Fear On Campus: Virginia Tech Students In Their Own Words

In the age of the Internet, cell phones, email and instant messaging, it was hard to keep word of what happened on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va. quiet for long.

When the massacre started at about 9:45am Monday morning, the lives of thousands of people would be forever affected by the actions of a crazed man with a gun.

Here in their own words are some of their memories.

“I heard the gunshots and just sprinted. It was probably one of the scariest things in my life.”
Brittany Zachar, 18-year-old freshman.

“A student rushed in and told everybody to get down. We put a table against the door and when the gunman tried to shoulder his way in and when he saw that he couldn’t, he put two shots through the door. It was the scariest moment of my life.”
Ruiqi Zhang, computer engineering student who was on the second floor of Norris Hall, scene of the massacre.

“He loaded his gun at me. I ran down the steps to get out of there.”
Gene Cole, Norris Hall building worker

“I recognized the sound of gunfire but was mostly confused … I looked around at the other students on the drillfield, most of them confused like myself … it clicked in everyone’s head immediately the sound we heard was a gun shot and everyone started running. I went back to the dorm, locked the door, and turned on the news.”
Andrew Gisch, second-year student, who was walking across a quadrangle listening to his iPod when he heard “a big bang.”

“It hits you in the heart. It’s more of a shock to me because I’m an engineering major and when that list (victims’ names) comes out, I know I’m going to see some friends on there and its scaring me inside right now.”
Daniel Smith, student

“We were inside the classroom maybe five or 10 minutes and our teacher never showed up. Somebody came in and said the place is on lock-down. And when the teacher never showed up and we found out we were on lock-down, we all took off running.

“There was a voice that just kept repeating, ‘Gunman on campus, stay indoors, get away from windows,’ over and over.”
Twenty-one year-old Justin Merrifield, a senior majoring in animal science.

“[The gunman fired away in] eerily silence” with “no specific target – just taking out anybody he could. After he couldn’t get the door open he tried shooting it open … but the gunshots were blunted by the door.”
Derek O’Dell, one of the wounded.

“[The shots] sounded like an enormous hammer … I must’ve been the eighth or ninth person who jumped, and I think I was the last.”
Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old junior who was in a solid mechanics lecture in Norris Hall.

“[He] was just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.”
Student Erin Sheehan, one of only four out of two dozen in her classroom who escaped being shot, on the killer.

“I don’t even know if any of my friends were killed, because it was so hard to get in touch with anyone … Even if they weren’t, it wouldn’t make it any less sad. You don’t expect this to happen at your school. We’re just kids.”
Brittany Jones, 19, VT student

“I knew when the number was so large that I would know at least one person on that list. I don’t want to look at that list. I don’t want to.”
Gregory Walton, a 25-year-old who graduated from VT last year