BLACKSBURG, Virginia — Virginia Tech officials say a police officer and another person have been shot and killed on the school's campus.The suspect remains on the loose.A news release from the school says the police officer had pulled someone over in what was a routine traffic stop today. The officer was shot and killed during the traffic stop.Witnesses told police the shooter ran toward a parking lot on campus. A second person was found dead in that parking lot.Virginia State Police will be taking over the investigation, according to the news release.The campus is where 33 people died in 2007 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. historyA campus-wide alert told students and faculty to stay inside and lock doors. The suspect was described as a white male wearing gray sweat pants, a gray hat with neon green brim, a maroon hoodie and backpack.A message left with the university wasn't immediately returned. Campus police referred all questions to the university."It's crazy that someone would go and do something like that with all the stuff that happened in 2007," said Corey Smith, a 19-year-old sophomore from Mechanicsville, Va., who was headed to a dining hall near the site of one of the shootings, but stayed inside after seeing the alerts from the school. "It's just weird to think about why someone would do something like this when the school's had so many problems."Read Virginia Tech's Twitter feed.Darik Anderson, assistant ticket manager for the athletics department, said his office in Lane Stadium is next door to the coliseum but he could not see anything from his vantage point.We're in lockdown," he said. "All the news we're getting is what's on the school's website."The shooting came the same day as Virginia Tech, which has an enrollment of about 30,000, was appealing a $55,000 fine by the U.S. Education Department in connection with the university's response to the 2007 rampage, when a student gunman killed 32 students and faculty and then shot himself.A report of a possible gunman at Virginia Tech on Aug. 4 set off the longest, most extensive lockdown and search on campus since the 2007 bloodbath led the university to overhaul its emergency procedures. No gunman was found, and the school gave the all-clear about five hours after sirens began wailing and students and staff members started receiving warnings by phone, email and text message to lock themselves indoors. Alerts were also posted on the university's website and Twitter accounts.That incident marked the first time the entire campus was locked down since the 2007 shooting, and the second major test of Virginia Tech's improved emergency alert system. The system was revamped to add the use of text messages and other means besides email of warning students.The system was also put to the test in 2008, when an exploding nail gun cartridge was mistaken for gunfire. But only one dorm was locked down during that emergency, and it reopened two hours later.
It is also a campus that has (and has for a while) strict gun control. Just saying.....
If I'm not mistaken, Fed law says no guns on any campus or school grounds.
Yes, but Va Tech's are even more so. Point being, gun control laws will not stop a crazy idiot intent on shooting someone. Which is the very reasoning that liberals push for them.
Yes, I get that, and agree. Still, not sure you get more restrictive than "no guns allowed".
There were some reactionary bills after the 07 shooting that supposedly tighten up a lot of gaps and laws that already exist. The campus itself is very anti gun, moreso than most from what I have read. Totally reactionary too. A mad gunman can have a field day on a campus knowing that no one can defend themselves. (except for cops)
Which is who got killed today.
Honestly, I think this has to do more with some kind of fucked up cloud over Blacksburg and not a gun law.
Not saying gun laws caused it. Saying that gun laws didn't prevent it.
Got that, just saying this place seems to be a magnet for these kinds of events.Also, you should change the name in your avatar to Johnny B Gooder.
Ironic eh?To me outlawing guns like that just makes the area itself very "soft" and an easy target.
There's no evidence anywhere that suggest stricter gun laws reduced crime.
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