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Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech

Seung-Hui Cho (January 18, 1984–April 16, 2007), also known as Cho Seung-Hui or Seung Cho was a mass murderer who shot and killed 32 people and wounded many more.

The shooting rampage, termed the "Virginia Tech massacre," took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University—commonly known as Virginia Tech—in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States.

He committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the academic building in which he had killed 30 of his 32 victims and wounded many more, both faculty and students. Cho was a South Korean national with permanent resident status in the United States and was a senior English major at Virginia Tech.

Childhood and adolescence

In September 1992, Seung-Hui Cho immigrated to the United States at age 8 with both of his parents and his older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho. Cho's family lived in Detroit, Michigan before moving to Centreville, an unincorporated town located in western Fairfax County, Virginia about 25 miles (40 km) west of Washington, D.C. Cho was a permanent resident of the United States and a South Korean national whose permanent address was in Centreville.

Behavior as a young child

Cho's maternal great-aunt, Kim Yang-soon, described Cho as "cold" and a cause of family concern from as young as 8 years old. According to Kim—who met him only twice—Cho was extremely shy and "just wouldn't talk at all." He was otherwise considered "well-behaved," readily obeying verbal commands and cues. The aunt said she knew something was wrong after the family's departure for the United States because she heard frequent updates about Cho's older sister, but little news about Cho.

During a New Year's telephone call in 2006, Cho's mother told the elderly aunt that Cho might have autism, a developmental disability marked by profound social isolation and delayed speech acquisition. No autism diagnosis could be verified with Cho's parents, and no records or other evidence have surfaced to indicate such a diagnosis was made or relied upon by U.S. school authorities. Cho's relatives thought that he was mute or even mentally ill. According to Cho's uncle, Cho "didn’t say much and didn't mix with other children."

Behavior in elementary school

Cho studied at Poplar Tree Elementary School in Chantilly, an unincorporated section of Fairfax County. According to Kim Gyeong-won, Cho's friend in elementary school for three years (and currently a student of Seoul's Kyung Hee University), Cho finished the school's three-year program in one and a half years. Cho was noted for being good at mathematics and English, and teachers pointed to him as an example for other students.

Kim met Cho in fifth grade, attending the same classes and riding the school bus together. There were only three Korean students in the school. Back then, he said, nobody hated Cho and he "was recognised by friends as a boy of knowledge... a good dresser who was popular with the girls." Cho kept a distance from others because he chose to do so. Kim added that "I only have good memories about him."

Behavior in middle school and high school

Cho attended secondary schools in Fairfax County, including Stone Middle School in Centreville and Westfield High School in Chantilly.

In middle school and high school, Cho was teased and picked on for his shyness and unusual speech patterns. In English class at Westfield High School, he looked down and refused to speak when called upon, said Chris Davids, a high school classmate. After one teacher threatened to give him a failing grade for not participating, Cho began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth," Davids said. "The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, ‘Go back to China.’"

Another classmate, Stephanie Roberts, stated that "There were just some people who were really cruel to him, and they would push him down and laugh at him. He didn't speak English really well, and they would really make fun of him." Cho was also teased as the "Trombone Kid" for is habit of walking to school alone with his trombone, other students recall crueller names and that most of the bullying was because he was so alone.

Christopher Chomchird and Carmen Blandon, former classmates of Cho, stated that they heard rumors of a "hit list" of other students Cho wanted to kill; Blandon stated that she saw the "list" as a joke at the time. Cho graduated from Westfield High School in 2003.

To address his problems, Cho's parents took him to church. But he was bullied in his youth group, especially by "the rich kids." In a interview with Newsweek magazine a pastor at Centreville Korean Presbyterian Church said that Cho was an intelligent student who understood the Bible but he was concerned over Cho’s difficulty speaking; until he saw the video Cho sent to NBC, he never saw him complete a sentence. The pastor also recalled that told Cho's mother that he speculated Cho was a little autistic and he asked her to take him to a hospital but she declined.

Demeanor at Virginia Tech

Cho was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, majoring in English, although he had told others he was a business major. At the time of the attacks, he was living in Suite 2121 in Harper Hall, a dormitory just west of West Ambler Johnston Hall, with five roommates.

Relationship with professors

Professor/Professional Poet Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in a poetry class, stated that she had him removed from her class because she found his behavior menacing. She recalls being bothered by a "mean streak" and described Cho's writing as "intimidating." When informed of the massacre, she remarked, "I knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," and "I would have been shocked if it wasn't."

Giovanni insisted that Cho be removed from her class in 2005, about six weeks after the semester had started in September; Cho had intimidated female students by photographing their legs under their desks and by writing obscene, violent poetry. Giovanni said, "I was willing to resign before I would continue with him."

Giovanni wrote a letter to then-department head Lucinda Roy, who removed Cho from the class. Roy alerted student affairs, the dean's office, and the campus police, but each said there was nothing they could do if Cho had made no overt threats against himself or others.

