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Some facts about Virginia Tech:

- Campus comprises 100+ buildings on 2600 acres. That’s about 4 sq miles.

- Approximately 26,000 students attend.

For folks who describe VT as a small city, that’s just about right.

So, a shooting occurs in a small city. The first reaction is to “lock down” the entire city?

What does that mean, exactly?

Within this small city, just where should the police respond to, other than the site of the initial crime (which they did)?

I live near Annapolis, MD, which is a comparably-sized city. From time to time, someone murders someone. I’ve yet to see the city “locked down” in the immediate aftermath of a murder.

The city of Blacksburg has 74 full-time employees in its police department. That’s less than one per building of the VT campus. So, you’re going to “lock down” a hundred or more buildings, possibly trapping the murderer inside one of those buildings, along with possibly hundreds of unarmed targets? Without the ability to deploy even a single officer to each building?

Facts will come out in time. Perhaps the police may have been negligent in some way. It’s always a possibility.

However, usually, when a murder is committed, police show up and start investigating. The assumption (and it’s almost always a very good assumption) is that the murderer killed the folks he wanted to kill, and now is intent on getting away. Thus, the police investigate with a mind toward finding someone who wants to hide from them, who wants to flee. The police don’t usually close down entire cities.