Israeli professor killed in US attack

As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 75-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech college that left 32 dead and over two dozen wounded.

Professor Liviu Librescu threw himself in front of the shooter, who had attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.

Librescu's wife, Marlena, told the NRG Web site that her husband had loved his job with "all his heart and his soul."

The couple immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1986 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then, their son, Joe, told Army Radio.

In the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history, the attacker, who had yet to be positively identified, cut down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.

The bloodbath ended Monday with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever.

Investigators gave no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student. Some witnesses said the shooter was a young Asian man.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

But he was also faced with difficult questions about the university's handling of the emergency and whether it did enough to warn students and protect them after the first burst of gunfire. Some students bitterly complained they got no warning from the university until an e-mail that arrived more than two hours after the first shots rang out.

Wielding two handguns and carrying multiple clips of ammunition, the killer opened fire about 7:15 a.m. (1115 GMT) on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, a high-rise coed dormitory, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building a half-mile away on the other side of the 2,600-acre (1,052-hectare) campus. Some of the doors at Norris Hall were found chained from the inside, apparently by the gunman.

Two people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least 15 people were hurt, some seriously.

At an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a "person of interest" in the dorm shooting who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.

"I'm not saying there is someone out there, and I'm not saying there is someone who is not," Flinchum said. Ballistics tests will help explain what happened, he said.

Sheree Mixell, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the evidence was being moved to the agency's national lab in Annandale. At least one firearm was turned over, she said.

Mixell would not comment on what types of weapons were used or whether the gunman was a student.

Students jumped from windows in panic. Young people and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. Many found themselves trapped behind chained and padlocked doors. Police commandos with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. A student used his cell-phone camera to record the sound of bullets echoing through a stone building.

Erin Sheehan, who was in the German class that the gunman attacked, told the student newspaper that she was one of only four of the approximately two dozen people in the class to walk out of the room. The rest were dead or wounded, she said.

"It seemed so strange," Sheehan said. The gunman "peeked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in."

She said the gunman "was just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something."

Students said that there were no public-address announcements after the first shots. Many said they learned of the first shooting in an e-mail that arrived shortly before the gunman struck again.

"I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident," said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.

Steger defended the university's conduct, saying authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.

Steger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack and decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to spread the word, but said that with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out.

He said that before the e-mail went out, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms and sent people to knock on doors. Students were warned to stay inside and away from the windows.

"We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it," Steger said.

Some students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said their first notification came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m. (1326 GMT), more than two hours after the first shooting.

The e-mail had few details. It read: "A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating." The message warned students to be cautious and contact police about anything suspicious.

Everett Good, junior, said of the lack of warning: "Someone's head is definitely going to roll over that."

I will say one thing in favor of more guns rather than less.
In Israel we have tons of people walking around with weapons. As a result we have less crime and violence than many other nations.
But then again, most of us here in Israel are trained to use these weapons in combat, we know what to do and how to do it, as opposed to the many other civilians in other nations.

But I still stand firm that police and military take control with no confusion in taking others by accident as shooters.

The US needs more awareness, better trained police and less guns. The UK could be used as an example of that.

From your Israeli perpective, and knowing what partial details of the Virginia Tech incident you know, do you suspect that the incident was planned by Islamic radicals, or do you think it was a random act of violence without any political or sectarian motive? Could the Israeli professor have been specifically targeted?

It appears that this was a random, mad act of violence without any political or sectarian motive.

But Islamic terrorists have again learned that the US is w i d e open for a shooting party and or bombing party.

If this does not serve as a "wake up call" for public and private institutions to increase security, install metal detectors, create large digital weather / info / warning signs on highways we can expect much more blood in the future by professional terrorists.

As I had worked in the World Trade Center for many years, I knew it made the best target for a terrorist attack. There was no security there whatsoever (except PA police who have another agenda).

I was in the Twin Towers two weeks before 9/11 and observed what a joke ground security was.

We need to reduce violence on TV and rid ourselves of bloody video games. Children learn that violence is a norm, they even learn how to shoot as this 23-year-old South Korean at VT did.

Violence on TV, video games with no borders and an "open society" = easy killings in the future.
I would rather live in a fortress with my children being safe than the so-called "open society" of the US.
I feel safe in Israel - not in the US.
The US has had its second Pearl Harbor and still remains asleep :

A holocaust survivor - he died in the most noble way - he gave his life for others.

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