A
gunman killed a police officer in a Virginia Tech parking lot yesterday
before he was found dead nearby in a baffling attack that sent
shockwaves through the campus nearly five years after it was the scene
of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. The incident
evoked grim memories of April 2007 when a mentally deranged student
killed 32 people and wounded 25 before committing suicide on the
school’s rural campus in the Shenandoah Valley. It was the deadliest
attack by a single gunman in U.S. history. Yesterday’s shooting took
place on the same day Virginia Tech officials were in Washington,
fighting a government fine over their alleged mishandling of the 2007
bloodbath. Before it became clear that the gunman in yesterday’s attack
was dead, the school locked down the campus and used a high-tech alert
system to warn students and faculty members to stay indoors. The officer
was killed after pulling a driver over in a traffic stop. The gunman –
who was not involved in the traffic stop – walked into the parking lot
and shot the officer. Police declined to say whether they suspected a
murder-suicide and offered no motive for the crime, citing an ongoing
investigation.
