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Attacks
West Ambler Johnston shootings
Authorities believe that Cho shot his first victims at around 7:15 a.m. EDT in
West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory that houses 895 students. A young
woman, Emily J. Hilscher of the Woodville section of Rappahannock County,
Virginia, and a male resident assistant, Ryan C. Clark of the Martinez section
of Columbia County, Georgia, were killed.
 Norris
Hall shootings
Approximately two hours after the initial shootings, shots were reported in a
classroom at Norris Hall, which houses the Engineering Science and Mechanics
program. By the end of this second attack, 30 student and faculty victims lay
dead in at least four classrooms and a second-floor hallway of the building.
At least 11 murder victims were found in a French class, five in a German class,
nine in a hydrology class, two in a solid mechanics class, and one in the
hallway. An eyewitness told a Collegiate Times reporter that a gunman shot about
19 people attending a German class in Norris Hall, including the professor. Only
four people emerged unscathed from the German class. Erin Sheehan, one of the
four, said the shooter "peeked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was
looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting."
Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti used his cell phone to capture video
footage of part of the attack; this was later broadcast on many news outlets.
Student Nikolas Macko described to BBC News his experience at the center of the
shootings. He had been attending a math class (near the German class) and heard
gunshots in the hallway. At least three people in the classroom barricaded the
door using a table. At one point, Macko said, the shooter attempted to open the
classroom door and then shot twice into the room; one shot hit a podium; the
other went out the window. The shooter reloaded and shot into the door, but the
bullet did not penetrate into the room. He stated there were "many, many shots"
fired.
There were several scenes of resistance against the offender:
* Professor Liviu Librescu held the door of his classroom, Room 204, shut while
Cho attempted to enter it. Librescu was able to prevent the gunman from entering
the classroom until his students had escaped through the windows, but was
eventually shot five times and killed.
* Jocelyne Couture-Nowak appears in her final moment to have tried to save
students in her classroom, after looking the killer in the eye in the hallway.
One of the only two or three students believed to have survived in the French
class told his family that Couture-Nowak ordered her students to the back of the
class for their safety before making a futile attempt to barricade the door.
* Kevin Granata left his third-floor office of Norris Hall and went down to the
second floor as the second round of shootings took place. Apparently he heard a
commotion and went into the hallway to see if he could help. He was killed there
by Cho.
* Partahi Lumbantoruan attempted to block a door from Cho's entry to protect
fellow students and was killed.
* Zach Petkewicz and two other classmates barricaded a door with a table,
helping to save 11 students from Cho's gunfire.
Cho was found dead in the building from a self-inflicted gunshot.
In the aftermath, high winds prevented emergency medical services from using
helicopters for evacuation of the injured. Victims injured in the shooting were
treated at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Carilion New River Valley
Medical Center in Radford, Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, and
Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem.
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