US: Governor declares day of mourning to celebrate lives of Virginia Tech victims

NBC criticized for broadcasting the killer's manifesto

The Jakarta Post
Friday, April 20, 2007

Blacksburg Virginia --- As experts pored over Cho Seung Hui's twisted writings and his videotaped rant, parents and officials urged people to instead focus on the victims of the deadliest rampage by a lone gunman in modern U.S. history.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine declared Friday a day of mourning and called for a moment of silence at noon to honor the 32 victims in Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech. Churches around the country, from California to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., have scheduled vigils and special prayerservices.

"We want the world to know and celebrate our children's lives, and we believe that's the central element that brings hope in the midst of great tragedy," said Peter Read, whose 19-year-olddaughter, Mary Karen, was killed. "These kids were the best that their generation has to offer."

Private funeral ceremonies were held Thursday for two international students killed in the massacre. Egyptian Waleed Mohammed Shaalan and Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, a civil engineering doctoral student from Indonesia, also will have funerals in their home countries.

Read urged television stations to stop broadcasting the gruesome, hate-filled videos and photos of Cho, the 23-year-old English major responsible for the attack.

Police said they were disappointed that NBC television -- which received the materials in the mail Wednesday -- opted to broadcast them. Major networks pledged to scale back their use of the material.

The videos revealed a man angry at the world but offered little explanation of why, other than rambling tirades against rich kids, snobs and people who had wronged him.

As experts analyzed the disturbing materials, it became increasingly clear that Cho was almost a classic case of a school shooter: a painfully awkward, picked-on young man who lashed outwith methodical fury at a world he believed was out to get him.

"In virtually every regard, Cho is prototypical of mass killers that I've studied in the past 25 years," said Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Alan Fox, co-author of 16 books on crime. "That doesn't mean, however, that one could have predicted his rampage."

Date Posted: 4/20/2007