High school classmates say gunman was bullied

Why wasn’t he stopped?
But predominantly, the discussion in Blacksburg was about how Cho could have slipped through the fingers of teachers, administrators and mental health professionals, all of whom raised red flags about him at one time or another.

Cho had been removed from one of his classes because he so frightened his teacher and classmates with his odd behavior and his violent, blood-drenched writings. He was referred to campus police by two women who were creeped out by his messages to them. And he was ordered to submit to psychiatric evaluation by a Virginia magistrate.

And yet, a psychiatrist who examined Cho found that he was not a danger to others, and he was never effectively intercepted along the way to his terrible rampage Monday.

“I think it’s crazy” that there are no stronger procedures for dealing with seriously troubled students, said Lucinda Roy, a co-director of creative writing at Virginia Tech, who tutored Cho after he was kicked out of a creative writing class in fall 2005.

“I think there needs to be a change,” Roy said in an interview with NBC News. “We must intervene, and that is all there is to it.”

Speaking during an appearance at a high school in Ohio, President Bush said the shootings were a reminder that people must be willing to raise red flags about others’ disturbing behavior.

“One of the lessons of these tragedies is to make sure that when people see somebody or know somebody who is exhibiting abnormal behavior, you do something about it, to suggest that somebody take a look,” he said. “If you are a parent and your child is, you know, doing strange things on the Internet, pay attention to it and not be afraid to ask for help and not be afraid to say, ‘I am concerned about what I am seeing.’ ”

Detention order issued
As early as November 2005, police and school administrators were wrestling with what to do with Cho, who was accused of sending inappropriate messages to two female students and was sent to a mental health facility after police obtained a temporary detention order.

Cho was referred to the university’s disciplinary system, but campus Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said the women declined to press charges, and the case apparently never reached a hearing.

However, after the second incident, the department received a call from an acquaintance of Cho’s, who was concerned that he might be suicidal, Flinchum said. Police obtained a temporary detention order from a local magistrate, and in December of that year, Cho was briefly admitted to Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford.

A doctor’s report obtained by NBC News concluded that while Cho could pose a threat to himself, he posed no threat to others. Cho was released.

One lingering question was answered Thursday when the owner of an Internet gun store said one of the weapons Cho used was purchased from his Web site.

Authorities had already established that Cho bought one of his weapons, a Glock 9mm handgun, at a gun shop near the university. And they knew that he took delivery of the second, a .22-caliber Walther P-22, at a nearby pawnbroker.

Thursday, Eric Thompson, the owner of the Gun Source, based in Green Bay, Wis., said Cho bought that gun through his site. He said he had no idea his business was involved until he was contacted Tuesday by telephone by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“I just feel absolutely terrible that this tragedy even happened in the first place,” Thompson told the AP on Thursday. “I have three children in the first place, and it’s just an absolute tragedy.”

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