Charlie Wade , 22, is a senior forestry student who was in his apartment the morning of the massacre. He spoke to Newsweek’s Lynn Waddell on April 20:
Wade gets defensive about criticisms aimed at university administrators. “I think you can ask any student here and they will tell you they have been nothing but pleased with how the administration handled this. They did everything they could do. The videos showed what they were dealing with.” Wade said that the campus now needs to move on and “show a united front … The more we dwell on it, the worse we make it. It helps being around everybody here because everybody is going through the same thing.”
“The first day of classes were cancelled because of a double homicide. And then a few weeks ago, there were the bomb threats. And now this. This is really shocking. This is just too many things. That one thing like this could happen here is amazing. But [33] people. You can’t help feeling nervous, shaky, anxious. You just can’t sit still, and you sure can’t study. I have a brother who’s in Iraq, and even he didn’t have a day like I did.”
Curry has been haunted by the thought of what would he have done if he had been in that classroom. “Would I have grabbed him? Would I have tackled him? Would I have survived, if I had been there?”
“I don’t know how Ryan got involved, he was just the greatest, friendliest guy. I’ve known him since the beginning of the year and he was always just full of energy and never upset.”
Clark, according to Draghi, was a fifth-year senior who triple-majored and was finishing up his third degree, in psychology. “He was from Georgia, about 5'9” or 5'10". He ran every morning at 6 a.m. I heard he stepped in front of the girl [killed in the dorm room]. I’m not sure that’s what happened, but I wouldn’t be surprised."
“You never think that something like this could happen to you at your school, " he said. “But I also don’t think anyone could have stopped something like this. This could happen anywhere.”
“It wasn’t until I got back here [West Ambler Johnston] that it hit me. I’ve just been staying by the phone and waiting for calls, trying to turn off the TV.
“A lot of my buddies are answering each other’s cell phones if [the phone’s owners] aren’t around, just letting people know that they’re okay.”
NEWSWEEK: What are you hearing now? What is the latest? Sara Haider: The rumor is that this was a student, an Asian American. Thirty-one are already confirmed dead. We don’t really know yet.
What were you doing when this was happening? Were you inside Norris Hall or anywhere near where the shooter was? I was in class at 9:00 a.m. at Squires Hall. The first shooting was at 7:15. I was on my way to cover the shooting but I was taken into Johnston Hall by police; they told us they had to keep everyone safe and in lockdown.
What was happening in lockdown? What did the police tell you to do? Everyone was silent. And everyone was confused. We were all told to leave our belongings outside the door. The police didn’t know who was doing the shooting yet, and they didn’t have time to search through anyone’s bags.
How long did you stay in lockdown? I was there almost 30 minutes. But the police let me go because I’m a member of the press.
Then what happened? I went outside but got dragged into another lockdown at another building.
Were you scared? What was the mood in lockdown? The students were all silent inside. They told us to turn all the lights off, to stay down and to stay away from the windows. Students were looking at each other’s laptops, looking for information on what was going on and calling their parents on their cell phones.
Do you know anyone inside when the shooting occurred, or anyone who was hurt?. Thankfully no, but I heard when it went from 20 to more than 30. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it.
Weren’t there already bomb threats on campus? Is there some special risk at Virginia Tech? I don’t think Virginia Tech is a dangerous campus. We just don’t understand this.
Some are calling this the college Columbine. What does all this mean to you, how could this happen, do you think? I don’t know what any broader meaning is, I just don’t. I’m just concerned about safety on campus now. I’m calling friends and trying to make sure everything is OK. So far I don’t know anyone who has been hurt.
What’s happening now on campus? I’m not sure. I’m not allowed back on. Everyone has sort of been evacuated.
NEWSWEEK: Can you tell me about how the campus is reacting right now? Andrew Robb: I live in Cochrane, which is a dorm right next to Ambler Johnston, where one of the shootings happened.
Although I’’ve only been around my dorm and Ambler Johnston, a lot of people are walking around in a very surreal state. No one has grasped what’s going on. It’s surprisingly quiet, at least on this side of campus. It’s not too chaotic. There aren’t any police officers nearby. Everyone is eating lunch and quietly taking amongst themselves. It’s very quiet. The atmosphere is very intense.
How are people finding out about their friends? How are they dealing with that anxiety It’s been such a flurry. I’ve not had too much opportunity to get in touch with my friends. Everyone in this dorm is not that worried about that, which comes from [a] mixture of the sheer number of people who go to this school…and [the fact that] this is very surreal. I think we haven’t even allowed ourselves to be worried about it.
Right now I’m looking at 20-to-30-odd people walking to and from the dining rooms and trying to reconnect with each other. People are walking around in small groups
How did you discover the shootings? What were you doing at the time? I was sleeping at the time of the shootings. I woke up to all the activity outside-the ambulances, and police cars and things. I live in a first-floor suite facing that dorm (where one of the shootings occurred). So it’s all outside my window.
I was about to leave for class, so I saw everything outside. Obviously, at the time, the day’s events wouldn’t have been known. I’m really into photojournalism, so when something big is going on, my first instinct is to go out. So I went out and took pictures of whatever I saw.
The time on the photographs was 10:11. I was just aware by word of mouth that one person had been shot. That’s all that was known at that point.
NEWSWEEK: How did this all start for you, where were you? Alex Semonite: I got out of Schiffert health center around 9:45 a.m. I saw cop cars in front of Ambler Johnston [a campus dorm]. I overhead someone say there had been shooting. Then the cop cars sped down Washington Street and then to West Campus Drive. I started heading back to my dorm. Then I heard the shots.
How many shots? What happened then? I heard shots, then I saw people running across the drill field. Everyone started running. There were about a couple hundred kids, it was between classes. Everyone was confused, some people were shouting to ‘get down, get down.’ There’s a lot of construction in the area, a lot of people thought the sounds might have been that at first.
How many shots did you hear? I heard two or three before everyone started running. Then the cops closed the intersection and started pushing traffic away and telling us to get out the area. I didn’t have a clear view of Norris. I couldn’t tell what was going on. I quickly walked away.
Were you scared? Not scared, I just didn’t know what was going on. I was confused. I went back to my dorm and we started counting who was there from my floor and who was missing. There were some people missing, but we found them later and they were safe. I can’t really think about myself, I can only think about how hard this is going to be for the families. I’m sitting here watching the death count rise, the number keeps going up. I’m in shock. I’m not afraid to walk out the door. This isn’t some militia campus full of guns or gangs. This is a nice place to be. This was an isolated incident.
What do you think could have sparked this? Have you heard anything from fellow students? I don’t know. I’d really like to know what was going through the head of the shooter. No matter how bad it is at college it’s not worth more than 30 lives. I heard it was an engineering student. They have a difficult course load, maybe this person was unable to cope with that type of work….Virginia Tech has a really hard engineering department. It’s hard to get into and you need to be really dedicated and committed. I imagine there was a lot of pressure on him.
“All morning and into the afternoon, there were megaphones all over campus telling students to stay inside and stay away from the windows. The campus looked like a ghost town.
Tyger predicted that not many students would withdraw or otherwise fail to return: “Blacksburg is a very safe place. We don’t even lock our doors here. I’ve never felt unsafe here. It’s a very large school with a small-school feel, if you know what I mean. I think most students are really coming together to support each other. Everyone’s still really anxious because we still don’t know who was shot or injured.” Final exams were supposed to happen in three weeks, says Tyger, “but who can study?”