Roy described Cho as "an intelligent man" but stated that he seemed to be an awkward and very lonely and insecure student who never took off his sunglasses, even indoors. She described his behavior as at times "arrogant" and "obnoxious". Roy says she tried several different ways to help him. Roy would not comment at length on Cho’s writings, saying only that in general they “seemed very angry.”

She said that he whispered, took 20 seconds to answer questions, and took cell phone pictures of her in class. After becoming concerned with his behavior and the themes in his writings, Roy started meeting with Cho to work with him one-on-one. She said she was concerned for her safety when she met with him. Roy told her assistant that if she uttered a name of a dead professor, a secret emergency code, the assistant was to call security. After notifying the legal authorities about his behavior, Roy urged Cho to seek counseling, but he never attended.

When Virginia Tech creative writing professor Lisa Norris who taught Cho in both Advanced Fiction Writing and Contemporary Fiction inquired about Cho from the school's associate dean for Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Mary Ann Lewis, she was not told that Cho was suffering from mental health issues, nor about police reports.

Norris wrote, "My guess is that either the information was not accessible to her or it was privileged and could not be released to me." Lewis told professor Norris to recommend that Cho seek counseling at the on-campus Cook Counseling Center, which she had already done.

Relationship with students

Fellow students described Cho as a "quiet" person who "would not respond if someone greeted him." Student Julie Poole recalled the first day of a literature class last year, when the students introduced themselves one by one: when it was Cho's turn, he did not speak. The professor, she said, looked at the sign-in sheet, and where everyone else had written their names, Cho had written a question mark. "We just really knew him as the question mark kid," Poole added.

According to a CNN interview with both his roommates, Andy Koch and John Eide, Cho demonstrated repetitive behavior such as listening repeatedly to Collective Soul's "Shine" and writing the lyrics "Teach me how to speak; Teach me how to share; Teach me where to go" on his dormitory room wall.

Andy described two unusual incidents, one in which Cho stood in the doorway of his room late at night taking photographs of him, the second in which he repeatedly placed harassing cell phone calls to Andy as "Cho's brother, Question Mark", a name Cho also used when introducing himself to girls with whom he was allegedly obsessed. Koch and Eide searched Cho's belongings and found a pocket knife; they did not find any items that they deemed seriously threatening.

In the fall of 2005, Cho told Koch and Eide that he had an imaginary girlfriend he called "Jelly", a supermodel that lived in outer space who called Cho by the name "Spanky". Due to Cho's troubling behaviours during 2005-06, Koch and Eide who had tried to befriend Cho, gradually stopped talking to him and told their friends, especially female classmates, not to visit their room.

Andy Koch and John Eide also stated that that Cho was involved in at least three stalking incidents, two of which resulted in verbal warnings by campus police. The first stalking incident occurred on Sunday November 27 2005.

According to Koch, after the incident Cho claimed that he had AIMed the girl online and found out where she lived. He then went to her dorm room to see if she was "cool", but only found "promiscuity" in her eyes. Eide added that when Cho visited the girl he said, "Hi, I'm Question Mark" to her, "which really freaked her out."

The girl called campus police; she complained that Cho sent her annoying messages and he had made an unannounced visit. Two uniformed members of campus police visited Cho’s dorm late Sunday evening and verbally warned him not to contact the girl again, no further contact was made.

The final stalking incident occurred on Tuesday December 13 2005. Cho frightened a friend of Koch by writing on her door board a line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene II, in which Romeo laments to Juliet:

My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself. . . . Had I it written, I would tear the word.

The young woman contacted the campus police and again Cho was verbally warned. No further contact was made. Later on Tuesday, Cho texted Koch saying, "I might as well kill myself now." Worried that Cho was suicidal, Koch contacted his father for advice and they both contacted campus authorities. The campus police returned to the dorm and escorted Cho to Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford, Va.

Psychiatric evaluation

According to Virginia law, "A magistrate has the authority to issue a detention order upon a finding that a person is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization or treatment." The magistrate also must find that the person is an imminent danger to himself or others.

On December 13, 2005, Cho was temporarily detained for a psychiatric assessment, as he was suspected to be mentally ill and a danger to himself or others by a Montgomery County, Virginia district court. Virginia Special Justice Paul Barnett certified in an order that Cho "[presented] an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness," and directed that as a "Court-ordered Out-Patient he follow all recommended treatments."

Following a psychiatric evaluation and medical exam which noted Cho's flat affect and depressed mood, he was ordered to undergo outpatient care and was released on December 14, 2005. Some reports state that Cho is believed to have been taking psychiatric medications for depression, but there is no record of this.

“Virginia state law on mental health disqualifications to firearms purchases, however, is worded slightly differently from the federal statute. So the form that Virginia courts use to notify state police about a mental health disqualification addresses only the state criteria, which list two potential categories that would warrant notification to the state police: someone who was “involuntarily committed” or ruled mentally “incapacitated.”^”

Cho was not involuntarily committed and was still legally eligible to buy guns under Virginia law. A Virginia state official and other law experts have argued that under United States federal law, Justice Barnett's order meant that Cho had been "adjudicated as a mental defective" and was thus ineligible to purchase firearms under federal law.

