Seung-Hui Cho

Seung-Hui Cho

Cho Seung-hui (January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007), was the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre of April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, according to police reports. He committed suicide after law enforcement officers breached the doors of the building in which he had already killed and wounded many staff and students.

Biography

Cho was born in South Korea. His family lived in Seoul, staying in a rented basement apartment. Landlord Lim Bong-ae states that "I didn't know what (Cho's father) did for a living. But they lived a poor life," Lim told the newspaper. "While emigrating, (Cho's father) said they were going to America because it is difficult to live here and that it's better to live in a place where he is unknown."

Cho emigrated to the United States in September 1992, when he was 8 years old, with his two parents and an older sister. Immigrants who come to the United States as young children are often referred to by Koreans as 1.5 generation immigrants. He was a lawful permanent resident of the United States and a South Korean citizen. Cho had a permanent address in Centreville, Virginia, an unincorporated community in western part of largely affluent Fairfax County, about 25 miles (40 km) west of Washington, D.C. and a few miles directly south of Washington Dulles International Airport. Cho graduated in 2003 from Westfield High School in the Chantilly community of Fairfax County.

Cho was an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, majoring in English, although he had told others he was a business major.

Virginia Tech massacre

Main article: Virginia Tech massacre

Cho killed two students, Emily J. Hilscher and Ryan C. "Stack" Clark, on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, a high-rise coeducational dorm, around 07:15 EDT (UTC-4); police have not positively stated that Cho was the perpetrator of that shooting in addition to the later one, although forensic evidence confirms that that one gun was used in both shooting incidents. Within the next two and a half hours, Cho returned to his room to re-arm himself, mailed pictures and documents to NBC , and then crossed the campus to continue his rampage in a classroom building, Norris Hall, at 09:45 EDT (UTC-4). Police identified Cho by matching fingerprints on the guns used in the shootings with immigration materials.

The words "Ismail Ax" were found written on his arm in red ink. Police found a receipt for the Glock 19 pistol dated March 13, 2007. Permanent residents in Virginia may legally purchase firearms as long as they provide proof of residency, pass an immediate automated background check, and answer a questionnaire, although Virginia Tech students were forbidden from bringing firearms on campus on threat of expulsion. Cho bought the second weapon, a Walther P22 pistol, on April 13, 2007.

As police closed in on him in Norris Hall, Cho committed suicide, with a gunshot to his head.

Motive

No official motive for the shooting spree has been announced by law enforcement agencies.

According to television news reports on April 17, Cho left a note criticizing "rich kids," "debauchery," and "deceitful charlatans".

On April 18 2007, NBC News received a package, via overnight mail, containing a DVD-like disc with twenty-seven video clips, forty-three still pictures (each with individual captions), one audio clip, and a multi-page typewritten manifesto. The pictures, for the most part, depict Seung-Hui in military garb wielding an array of weapons, including a hammer, knife, and the two handguns found on his dead person. The majority of the video depicts Seung-Hui reading his manifesto aloud.

The package, addressed from "A. Ishmael" and apparently intended to be received on April 17, was delayed due to incorrect zip code and street address. It was immediately turned over to local authorities in New York and will be sent to law enforcement in Virginia.

Early reports indicate that Cho Seung-hui was obsessed with Emily Hilscher and became enraged after being rejected. Hilscher's resident assistant Ryan "Stack" Clark tried to intervene. They became Cho's first two victims.

Behavior and mental health

Photograph of Cho he sent to NBC News

In 2005 Cho Seung-Hui was temporarily detained and declared mentally ill and a danger to himself or others by a Montgomery County, Virginia district court. Following psychiatric evaluation and medical exam which noted Cho's flat affect and depressed mood, he was ordered to undergo outpatient care and released. Some reports state that Cho is believed to have been taking psychiatric medications for depression,, but there is no record of this in federal prescription databases.

A university spokesman described Cho as a "loner," and said university officials were having a difficult time finding information about him. A Korean club on campus reported that he rarely joined or talked with them. Cho had earlier been accused of setting a fire in a dormitory and stalking women on campus.

