The killer: The killer behind America's deadliest mass shooting was revealed yesterday to be a troubled loner from South Korea who left behind a disturbing note in which he set out a list of grievances against his university and said: "You caused me to do this."
Police investigating the Virginia Tech university massacre, which left 33 dead, mainly students in their late teens and early 20s, named him as Cho Seung-Hui, a fourth-year English student who lived on the campus.
Police sources blamed him for earlier incidents ranging from stalking women to setting fire to a dormitory. The police suspect he was also behind persistent bomb threats over the last few months.
As President Bush arrived on the campus for a memorial service attended mainly by staff and students, questioning continued about the slowness of the college authorities and police to react to the first round of killings and the failure to lock down the campus, cancel classes and properly alert students to the danger.
But there was almost no debate in the US about a need for gun control laws - even among the staff and students.
The Chicago Tribunereported that Cho had the words "Ismail Ax" written in red ink on the inside of an arm, and in his note he railed against "rich kids", "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans". Law enforcement sources have said the note, which runs to several pages, begins in the present tense but shifts to the past.
Dr Bill Knocke, head of the civil engineering faculty whose staff and students were among the dead, said of Cho: "I think what we are looking at is random evil." Although no official motive has yet been provided, Dr Knocke said he understood that Cho had gone on Monday morning to the dormitory of a female student, Emily Hilscher (19), who was not his girlfriend but with whom he may have been infatuated. He confronted her in the computer area and shot her. He also murdered her mentor and fellow student, Ryan Clark (22), who tried to intervene.
Cho returned to his own dormitory nearby, wrote the note, and gathered up more ammunition. Two hours later, he went to Norris hall, chained the main doors and, for half an hour, fired deliberate, single shots into classrooms. He left bodies scattered in four classrooms and stairways.
A survivor, Derek O'Dell, his arm in a cast after being shot, said Cho was "eerily" silent while firing away with "no specific target - just taking out anybody he could".
Although Cho had lived in the US since 1992, the South Korean foreign ministry expressed hope that the massacre would not "stir up racial prejudice or confrontation".
South Korean students were leaving the campus yesterday to seek temporary refuge. Sungin Oh (20), a student, said Cho's actions had involved all of Korean society: "I am going to stay away for a while. I feel nervous."
After the killing spree, Cho shot himself in the face. Stephen Flaherty, head of Virginia state police, said: "The gunman was discovered among several of the victims in one of the classrooms."
Erin Sheehan, one of four people to walk out alive from a class of two dozen, described him as "just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a boy scout-type outfit". She added: "He wore a tan button-up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something."
A police affidavit written to secure a search warrant said Cho was believed to have multiple firearms, not just the Walter P22 and Glock handguns he used in the killings. The serial numbers had been filed off to prevent identification but police said he had bought a handgun in a nearby town last month.
Police ballistics experts identified one of the handguns as having been used in both shootings. "It's certainly reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places," Mr Flaherty said.
The affidavit also said: "It is further reasonable to believe suspect is the author of the bomb threat note." Cho's family run a dry cleaners at Centreville, Virginia. He retained South Korean citizenship but had a US green card legally entitling him to work and study.
"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said Larry Hincker, a university spokesman.
Will Naschlas (18), a geology student who sat next to Emily Hilscher in class, said there was no romantic relationship with Cho. "In my opinion, that guy was not even close to her. I know she had a boyfriend at another college."
There were individual acts of bravery throughout the ordeal. One professor, an Israeli and Holocaust survivor, Liviu Librescu (76) blocked a classroom door to allow his students time to jump out of a window to safety. He was shot dead.
- (Guardian service)