In a New Year's call in 2006, Cho's parents told the elderly aunt that he might have autism, a developmental disability marked by profound social isolation and delayed speech acquisition. However, no autism diagnosis could be verified with Cho's parents, and no records or other evidence have surfaced to indicate such a diagnosis was ever made, let alone relied upon, by U.S. school authorities.

Virginia Tech massacre

Around 7:15 a.m. EDT (11:15 UTC), Cho allegedly killed two students, Emily J. Hilscher and Ryan C. "Stack" Clark, on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall, a high-rise co-educational dormitory.

Police had not positively stated that Cho was the perpetrator of that shooting in addition to the later one, although forensic evidence confirmed that the same gun was used in both shooting incidents.

Within the next two and a half hours, Cho returned to his room to re-arm himself and mailed a package containing pictures, digital video files and documents to NBC News. At approximately 9:45 a.m. EDT (13:45 UTC), Cho then crossed the campus to Norris Hall, a classroom building on the campus where, in a span of nine minutes, Cho shot dozens of people, killing 30 of them.

As police breached area of the building where Cho attacked the faculty and students, Cho committed suicide in Norris 211 with a gunshot to his head. The police identified Cho by matching the fingerprints on the guns used in the shootings with immigration records. Cho's rampage occurred on April 16, 2007, just four days before the 8th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.

Preparation

Weapons

During February and March 2007, Cho began purchasing the weapons that he later used during the killings. On February 2, 2007, Cho purchased his first handgun, a .22 caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol, from TGSCOM Inc., a federally-licensed firearms dealer based in Green Bay, Wisconsin and the operator of the website through which Cho ordered the gun. TGSCOM Inc. shipped the Walther P22 to JND Pawnbrokers in Blacksburg, Virginia, where Cho completed the purchase transaction and picked up the handgun.

Cho bought a second handgun, a 9 mm Glock 19 semiautomatic pistol, on March 13, 2007 from Roanoke Firearms, a licensed gun dealer located in Roanoke, Virginia. Cho was able to pass both background checks and successfully complete both handgun purchases after he presented to the gun dealers his U.S. permanent residency card, his Virginia driver's permit to prove legal age and length of Virginia residence and a checkbook showing his Virginia address, in addition to waiting the required 30-day period between each gun purchase.

He was successful in completing both handgun purchases, even though he failed to disclose on the background questionnaire information about his mental health history leading to court-ordered outpatient treatment at a mental health facility.

On March 22, 2007, Cho purchased two 10-round magazines for the Walther P22 pistol through eBay from Elk Ridge Shooting Supplies in Idaho. Cho purchased additional ammunition magazines from the Wal-Mart and Dick's Sporting Goods stores. Based on a preliminary computer forensics examination of Cho's eBay purchase records, investigators suspect that Cho may have purchased an additional 10-round magazine on March 23, 2007 from another eBay seller who sold gun accessories.

Motive

During the investigation, the police found a note in Cho's room that in which he criticized "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans." In the note, Cho continued by saying that "you caused me to do this." Early reports also speculated that Cho was obsessed with fellow student Emily Hilscher and became enraged after his romantic overtures were rejected.

During the investigation, law enforcement officials could not find evidence that Cho knew Hilscher or the other students killed during the rampage. According to Heather Haugh, Hilscher's roommate, she also knew of no connection between Hilscher and Cho.

Aftermath

Investigation

Through ballistics examination, law enforcement investigators determined that Cho used the Glock 19 pistol during the attacks at the West Ambler Johnston dormitory and at Norris Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.

Police investigators found that Cho fired 170 shots during the bloody killing spree, with evidence technicians finding at least 17 spent ammunition magazines at the scene. During the investigation, federal law enforcement investigators found that the serial numbers were filed off both the Walther P22 and the Glock 19 handguns used by Cho during the killing spree.

Investigators also learned that Cho practiced shooting during mid-March at a firing range in Roanoke, about 40 miles from the Virginia Tech campus. According to former FBI agent Brad Garrett, "This was no spur-of-the-moment crime. He's been thinking about this for several months prior to the shooting."

In the aftermath of the spree killing, Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine appointed a panel to investigate the campus shootings. Governor Kaine also invited former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to join the panel to review Cho’s mental health history and how police responded to the shootings. The panel plans to submit a report of its findings in approximately two to three months. To help investigate and analyze the emergency response surrounding the shootings at Virginia Tech, Governor Kaine also hired the same company that investigated the Columbine massacre.

