do you do that? I can see chaining two doors together using a cross bar which replaces the plunger on a door that a knob usually controls, but on a single door with a cross bar, what do you tie the chain to?

The whole chain story is also suspicious and no explanation seems to come forward.

I've seen it done in large auditoriums here, usually when they close for the day. The handles are bars that run the width of the door, about waist high. When the bars are pushed, the door opens. They close the doors, run a two or three foot chain through each handle, then put a padlock on the chain. Thing is, there are fire codes in this country that are supposed to prevent this practice when the building is still occupying people.


Peg

 

[OCKHAM]

Yes, I think I've seen that done also when you have a set of double doors.

But what about single doors? Can we assume only interior doors where chained and not exit doors, and surely exit doors, some had to be single doors. I suppose it is possible that all exit doors are double doors.

 

[mudrabbit]

Yes, I think I've seen that done also when you have a set of double doors.

But what about single doors? Can we assume only interior doors where chained and not exit doors, and surely exit doors, some had to be single doors. I suppose it is possible that all exit doors are double doors.

Many of the older colleges and institutions still have the double doors at the ends of the hallways.