All you people complaining about two hours being so long: this is real life, not 24. It wasn't Jack Bauer responding who instantly knew what was going on, had computer whizzes at his instant command to pull up reems of data about the perpetrator, and then could task satellites to track him down. This was regular, every day cops who walked into a room with bloody bodies and had no other information.

I don't know anything about police procedures, but let me take a stab at a timeline (if anyone has any real knowledge, please weigh in).

7:15: shooting occurs

7:30: first police officers arrrive

7:40: responding officers realize this is a murder scence and call the detectives and their superiors. Universitity leaders informed that a murder has happened but have no other info.

8:10: the detectives and superiors arrive and start gathering info

8:45: after talking to witnesses, examining bodies, etc, police have a preliminary picture of what happened and inform university leaders. Only now do university leaders have any concrete information on which to act.

9:00: University leaders discuss what measures to take. Within minutes, measures are being taken.

I don't claim that everyone involved acted with perfect competence. However, my guess is that all you finger pointing people might occasionally make mistakes. So far, not one bit of information has emerged that suggests that the decisions made were not at least reasonable given the information available at the time.

that at yesterday's servive, when President Steger came to the podium, he got a full and enthusiastic standing ovation, proving that the student body and staff think he's done a great job. They do not think he waited too long, they know that it would take 2 hours to contact 30,000 people. It is only the media and basement-dwelling cranks who are throwing blame around.

repeat: at yesterday's servive, when President Steger came to the podium, he got a full and enthusiastic standing ovation

If an instructor fears a student THAT much, s/he should NOT have to teach him. We should be able to kick the student out of that college permanently if he won't act appropriately in class. It's got nothing to do with guns.

First of all, anonymous and KStone: the news that the police were interviewing someone about the first murders when the second happened is not news. It was mentioned in the press conference, and every big story after it happened. It was also mentioned in several of the comments here, including mine.

The problems are:

1) They had no evidence to make them believe Thornhill was a suspect. His girlfriend and her RA were dead. Question him, yes, but why put all your eggs in that basket? That kid was a lead, not an entire investigation.

2) Was every single VT security person questioning that kid? Given the previous bomb threats, why not put a couple of people towards further investigation?

3)the officials are giving inconsistent accounts. Officials said in the press conference that they had been interviewing someone during the second rampage but they also said that they never believed him to be the killer in the first rampage. They said he was only "a person of interest." Officials also said in the press conference and in interviews that they didn't warn people or evacuate the school after the first murders because they thought the killer had left the state.

So, think about this, people. Was security questioning the assumed killer, or had he left the state? It seems like now that there's a lot of public questioning about their methods, security and law enforcement are trying to use the fact that they were interviewing someone to cover their asses for not pursuing the killer or alerting the campus. But if you look at what they said when they actually said it, they already believed the killer to be gone. They locked down the dorm for 30 minutes after the first murders, then lifted the lockdown and gave up.

4) Further in the pattern of non- and dis-information: in the emails -- which came too damn late, anyway -- officials said they had the killer "in custody" when he was in fact dead. Why not just say that?

5) I can't believe people are asking about the logistics. If you want to know how to shut down a campus the size of Virginia Tech, ask Virginia Tech. When an escaped convict was near the campus last year, VT found out around 7:30am that he had killed two people and was close to campus. Within a couple of hours, they warned, evacuated and/or locked down various parts of the campus, then closed the entire campus and canceled the first day of classes. This is the email:

2006-08-21

EMAILS SENT OUT

These emails have been posted chronologically...

Emergency Advisory, 8:03 am

The escaped prisoner from the Montgomery County Jail has been spotted on the Virginia Tech campus in the vicinity of the Huckleberry Trail and Tech Center Drive. He is armed and dangerous. For safety, the police have barricaded the south side of campus. Employees working anywhere

south of Washington Street including the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center are advised not to come to work and if already at work, to remain in the building.

-----------

Monday, 21 August 2006

As you are aware from the University notices,

http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=434, an escaped prisoner was spotted on the south side of campus. Police from several agencies are in the area. The link above contains the most recent information given to the university along with pictures of the prisoner.

Most residence hall doors normally unlock at 10 a.m.; however, the doors will remain locked today. The doors will remain locked (accessible by Hokie Passport cards only) until we are notified by the Police that the situation is contained.

* Make sure that you do not allow "tailgating" into the building.

Carry your Hokie Passport card with you!

* Keep your residence hall door locked. This is a good time to

get into the habit of locking your room door when you're away.

* Report any suspicious activity to the VT Police (911 or

540-231-6411)

* As our food service warehouse is on Southgate Drive, some menu

items will not be available or in shorter supply today.

* Familiarize yourself with your on-campus phone. During

emergencies, we use both e-mail and phonemail to get critical

information to students. During a situation where power is interrupted

to campus, we would have to rely on phonemail to get information to you.

Being in the practice of checking your phonemail and keeping your phonemail inbox clear is appreciated.

We hope that this situation will be over shortly and normal campus operations can resume. Information, as available, will be released to the www.vt.edu homepage and through e-mails from

the University Relations office.

Monday, August 21, 2006, 10:30 a.m.

In an effort to help law enforcement officials, all remaining classes will be canceled. Students should return to their residence hall rooms or apartments and not venture out.

Employees are asked to remain in their offices until further notice.

The south side of campus (south of Washington Street) remains blocked off by police. Those roads are closed to vehicular traffic.

Police continue to pursue the William Morva, the escaped prisoner from

the Montgomery County Jail who is a suspect a homicide case.