Reaction of Cho's family

Cho's older sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, a 2004 graduate of Princeton University who works as a contractor for the United States Department of State, prepared a public statement on her family's behalf, publicly apologizing for her brother's actions and lending prayers to the victims and the families of the wounded and killed victims. "This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person," she said in the statement issued through a North Carolina attorney. "We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence." Cho's grandfather stated, "My grandson Seung-Hui was very shy. I can't believe he did such a thing."

Media package sent to NBC News

During the time period between the two shooting events on April 16, Cho visited a local post office near the Virginia Tech campus where he mailed a parcel to the New York headquarters of NBC News containing video clips, photographs and a manifesto explaining the reasons for his actions. The package was delayed in its delivery to NBC News because of an incorrect ZIP code in the address of the parcel.

Release of material

Upon receiving the package on April 18, 2007, NBC contacted authorities and made the controversial decision to publicize Cho's communications by releasing a small fraction of what it received.

After pictures and images from the videos were broadcasted in numerous news reports, students and faculty from Virginia Tech, along with relatives of victims of the campus shooting, expressed concerns that glorifying Cho's rampage could lead to copycat killings. The airing of the manifesto and its video images and pictures were especially upsetting to those persons affected by the shootings. Peter Read, the father of Mary Read, one of the students who was killed by Cho during the rampage, asked the media to stop airing Cho's manifesto.

Police officials, who reviewed the video, pictures and Cho's manifesto, concluded that the contents of the media package had marginal value in helping them learn and understand why Cho committed the killings.

Dr. Michael Wellner, who also reviewed the materials, believed that Cho's rantings offer little insight into the mental illness that may have triggered his rampage. Wellner stated that "These videos do not help us understand [Cho]. They distort him. He was meek. He was quiet. This is a PR tape of him trying to turn himself into a Quentin Tarantino character."

During the April 24, 2007 edition of the Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC News President Steve Capus stated NBC decided to show two minutes of 25 minutes of video, seven of 43 photographs and 37 sentences of 23 pages of written material. He also stated that the content not shown included "over the top profanity" and "incredibly violent images." He expressed hope that the unreleased material is never made public.

Contents

In his manifesto, Cho mentioned the Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold with respect and denigrated former teachers John Mark Karr and Debra Lafave. In one of the videos, Cho said:

“I didn’t have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It’s not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you fucked, I did it for them… When the time came, I did it. I had to.”

Pete Williams, a MSNBC justice correspondent, opined that Cho lacked logical governance, suggesting that Cho was under severe emotional distress. In the video, Cho also railed against materialism and hedonism while, in another video, he compared himself to Jesus Christ, explaining that his death will influence generations of people.

Media organizations, including Newsweek, Reuters and the Associated Press, even raised questions and speculated the similarity between a stance in one of Cho's videos, which showed him holding and raising a hammer, and a pose from promotional posters for the South Korean movie Oldboy, a revenge story about a businessman who was kidnapped away from his wife and infant daughter by an unknown assailant and imprisoned in a small room for 15 years.

Writings

Plays

In 2006, Cho wrote a short, profanity-laden one-act play entitled "Richard McBeef" in connection with a class assignment. The play was about John, a 13-year-old boy whose father reportedly died in a boating accident, and Richard McBeef, John's stepfather who was an ex-football player. When the stepfather touched John during an attempt at a father-to-son talk, the boy started claiming suddenly that his stepfather was molesting him.

John accused his stepfather Richard of murdering his father, and John repeatedly said he will kill Richard. John, Richard and Sue, John's mother, became involved in a major, irrational argument. Richard retreated to his car in search of solitude, but John, despite claiming repeatedly that Richard was abusing him, joined him in the car and began harassing his stepfather. The play ended with John trying to shove a cereal bar down his stepfather's throat and Richard, who had been passive who up until this point, reacting "out of sheer desecrated hurt and anger" and "swinging a deadly blow" at the boy.

In a second play, "Mr. Brownstone," written by Cho for another class assignment, three 17-year-olds (John, Jane and Joe) were in a casino while they discussed their deep hatred for Mr. Brownstone, their 45-year-old mathematics teacher. The three characters claimed that Mr. Brownstone mistreated them (using the phrase "ass-rape").

John won a multi-million-dollar jackpot from one of the slot machines and Mr. Brownstone, amid volleys of profanity, reported to casino officials that the three characters were underage and had picked up the winning ticket. Mr. Brownstone told the casino officials that he had won the jackpot and that the minors took it from him. "Mr. Brownstone" was also the name of a Guns N' Roses song about heroin, and one page from Cho's play consisted of lyrics from the song.

Reactions to writings

Edward Falco, a playwriting professor at Virginia Tech, has acknowledged that Cho wrote both plays in his class. The plays are less than 12 pages long and have several grammatical and typographical errors. Falco believed that Cho was drawn to writing because of his difficulty communicating orally. Falco said of the plays, "They're not good writing, but at least they are a form of communication."

Another professor who taught Cho characterized his work as "very adolescent" and "silly", with attempts at "slapstick comedy" and "elements of violence."