Fellow students described Cho as a "quiet" person who "would not respond if someone greeted him." Student Julie Poole said that on the first day of a literature class last year the students introduced themselves one by one, but 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 an interview of both his roommates (who have thus far have only gone by their first names), John and Andy, Andy describes Cho standing in the unlocked doorway of his room late at night taking photographs, and placing cellphone calls as "Cho's brother, Question Mark", a name he would also use when introducing himself to girls with whom he was allegedly obsessed. John declined to describe Cho as "mean", conflicting with another first-hand account. The roommates also said he repeatedly stalked their female friends.

According to Stephanie Derry, a fellow student, Cho never participated in class discussions. "He was just there, I can't even describe it. He would just sit and watch us, but wouldn't say anything. It was his lack of behavior that really set him apart. He basically just kept to himself, very isolated. I remember only once he smiled, but it wasn't very big."

Lucinda Roy, one of Cho's English professors, described Cho as "an intelligent man" but seemed to be an awkward and very lonely man who never took off his sunglasses, even indoors. By fall 2005, Roy removed Cho from her class after he became angry in the classroom. She said she tried several different ways to help him, including a decision to refer him for counseling which was unsuccessful. 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, the professor started meeting with Cho to work with him one-on-one. She said she was concerned for her safety when she met with him. After notifying the legal authorities about his behavior, the professor urged Cho to seek counseling, but he refused.

Professor Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in a poetry class, but had him removed from her class because his behavior was so menacing, called the idea that Cho was troubled "crap", and described him as "mean." 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."

Criminological classification

The incident is the deadliest shooting on a college campus, exceeding the sixteen deaths of the University of Texas shooting of 1966; and is the second deadliest school-related killing in U.S. history, behind the 1927 Bath School disaster which claimed forty-five lives, including thirty-eight school children, through the use of explosives.

With a death toll of thirty-two victims plus the killer, this is the deadliest single-perpetrator civilian shooting in United States history, surpassing the Luby's massacre of 1991, in which twenty-four people were killed. The Post Chronicle compared the killings to a number of other incidents described as the "worst ever", including:

• The unnamed 1982 killings in Uiryeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea, committed by Woo Bum-Kon
• The 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre in San Diego, California, committed by James Huberty
• The 1991 Luby's massacre in Killeen, Texas, committed by George Jo Hennard
• The 1993 Long Island Railroad Massacre in Nassau County, New York, committed by Colin Ferguson
• The 1996 Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania, Australia, committed by Martin John Bryant
• The 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Jefferson County, Colorado, committed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
• The 2005 Red Lake High School massacre in Red Lake, Minnesota, committed by Jeffrey James Weise

Attributed writings

Plays

In 2006, Cho wrote a short one-act play entitled "Richard McBeef". It is about a 13-year-old boy, John, who accuses his stepfather, Richard McBeef, of molesting him and murdering his father. John repeatedly says he will kill Richard. The play ends with Richard dealing John "a deadly blow".

In a second play attributed to Cho, titled "Mr. Brownstone", three 17-year-olds named John, Jane, and Joe are gambling at a casino while discussing their deep hatred of their 45-year-old mathematics teacher, Mr. Brownstone, who they claim raped them.

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 contain several typos. Falco believed that Cho was drawn to writing, because of his considerable difficulty communicating verbally. 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."

South Korean reaction

Cho’s actions startled Korean-Americans, and citizens in his native South Korea. At the time of the massacre, approximately 93,000 South Koreans were enrolled in institutions across the United States.A man in Seoul told The New York Times, “The parents went to the United States, and did everything to raise and educate their children. And then the son does something crazy like this.”

Many South Koreans rushed to show solidarity with the victims. South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun expressed shock “beyond description” and “deep bitterness.”

South Korea has first hand experience with horrific mass murder. In 1982, another South Korean, Woo Bum-Kon, employed grenades as well as guns in a massacre of fifty-seven people in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea; the world's deadliest shooting spree.

See also

• Virginia Tech massacre
• School shooting
• Massacre

External links

• BBC profile of Cho Seung-Hui
• Text of "Richard McBeef" from TheSmokingGun.com
• Text of Richard McBeef and Mr. Brownstone on aol.com
• Search warrant for Cho's on-campus residence
• Video excerpts of the manifesto mailed to NBC