Quiet town struggles with tragedy

Some students sought comfort at local churches

An air of unreality hangs over the small town of Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech University and scene of the worst gun rampage in US history.Less than 12 hours after the shooting that left 33 people - including the suspected gunman - dead, few people brave the icy wind to venture on to the streets.

Three young girls huddle on the pathway of the Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, opposite the flashing lights of police cars blocking an entrance to Virginia Tech.

They are trying to light candles as a tribute to fellow students killed in the shooting - and to friends touched by the tragedy.

‘Very surreal’

“This is the closest we can get to the campus,” they say. “Our friends who live on campus can’t get out and we can’t get in to see them.”

Eventually, defeated by the wind, they head for home, candles unlit.

“It’s surreal, very surreal - it still hasn’t sunk in yet,” one says.

Both students, who make up a large part of the town’s 40,000 population, and townspeople are left shocked by the day’s events.

I saw a guy running into the building but I didn’t really think anything of it. Then it all started going off Christian, 20 In pictures: Virginia shootings Eyewitness accounts

Christian, 20, saw much of what happened in Norris Hall - the teaching building where 30 of the victims died.

“I saw a guy running into the building but I didn’t really think anything of it. Then it all started going off.

“Probably the most startling thing was when you saw the police Swat team try to go in and the doors were chained shut. The leading Swat guy had a shotgun so he just blew the thing to pieces.”

Gun control?

Mala Kumar, a 22-year-old student from Richmond, has two of her friends in hospital being treated for injuries.

She is keen to see gun controls tightened - but realises how difficult a task that is. “If the guy had come through with any other weapon that wasn’t firearms, it would have been much, much less harmful.

“But it’s a handgun, not a weapon you would think of as a horribly, horribly dangerous weapon. It’s something there are millions and millions of in America.

“How are you ever going to get rid of them?”

Patrick Bieli, a student from New Jersey, says: “I am surprised and disturbed, I guess.

“When you look at the factors that may have led up to cause it, you have to wonder, has there been a change in society? What’s breaking society, what’s making people do this?”

He is also upset that the day’s events will skew people’s perceptions of what is a quiet, peaceful, rural town, making it “synonymous with Columbine”.

“As the reality sinks in you realise that all your friends are going to be going through really difficult times now,” he adds.

Psychology student Hojin Kim, originally from South Korea, is among some 40 people seeking comfort at one of several special church services held in the town on Monday evening.

“We spent a good deal of time praying for the families of the lost ones, and just in general,” he said.

There’s a rumour going round that the shooter might be an Asian guy about six feet tall - like me Hojin Kim, psychology student

The 25-year-old, who was in a class close to Norris Hall at the time of the shootings, says he fielded dozens of calls from relatives and friends in northern Virginia worried about his safety.

“There’s a rumour going round that the shooter might be an Asian guy about six feet tall - like me,” he says.

“I was told by my own mother ‘don’t go outside because you might be treated as a suspect’.

“I’m sure there’s a story behind everything, but I just hope this won’t develop as a racial issue.”

Unable to go back to his own apartment, he sits in a dormitory hall on campus with friends, listening to the news bulletins to try to grasp what has happened. It only really sank in when they went out and saw police with dogs and rifles everywhere, he says.

But, he says, the strong sense of community will help the town get through its pain. “We will take this hit and try to get better, given time,” he says.

‘It’s so tragic’

Stuart Feigenbaum, a 55-year-old PhD student and professor at the university, as well as a parent with a child at college, says he feels deeply for everyone involved.

He has spoken to dozens of younger students, acting as a parent figure for many who are far from home.

“I don’t know yet if anyone I know was there or injured - but it doesn’t matter, it hurts.

“The thing that makes me cry is that everyone has so many memories of their college days, it’s a significant part of your life, and for these kids this is going to be their memory. It’s so tragic, it isn’t supposed to be this way.”

It is hard to predict how the students will cope as time goes on, he says.

What if I were the professor in that class and I had my firearm. Might there have been less damage? Stuart Feigenbaum, professor

“The best thing we can possibly do is try to get people on to some kind of positive course as soon as possible,” he says. “The first classes we have are going to be a little more open - the grieving process is going to have to take place.”

Mr Feigenbaum, who has a gun licence, believes society must do more to look after the unstable people who commit such crimes.

“There’s something wrong with us as a society that we’ve become so desensitized to each other - and maybe it’s too easy to get a gun,” he says.

But a ban on carrying firearms altogether may not be the answer, he says.

“Two years ago, all universities came out saying they didn’t want people to carry their guns on campus.

“It just makes me think, what if I were the professor in that class and I had my firearm. Might there have been less damage? I don’t know.”