Classmates believed "the plays, were really morbid and grotesque." Former classmate Ian MacFarlane stated, "When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of." After reading "Richard McBeef," Stephen Davis, a senior in Cho's class, stated that he turned to his roommate and said, "This is the kind of guy who is going to walk into a classroom and start shooting people."

Novelist Stephen King examined Cho's plays and wrote an essay for Entertainment Weekly. The essay read, in part:

“For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence: We visualize what we will never actually do (James Patterson, for instance, a nice man who has all too often worked the street that my old friend George used to work). Cho doesn't strike me as in the least creative, however. Dude was crazy. Dude was, in the memorable phrasing of Nikki Giovanni, just mean. Essentially there's no story here, except for a paranoid a--hole who went DEFCON-1. He may have been inspired by Columbine, but only because he was too dim to think up such a scenario on his own.

On the whole, I don't think you can pick these guys out based on their work, unless you look for violence unenlivened by any real talent.”

According to a CBS report, "Cho Seung-Hui's violent writing [and] loner status fit the Secret Service shooter profile." Violent writing was one of the most typical behavioral attributes of school shooters, according to a 2002 US Secret Service study. "The largest group of [school shooters] exhibited an interest in violence in their own writings, such as poems, essays or journal entries (37 percent)," the report concluded. Some also showed an interest in violent video games (12 percent), violent movies (27 percent) and violent books (24 percent).

Name

The different ways that the media had rendered Cho's name led to some confusion among the American public. The university and many news media organizations originally used Cho Seung-hui, the Korean ordering of the perpetrator's name, due to the fact that Cho held South Korean citizenship.

Normally, news organizations ask the subject and/or his or her family members about preferred naming orders. However because Cho was dead and his family was unavailable, Virginia Tech followed the advice of a state trooper of Korean origin working on the case and used the Korean naming order.

The Korean rendering became standard in English-speaking countries in the first few days following the massacre due in part to its usage by wire services Reuters and the Associated Press.

In response to the Korean ordering of Cho's name in press reports, some Korean-Americans asked news organizations to use Western order because they felt that the media tried to exaggerate Cho's "foreign-ness." The Asian American Journalists Association issued a press release asking media to avoid such "racial identifiers."

National Public Radio, ABC News, and The Los Angeles Times broke from the Reuters/AP standard and used the Western ordering of Cho's name, Seung-Hui Cho, because Cho was a resident of the United States since 1992 and several documents revealed Cho's name written in the Western order.

For example, Cho had written the Western ordering of his name on a speeding ticket and a mental health form. The ordering Seung-Hui Cho was also used in his school records, and Cho wrote his plays under the name "Seung Cho."

On April 20, 2007, Sun-Kyung Cho's written statements showed that Cho's family used the ordering Seung-Hui Cho. Media organizations which had previously used the Korean order have now generally changed their presentation of the perpetrator's name to the Western order in response to the family's statement.

Seung-Hui Cho (January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007) was a senior-level undergraduate student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University who killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on April 16, 2007, in the shooting rampage which came to be known as the "Virginia Tech massacre." Cho later committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the building where the majority of the shooting had taken place. Cho's body is buried in Fairfax, Virginia.

Born in South Korea, Cho arrived in the United States at the age of 8 with his family. He became a US permanent resident as a South Korean national.

In middle school, he was diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder known as selective mutism, as well as major depressive disorder. After this diagnosis he began receiving treatment and continued to receive therapy and special education support until his junior year of high school. During Cho's last two years at Virginia Tech, several instances of his abnormal behavior, as well as plays and other writings he submitted containing references to violence, caused concern among teachers and classmates.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine convened a panel consisting of various officials and experts to investigate and examine the response and handling of issues related to the shootings. The panel released its final report in August 2007, devoting more than 30 pages to detailing Cho's troubled history. In the report, the panel criticized the failure of the educators and mental health professionals who came into contact with Cho during his college years to notice his deteriorating condition and help him. The panel also criticized misinterpretations of privacy laws and gaps in Virginia's mental health system and gun laws. In addition, the panel faulted Virginia Tech administrators in particular for failing to take immediate action after the first shootings. Nevertheless, the report did acknowledge that Cho was still primarily responsible for not seeking assistance and for his murderous rampage.

Background

Cho and his family lived in a basement apartment in Seoul, South Korea. Cho's father was self-employed as a bookstore owner, but made minimum wages from the venture. Seeking better education and opportunities for his children, Cho's father emigrated to the United States in September 1992 with his wife and three children. Cho was eight years old at the time. The family first lived in Maryland, then moved to the Washington metropolitan area after learning that it had one of the largest Korean communities in the country, particularly in Northern Virginia. Cho's family settled in Centreville, an unincorporated community in western Fairfax County, Virginia about 25 miles (40 km) west of Washington, D.C. Cho's father and mother opened a dry-cleaning business in Centreville. After the family moved to Centreville, Cho and his family became permanent residents of the United States as South Korean nationals. His parents became members of a local Christian church, and Cho himself was raised as a member of the religion, although he "railed against his parents' strong Christian faith." According to one report, Cho Seung-hui had left a note in his dormitory which contains a rant referencing Christianity and denigrating "rich kids." He stated that "Thanks to you I died like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and defenseless people." Cho's remains are buried in Fairfax County, Virginia.

