LOS ANGELES — The gunman in the Virginia Tech
shooting was not a student, had no apparent connection to the university
and is believed to have acted alone when he shot a campus police
officer, authorities said Friday morning.
A news conference held Friday morning by school and
law enforcement officials raised more questions than it answered.
Authorities said they were continuing to piece together a motive in the
deadly shooting of Officer Deriek W. Crouse that had locked down a
stunned campus less than 24 hours earlier.
“That’s very much the fundamental part of the
investigation right now. … (Why) this man approached Officer Crouse
and took his life,” said Corinne Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia
State Police. “At this point we have nothing to connect him to the
Virginia Tech campus or school.”
She also said there the investigation hasn’t turned up anything to suggest a link between the gunman and the officer.
Authorities would not release personal details about
the gunman, who was not carrying identification when he was found,
pending the completion of an autopsy, a positive identification and
notification of next of kin.
Geller said the shooter used a handgun, but she would
not discuss its caliber or whether the gunman had the legal right to
carry it within the state. She said the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms was investigating the gun’s history, including whether it
had been used in any other crimes.
The shooting unfolded about 12:15 p.m. EST Thursday
when Crouse — an Army veteran and married father of five — stopped a car
on campus. Witnesses reported that the gunman walked up to Crouse and
opened fire, seemingly without provocation. The gunman then fled.
The shooting triggered a campuswide lockdown while several state and federal agencies launched a manhunt.
Minutes later, a second body was found about a
quarter-mile away, leading some to fear another campus rampage could be
under way. In the 2007, 33 were killed in the deadliest mass shooting in
U.S. history.
It would turn out, however, that the second body was
that of the gunman. Ballistic and other evidence showed he died of a
self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
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