I wasn’t really planning for this to be the second post on my new Blog, but the events at Virginia Technical Institute bring back too many bad memories. My prayers go out to the family and friends of the students and faculty at VTI. I know a little of what they are going through.
In May, 2003 I went through a similar attack while a professor in the Business school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. Compared to VTI we were relatively lucky, only one student was killed and two people injured, but we certainly didn’t feel lucky at the time. Three PhD students and I were trapped in my office on the 5th floor of the building from the time the shooting started at 4:00 PM until SWAT rescued us at 12:30 AM the next morning. At one point while trying to FAX a phone list for the building to the local police I came face to face with the gunman. It was a terrifying experience.
MSNBC has a good report of the attack at Case Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15767366/
including some of my testimony at the gunman’s trial http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15787964/