Family concerns about Cho's behavior during childhood

A few members of Cho's family, those who remained in South Korea, had concerns about his behavior during his early childhood. Cho's relatives thought that he was selectively mute or mentally ill. According to Cho's uncle, Cho "didn’t say much and did not mix with other children." Cho's maternal great-aunt, Kim Yang-soon, described Cho as "cold" and a cause of family concern from as young as eight years old. According to Kim, who met him twice, Cho was extremely shy and "just would not talk at all." He was otherwise considered "well-behaved", readily obeying verbal commands and cues. The great-aunt said she knew something was wrong after the family's departure for the United States because she heard frequent updates about Cho's older sister but little news about Cho During an ABC News Nightline interview on August 30, 2007, Cho's grandfather reported his concerns about Cho's behavior during childhood. According to Cho's grandfather, Cho never looked up to him to make eye contact, never called him grandfather, and never moved to embrace him.

Behavior in school

Cho attended Poplar Tree Elementary School in Chantilly, an unincorporated, small community in Fairfax County. According to Kim Gyeong-won, who met Cho in the fifth grade and took classes with him, Cho finished the three-year program at Poplar Tree Elementary School in one and a half years. Cho was noted for being good at mathematics and English, and teachers pointed to him as an example for other students. At that time, according to Kim, nobody disliked Cho and he "was recognized by friends as a boy of knowledge;... a good dresser who was popular with the girls." Kim added that "I only have good memories about him." An acquaintance noted that "Every time he came home from school he would cry and throw tantrums saying he never wanted to return to school" when Cho first came to America in about the second grade.

Cho attended secondary schools in Fairfax County, including Ormond Stone Middle School in Centreville and Westfield High School in Chantilly, and by eighth grade had been diagnosed with selective mutism, a social anxiety disorder which inhibited him from speaking. Through high school, he was teased for his shyness and unusual speech patterns. Some classmates even offered their lunch money to Cho just to hear him talk. According to Chris Davids, a high school classmate in Cho's English class at Westfield High School, Cho looked down and refused to speak when called upon. Davids added that, after one teacher threatened to give Cho a failing grade for not participating in class, he began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth. [...] The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, 'Go back to China.'" Another classmate, Stephanie Roberts, stated that "there were just some people who were really cruel to him, and they would push him down and laugh at him. He didn't speak English really well, and they would really make fun of him." Cho was also teased as the "trombone kid" for his practice of walking to school alone with his trombone. Other students recall crueler names and that most of the bullying was because he was alone. Christopher Chomchird and Carmen Blandon, former classmates of Cho, stated that they heard rumors of a "hit list" of other students Cho wanted to kill. Blandon stated that she saw the "list" as a joke at the time. While several students recalled instances of Cho being teased and mocked at Westfield, most left him alone and later said they were not aware of his anger. Cho graduated from Westfield High School in 2003.

In 1999, during the spring of Cho's eighth grade year, the Columbine High School massacre made national news. Cho was transfixed by it. "I remember sitting in Spanish class with him, right next to him, and there being something written on his binder to the effect of, you know, ' 'F' you all, I hope you all burn in hell,' which I would assume meant us, the students," said Ben Baldwin, a classmate of Cho. Also, Cho wrote in a school assignment about wanting to "repeat Columbine". The school contacted Cho's sister, who reported the incident to their parents. Cho was sent to a psychiatrist.

Selective-mutism dignosis

Immediately after the incident, reports carried speculation by family members in Korea that Cho was autistic. However, no known record exists of Cho ever being diagnosed with autism, nor could an autism diagnosis be verified with Cho's parents. The Virginia Tech Review Panel report dismissed an autism diagnosis and experts later doubted the autism claim.

More than four months after the attack, the Wall Street Journal reported on August 20, 2007 that Cho had been diagnosed with selective mutism. The Virginia Tech Review Panel report, also released in August 2007, placed this diagnosis in the spring of Cho's eighth grade year, and his parents sought treatment for him through medication and therapy. In high school, Cho was placed in special education under the 'emotional disturbance' classification. He was excused from oral presentations and participation in class conversation and received 50 minutes a month of speech therapy. He continued receiving mental health therapy as well until his junior year, when Cho rejected further therapy.

To address his problems, Cho's parents also took him to church. According to a pastor at Centreville Korean Presbyterian Church, Cho was a smart student who understood the Bible, but he was concerned about Cho's difficulty in speaking to people. The pastor added that, until he saw the video that Cho sent to NBC News, he never heard him say a complete sentence. The pastor also recalled that he told Cho's mother that he speculated Cho was autistic and he asked her to take him to a hospital, but she declined.

