Blacksburg, Va. – In a chilling video received Wednesday by NBC News, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui declared: “This didn’t have to happen,” likening himself to the Columbine killers and talking of his hatred for the wealthy.
Cho mailed the package – including an 1,800-word diatribe and multiple photos of him aiming handguns at the camera – at 9:01 Monday morning. That was nearly two hours after he had killed two students in a dormitory and minutes before he stormed a classroom building and killed 30 people before turning a gun on himself.
He sent his parcel to NBC in New York, which made copies of the material before turning it over to authorities.
In an often incoherent monotone laced with obscenities, Cho says, “You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. … But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”
The dramatic disclosure came on a day when authorities also revealed that Cho was involuntarily hospitalized overnight in late 2005 for a mental evaluation after two female students complained to campus police that he was stalking them. Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said the women had received calls and computer messages from Cho that they considered annoying but not threatening, and neither pressed charges.
According to the December 2005 detention order, state officials thought there was “probable cause to believe” that Cho was “mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, and presents an imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness, or is seriously mentally ill as to be substantially unable to care for” himself.
The physician’s assessment of Cho noted that he appeared “flat” and that “his mood is depressed.”
According to many around the Virginia Tech campus who knew Cho, he kept up the visage of a loner uninterested in the world – until Monday morning.
Federal law-enforcement sources said Cho sent his manifesto, which was steeped in profanity and railed against the wealthy and the religious, by Express Mail from the Blacksburg post office just off campus. He listed his name on the package as “Ishmael.”
He apparently began working on the materials at least six days before the massacre, NBC said. But some of his rantings were recorded after the first two slayings occurred about 7:15 a.m. in West Ambler Johnston Hall.
Cho’s mailing suggests he intended to be heard from beyond the grave.
Some of the video shows him talking from inside a car. At other times, he is shown in front of a cinderblock wall.
Karan Grewal, one of Cho’s roommates, said that when he saw the footage, he could not believe it was the same person he had shared a six-person suite with since last fall.
“It was a totally different person,” the 21-year-old accounting major said. “He was staring straight at the camera, and he never stared into our eyes or even looked at us.”
Cho apparently sent some materials in PDF files and recorded others onto computer discs. According to NBC, the package included 27 QuickTime video files showing Cho talking into the camera. He does not direct his anger at any specific person but does mention “sin” and “spilling” his blood. He speaks at length about how much he loathes the wealthy. His voice often is soft and uneven, difficult to understand.
“I could have left,” he says. “I could have fled. But now I am no longer running. If not for me, for my children and my brothers and sisters that you (expletive). I did it for them. … The time came and I did it. I had to do what I did.”
The son of parents who left a life of poverty in South Korea to run a dry-cleaning business and raise their children in Virginia, Cho turns his venom on people of privilege in the U.S.
“You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats? Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs? Your trust fund wasn’t enough?”
He adds, “Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, who inspired generations of the weak and the defenseless people.”
In the written text, Cho likens himself to “Eric and Dylan” – a reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teenage shooters who carried out the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School.
Police and university officials said Wednesday that after the two women complained Cho was stalking them, an unidentified acquaintance of his called authorities to express concern that Cho might be suicidal.
Campus police obtained a temporary detention order based on his voluntary evaluation session with a local mental health counselor. He was evaluated at Carilion St. Alban’s, a private mental health facility. According to records from that examination, Cho was “alleged to be mentally ill.”
But because Cho told doctors he had no plans or hallucinations about killing himself of others, he was held for just 24 hours and then released on a court order recommending he volunteer for counseling. Cho apparently never sought help.
Some gun-control advocates Wednesday questioned why Cho was able to buy two handguns after having been declared mentally ill.
Authorities said that while Cho might have been extremely troubled, he was legally permitted to buy the guns because there was no record in his background check of him being involuntarily committed to a mental institution.
Ada Meloy, director of legal and regulatory affairs at the American Council on Education in Washington, said that getting an involuntary commitment is a significant step, and she saw no reason to suspect officials were negligent in not doing more to monitor Cho.
“If the university were to try to ban everyone who had a psychiatric condition or mental disorder,” Meloy said, “it would not succeed.”
“I HAD TO” DO IT
Excerpts from the video Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui sent to NBC News:
“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off. …
“I didn’t have to do it. I could have left. I could have fled. But now I am no longer running. If not for me, for my children and my brothers and sisters that you (expletive). I did it for them. …
“You just loved to crucify me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terror in my heart and ripping my soul all this time. …
“You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people. …
“Do you know what it feels like to be spit on your face and have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon a cross and left to bleed to death for your amusement? You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. And you want to inject as much misery in our lives because you can, just because you can. You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cog nac wasn’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything. …
“When the time came, I did it. I had to.”
