“Be Nice to Psychopaths” Day
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The gunman blamed for the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history had previously been accused of stalking two female students at Virginia Tech and had been taken to a mental health facility in 2005 after an acquaintance worried he might be suicidal, police said Wednesday.
Cho Seung-Hui had concerned one woman enough with his calls and e-mail in 2005 that police were called in, said Police Chief Wendell Flinchum.
[…]
“I had no idea he was capable of this,” [roommate Karan] Grewal said. “We were never told his teachers had concern about him committing suicide and all these dark feelings.
“We were never told that our suitemate was depressed or suicidal.”
Several students and professors described Cho as a sullen loner. Authorities said he left a rambling note raging against women and rich kids. News reports said that Cho, a 23-year-old senior majoring in English, may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly erratic.
Professors and classmates were alarmed by his class writings — pages filled with twisted, violence-drenched writing.
“It was not bad poetry. It was intimidating,” poet Nikki Giovanni, one of his professors, told CNN Wednesday.
“I know we're talking about a youngster, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings,” she said. “There was something mean about this boy. It was the meanness — I’ve taught troubled youngsters and crazy people — it was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak.”
Giovanni said her students were so unnerved by Cho’s behavior, including taking pictures of them with his cell phone, that some stopped coming to class and she had security check on her room. She eventually had him taken out of her class, saying she would quit if he wasn't removed.
…I’ve figured it out: As a country, we want to ban guns, violent video games, violent movies, and heavy metal, but we’re opposed to keeping easily-identifiable homicidal maniacs off the street.
…That would violate their civil rights, after all.
Reference
▪ Yahoo! News (AP)