Forbidden by federal law to disclose (without Cho's permission) any record of disability or treatment, Westfield officials disclosed none of Cho's speech and anxiety-related problems to Virginia Tech.

The lack of speech that resulted in the diagnosis of selective mutism could have been an early indication that Cho was developing schizophrenia. One symptom of schizophrenia is what is known as "poverty of speech," referring to a marked deficit in the amount of talking in which the person engages. In addition, Cho's manifesto provides evidence of both paranoid and grandiose delusions. Such symptoms are also associated with schizophrenia, and it has been argued that Cho was schizophrenic.

Demeanor at Virginia Tech

In his freshman year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Cho enrolled as an undergraduate major in business information technology a program that included "a combination of computer science and management coursework offered by the Pamplin College of Business." The program was listed as No. 6 on the "list of majors with the highest median starting salary after graduation." By his senior year, Cho was majoring in English. Virginia Tech declined to divulge details about Cho's academic record and why he changed his major, citing privacy laws.

At the time of the attacks, Cho lived with five roommates in Suite 2121, a three-room dormitory at Harper Hall, located just west of West Ambler Johnston Hall on the Virginia Tech campus.

Relationsgip with professors

Professor and acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in a poetry class, stated that she had him removed from her class because she found his behavior "menacing." She recalled that Cho had a "mean streak" and described his writing as "intimidating." After Giovanni was informed of the massacre, she remarked that "[I] knew when it happened that that's probably who it was," and "would have been shocked if it wasn't." Giovanni insisted that Cho be removed from her class in 2005, about six weeks after the semester began in September. Cho had intimidated female students by photographing their legs under their desks and by writing obscene, violent poetry. Giovanni offered that "[she] was willing to resign before [she] would continue with him." Because of her concerns about Cho, Giovanni wrote a letter to then-department head Lucinda Roy, who removed Cho from the class. Roy alerted the student affairs office, the dean's office, and the campus police, but each office responded that there was nothing they could do if Cho made no overt threats against himself or others.

Roy described Cho as "an intelligent man," and stated that he seemed to be an awkward, lonely and insecure student who never took off his sunglasses, even indoors. She described Cho's behavior as "arrogant" and "obnoxious" at times, and that she tried several different ways to help him. Roy declined to comment about Cho’s writings, saying only in general that the writings "seemed very angry". She added that Cho whispered his response after taking 20 seconds to answer questions, and he also took cell phone pictures of her in class. After Roy became concerned with Cho's behavior and the themes in his writings, she started meeting with Cho to work with him one-on-one. As Roy worked with Cho, she became concerned for her safety. She told her assistant that, if she uttered the name of a dead professor (which served as a duress code), the assistant was to call security. After Roy notified legal authorities about Cho's behavior, she urged Cho to seek counseling. Roy said that, to her knowledge, Cho never followed through with the request.

When Virginia Tech creative writing professor Lisa Norris, who taught Cho in both Advanced Fiction Writing and Contemporary Fiction, inquired about him from Mary Ann Lewis, associate dean for Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, she was not told that he was suffering from mental health problems or about prior police reports concerning the harassment of female students. Norris noted that, "my guess is that either the information was not accessible to her or it was privileged and could not be released to me." Lewis told Norris to recommend that Cho seek counseling at the on-campus Cook Counseling Center, which she had already done.

Relationship with students

Fellow students described Cho as a "quiet" person who "would not respond if someone greeted him." Student Julie Poole recalled the first day of a literature class the previous year when the students introduced themselves one by one. When it was Cho's turn to introduce himself, he did not speak. According to Poole, the professor looked at the sign-in sheet and found that, whereas everyone else had written out their names, Cho had written only a question mark. Poole added that "we just really knew him as the question mark kid".

Karan Grewal, who shared a suite with Cho at Harper Hall, reported that Cho "would sit in a wood rocker by the window [in his room at the dormitory]; and stare at the lawn below". According to Grewal, "Cho appeared to never to go [sic] to class or read a book during his (Cho's) senior year," adding that Cho just typed on his laptop, went to the dining hall and clipped his hair in the bathroom, cleaning up the hair afterwards. Grewal also reported that he witnessed Cho riding his bicycle in circles in the parking lot of the dormitory.

Andy Koch and John Eide, who once shared a room with Cho at Cochrane Hall during 2005 and 2006, stated that Cho demonstrated other repetitive behaviors, such as listening repeatedly to "Shine" by the alternative rock band Collective Soul. Cho wrote the song's lyrics "Teach me how to speak; Teach me how to share; Teach me where to go" on the wall of his dormitory room. Koch described two further unusual incidents, including one where Cho stood in the doorway of his room late at night taking photographs of him (Koch) and a second incident where Cho repeatedly placed harassing cell phone calls to Koch as "Cho's brother, 'Question Mark'", a name Cho also used when introducing himself to girls. Koch and Eide searched Cho's belongings and found a pocket knife, but they did not find any items that they deemed seriously threatening to them. Koch also described a telephone call that he received from Cho during the Thanksgiving holiday break from school. During that call, Koch said that Cho claimed to be "vacationing with Vladimir Putin", with Cho adding "Yeah, we're in North Carolina." In response, Koch told him "I'm pretty sure that's not possible, Seung." Because of Cho's behavior, Koch and Eide, who had earlier tried to befriend him, gradually stopped talking to him and told their friends, especially female classmates, not to visit their room.

