Good question about the windows. I haven’t heard anything on the subject.

I wonder, though, if we aren’t wrongly assuming that Hilscher was the first victim. That theory was part of the early reports that she was Cho’s girlfriend, and that the RA was killed trying to defend her or investigate the noise. But now that we know she wasn’t involved with him can we be sure that Clark was not the actual intended victim? Cho may have had a grudge against him for some insult, real or imagined, in which case Hilscher would have just been in the way.

The WAPO says police can’t find a connection between Cho and either of his first two victims, which probably means they are pursuing both angles, but I haven’t noticed the media doing the same.

As for the package, this freak didn’t even speak to his roommates; who would he have known who would have been willing to stand on line at the post office for him, on tax day no less, to mail a $14 envelope?

I’m still convinced that I heard Fox News report, days after the shooting, that a postal worker confirmed receiving the package from Cho at the University City Blvd. I know, everyone is trying to say he went to the Main St. location which is closer to downtown, but I’m almost certain I heard it confirmed that it was the University City Blvd. location.

As for why he chose Hilscher, does anyone know if her window was visible from Cho’s or from the main lobby of Cho’s building? I recall one of his roommates saying they would sometimes come home to find him just staring blankly out the window. I don’t specifically recall whether he meant the suite common area, or the dorm building entry. For some reason I’ve had it in my head that he was in the dorm building entry. Is it possible he stalked her from afar?

Cho may not have thought any further than going to the dorm next door and shooting somebody. Emily was just the unlucky one he bumped into first. From that point forward, he may not have had an idea what he was going to do. Stopping to mail a package in the middle of a murder spree sounds odd. If he planned to do a blood bath, you’d think he’d mail his manifesto before he started, maybe the night before. This sounds more like the first shootings prompted him to go with the second shootings, to expand the violence.

Killers are not rational people. Think of Lee Harvey Oswald. The first thing he did after shooting Kennedy was to run home and get his revolver. If he’d been a rational person, he would have brought the revolver with him and made his getaway immediately after the shooting. Gerald Posner argues that Oswald was probably going to try to take a bus to Mexico to escape, but he kinda wandered around on the bus in Dallas. He obviously did not have a fixed plan but was just improvising as he went.

Cho might well have been just acting on impulse without any reasons for what he did.

The problem with your objections is that they don’t take into account that Cho’s goals were to kill people then destroy himself. In that sense there is really no way his plan could go wrong, which is the whole trouble with suicidal killers in general. If he were discovered prematurely what is the worst that could happen? If his discoverer is unarmed (most likely) he simply kills them and adds to his body count. If it’s the cops or some other armed person (unlikely) he either kills them or gets killed himself. Either way he takes someone with him and gets on the news.

The guy was a NUT! One cannot understand a NUT unless you are nuts yourself! Give it up already!!!!

He MIGHT have been a Nut.

He MIGHT have been insane.

He MIGHT have some reason in his head for what he did.

He MIGHT have been a terrorist.

He MIGHT have not even done the deed and someone else, 1) mailed the package, 2) killed those people including Cho, 3) placed the gun in Cho’s hand (complete with finger prints), wasn’t an accomplice, 4) Got away with murder….

Why do people want to know? Because people are CURIOUS. Because we want to know all of what was in those tapes, ALL the details, every ounce of it.

So, can someone explain the purpose of trying to figure out the “why” in this situation?

Because somewhere there’s a family wanting to know why their girl was gunned down.

Because there are a lot of families who want an answer more substantial than, “because he was evil”.

Because there may be lessons to learn about preventing or minimizing the destruction the next time around.

Because we need to know if someone else was an accomplice (willing or unwilling/unknowing).

Because it does help with the healing process.

And I’m sure there are many more reasons.

The time it took for the word to spread, he figured, would be about the same as mailing the package and it would have him off campus, so, even if he had been id’d, he wouldn’t have been found. The word of the killing didn’t get disseminated and by 10 AM, he figured he couldn’t wait any longer to go to Norris. Anyway, that’s why it took an otherwise unexplainable two hours for him to go to Norris.

A couple more points. His attack at Norris probably wasn’t totally random; he may have wanted to target certain classes or, at least, one specific class. Another: There is probably a 15 minute period before classes, when he couldn’t go; for him to put the chains up on, what, two doors(?) he needed the halls to be quiet and empty. When’s that, about 15 or 20 minutes into classes? (BTW, are some class starting times staggered, which might narrow his start window even more?)

Just some thoughts.

My understanding is that the dorms all operated on passcode cards, any one of which could access any dorm.

Any dorm? That’s crazy. I lived in a co-ed dorm and it was locked up tight. The all-girl dorms had security guards, and boys weren’t allowed beyond the lobby. Then again, that was also farther south than Virginia.

He must have followed her in, maybe even have told her that he forgot his keys. My dorm was always locked, and we had to knock on someone’s window if we got stuck outside.

My understanding is that the dorms all operated on passcode cards, any one of which could access any dorm.

I’d also bet against the diversion idea. I’m sure he got a huge charge out of intentionally walking calmly through the crowd of cops, after he killed the first two.

This shows several clips of the killer talking to the camera. The ones where he seems to say that he has already started the killings show the image shaking like an accomplice is holding the camera. The other ones are perfectly still like the camera is mounted.

The video shows the signature focused and enlarged and it appears to say “Ishmiel” which is different than other reports of the spelling.

At the very end of the video, the reporter says that an official told him that the postal clerk remembered “him” sending just the one package. How can it be then that they haven’t placed him at the post office? It might be that the reporter assumed it was Cho but the official didn’t specify who the package sender was and they have someone else in mind.

Has anyone considered the possibility that Ryan Clark may have been his initial target? Like I said, it doesn’t matter much at this point, but if you’re gonna look at you’ve gotta look at all the angles.

dementia unbound on April 26, 2007 at 10:50 AM

Reportedly, Ryan came to Emily’s aid as an RA, so it’s possible, but if his intent was to kill Ryan, you’d think he would have gone straight for him first.

Plus, if someone else was involved, even if just to mail the package, that’s something that does matter.

I just hope this doesn’t become a TV Movie of the Week 30 years from now.

It won’t. It will likely become a “TV Movie of the Week” about 3 months from now, the way Hollywood works.