Koch and Eide also stated that Cho was involved in at least three stalking incidents, two of which resulted in verbal warnings by the Virginia Tech campus police. The first stalking incident occurred on November 27, 2005. After the incident, according to Koch, Cho claimed to have sent an instant message online to the female student by AOL Instant Messenger and found out where she lived on the campus. Eide stated that Cho then visited her room to see if she was "cool", adding that Cho remarked that he only found "promiscuity in her eyes". Eide added that, when Cho visited the female student, Cho said, "Hi, I'm Question Mark" to her, "which really freaked her out." The female student called the campus police, complaining that Cho had sent her annoying messages and made an unannounced visit to her room. Two uniformed members of the campus police visited Cho’s room at the dormitory later that evening and warned him not to contact the female student again. Cho made no further contact with the student.

The final stalking incident came to light on December 13, 2005. In the preceding days, Cho had contacted a female friend of Koch via AIM and wrote on her door board a line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, scene II, in which Romeo laments to Juliet.

"By a name, I know not how to tell who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word".

The young woman was initially unconcerned by Cho's AIM messages and the Shakespearean graffiti he left on her door board, until she was contacted by Andy Koch via AIM. Koch told her that Cho was involved in an earlier stalking incident and that, "i think he is schophrenic" [sic]. Upon Koch's encouragement, the young woman contacted the campus police, who again warned Cho against further unwanted contact. After that warning, Cho made no further contact with the second female student.

Later the same day, Cho sent a text message to Koch with the words, "I might as well kill myself now." Worried that Cho was suicidal, Koch contacted his father for advice, and both of them contacted campus authorities. The campus police returned to the dormitory and escorted Cho to New River Valley Community Services Board, the Virginia mental health agency serving Blacksburg.

Psychiatric evaluation

Court-ordered psychiatric assessment

On December 13, 2005, Cho was found "mentally ill and in need of hospitalization" by New River Valley Community Services Board. The physician who examined Cho noted that he had a flat affect and depressed mood, even though Cho "denied suicidal thoughts and did not acknowledge symptoms of a thought disorder." Based on this mental health examination and because Cho was suspected of being "an imminent danger to himself or others", he was detained temporarily at Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford, Virginia, pending a commitment hearing before the Montgomery County, Virginia district court.

Virginia Special Justice Paul Barnett certified in an order that Cho "presented an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness", but instead recommended treatment for Cho as an outpatient. On December 14, 2005, Cho was released from the mental health facility after Judge Barnett ordered Cho to undergo mental health treatment on an outpatient basis, with a directive for the "court-ordered [outpatient] to follow all recommended treatments." Since Cho underwent only a minimal psychiatric assessment, the true diagnosis for Cho's mental health status remains unknown.

Virginia state law on mental health disqualifications to firearms purchases, however, is worded slightly differently from the federal statute. So the form that Virginia courts use to notify state police about a mental health disqualification addresses only the state criteria, which list two potential categories that would warrant notification to the state police: someone who was "involuntarily committed" or ruled mentally "incapacitated".

Because Cho was not involuntarily committed to a mental health facility as an inpatient, he was still legally eligible to buy guns under Virginia law. However, according to Virginia law, "A magistrate has the authority to issue a detention order upon a finding that a person is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization or treatment." The magistrate also must find that the person is an imminent danger to himself or others. Virginia officials and other law experts have argued that, under United States federal law, Barnett's order meant that Cho had been "adjudicated as a mental defective" and was thus ineligible to purchase firearms under federal law; and that the state of Virginia erred in not enforcing the requirements of the federal law.

Family efforts

The Virginia Tech Review Panel report shed light on numerous efforts by Cho's family to secure help for him as early as adolescence. However, when Cho reached 18 and left for college, the family lost its legal authority over him, and its influence on him waned. Cho's mother, increasingly concerned about his inattention to classwork, his classroom absences and his asocial behavior, sought help for him during summer 2006 from various churches in Northern Virginia. According to Dong Cheol Lee, minister of One Mind Presbyterian Church of Washington (located in Woodbridge) Cho's mother sought help from the church for Cho's problems. Lee added that "[Cho's] problem needed to be solved by spiritual power ... that's why she came to our church – because we were helping several people like him." Members of Lee's church even told Cho's mother that he was afflicted by "demonic power" and needed "deliverance". Before the church could meet with the family, however, Cho returned to school to start his senior year at Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech Massacre