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Columbia, Missouri
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WEDNESDAY, April 18, 2007
38 Pages — 50 cents
Shootings cast wide shadow
Local student
mourns friend.
By JACOB LUECKE
of the Tribune’s staff
Of the hundreds of local college students
who gathered at memorials and vigils yesterday to mourn the deaths of 33 people at
Virginia Tech University, few likely felt the
loss more personally than Sarah Newsome,
who lost a friend in the
Inside shootings.
Newsome, 20, trans씰Virginia Tech
ferred this semester
amilies mourn
from Virginia Tech to
their loved ones. the University of Mis씰Rampage
souri-Columbia.
Her
reignites debate
most recent visit to
over gun control. Blacksburg, Va., was
Page 4A just two weeks ago, during spring break.
She heard about a shooting at the school
on Monday morning and quickly phoned
her terrified friends at Virginia Tech.
“Around 10 o’clock, when the rest of the
people were killed, I was just in a state of
shock,” Newsome said. “I called as many
people as I could think of to make sure my
best friends were OK, and they were in
shock as well.”
But yesterday, when Newsome scanned
a list of the victims, she found the name of
one of her friends, 19-year-old Caitlin
Hammaren of Westtown, N.Y. The two
were in the same freshman English classes
last year and had attended the same
church. Newsome said she also discovered
another friend was injured.
Last night, Newsome stood with a large
gathering of her new peers at MU during a
candlelight vigil outside Memorial Union.
Students linked arms as a bell tolled for
each person who died at Virginia Tech.
“Yesterday we were Tigers, and they
were Hokies,” Rachel Anderson, Missouri
Students Association President, said in a
speech. “But today we unite as one; we are
all Hokies.”
Newsome said she finds it hard to mourn
so far from her friends who feel the same
pain she does.
“I feel like I should be there with them,”
she said. “I can’t grieve the right way.”
Also mourning yesterday was Jessica
Rowzie, a freshman at Stephens College
from Stuarts Draft, Va., a small town about
100 miles northeast of Virginia Tech.
Rowzie and about 20 other Stephens
College students attended a memorial service yesterday at Firestone Baars Chapel.
Rowzie said none of her friends in Virginia
were hurt, yet she thought she recognized
the face of one student who was killed.
She said she was grieving for her home
state.
“I’m really happy everyone I know is
OK,” said Rowzie, who wore a Virginia
Tech T-shirt with a black ribbon attached to
the front. “But I still feel like losing those
people I don’t know was like losing a part
of me because I am from Virginia, and I
Gunman portrayed as
disturbed and sullen.
Parker Eshelman photo
Students congregate yesterday outside Memorial Union at the University of Missouri-Columbia for a memorial
service led by MU Chancellor Brady Deaton, who spent 11 years as a professor and administrator at Virginia Tech.
Parker Eshelman photo
love everything about Virginia, including
the people in it.”
The Virginia Tech shooting also brought
back frightening memories for Stephens
College student Lara Adamson, 19, who
grew up in the same school district in Colorado as Columbine High School.
“It was such a blow,” she said. “It took
me right back to when I was in sixth grade
when Columbine happened.”
While many students yesterday said they
still felt safe after the shootings, some said
the tragedy had stirred up new fears.
Columbia College junior Amanda Jensen of
Mexico, Mo., said she became upset when
Nick King photo
MU sophomore Sarah Newsome, left, with
sophomore Jessica Rippelmeyer, center, and junior
industrial engineering major Drew Lalonde, takes
part in a memorial for the victims of the Virginia
Tech tragedy yesterday at MU’s Memorial Union.
Stephens College freshman Amanda Fetters, left,
comforts fellow student Jessica Rowzie during a
memorial service yesterday at Firestone Baars
Chapel. Rowzie is originally from Stuarts Draft, Va.
None of her Virginia Tech friends was injured.
‘I feel like I should be there with them.
I can’t grieve the right way.’
— Sarah Newsome, MU student who lost a friend at Virginia Tech
she found out one of the students killed
was a male residential adviser trying to
protect a female student.
Jensen said she was recently hired to be
a residential adviser at Columbia College
next year.
“Being an RA, we’re taught that we have
to protect the residents of our hall. He was
trying to protect this resident, and it’s a
shame that he got killed in the process and
so did she.” Jensen said. “My concern is not
only for my own life, but I’m protecting 100
people. How am I supposed to make sure
everyone is safe when I’m not even sure, if
this guy comes at me with a gun, if I’m
going to be safe?”
Reach Jacob Luecke at (573) 815-1713
or [email protected].
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — The gunman
blamed for the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history had previously been
accused of stalking two female students at
Virginia Tech University and had been
taken to a mental health
facility in 2005 after an
acquaintance worried he
might be suicidal, police
said today.
Cho Seung-Hui had
concerned one woman
enough with his calls and
e-mail in 2005 that police
were called in, Police
Cho
Chief Wendell Flinchum
said. He said the woman declined to press
charges, and neither woman was among
the victims of Monday’s massacre on the
Virginia Tech campus.
During the stalking second incident, also
in late 2005, the department received a call
from an acquaintance of Cho’s who was
concerned he might be suicidal, and Cho
was taken to a mental health facility,
Flinchum said. About the same time, in fall
2005, Cho’s professor informally shared
some concerns about the young man’s writing, but no official report was filed, he said.
Flinchum said he knew of no other police
incidents involving Cho until the deadly
shootings Monday, first at a girl’s dorm
room and then a classroom building across
campus. Neither of the stalking victims was
among the victims Monday.
Police searched Cho’s dorm room on yesterday and recovered, among other items, a
chain and combination lock, according to
documents filed today; the front doors of
Norris Hall had been chained shut from the
inside during the shooting rampage.
Other items seized include a folding
knife; two computers, a hard disk and other
computer disks; documents, books, notebooks and other writings; a digital camera;
CDs; and two Dremel tools.
Cho’s roommates and professors today
described him as a troubled, very quiet
young man who rarely spoke to his roommates or made eye contact with them.
Several students and professors
described Cho as a sullen loner. Authorities
said he left a rambling note raging against
women and rich kids. News reports said
that Cho, a 23-year-old senior majoring in
English, might have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly erratic.
Professors and classmates were alarmed
by his class writings — pages filled with
twisted, violence-drenched writing.
“It was not bad poetry. It was intimidating,” said Nikki Giovanni, one of his professors, told CNN today.
Giovanni said her students were so
unnerved by Cho’s behavior, including taking pictures of them with his cell phone,
that some stopped coming to class, and she
had security check on her room. She eventually had him taken out of her class.
Language barrier hampered report of blaze
By JOE MEYER
of the Tribune’s staff
The residents of a Columbia apartment building where a two-alarm fire
started Monday had trouble speaking
English and did not have access to a
phone to call 911, fire investigators
have determined.
The Columbia Fire Department
said untended cooking caused the
blaze that destroyed Building 9 of
Ashwood Apartments, 1021 Ashland
Road. Fire investigators estimated
damage to the building at $1.2 million and $100,000 to $200,000 in
damage to other property.
The residents of upstairs Apt. 904
were Japanese students at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Battalion Chief Steve Sapp said. They did
not have access to a phone in the
apartment, he said.
After noticing the fire, the resi-
dents made two trips to the apartment complex office before contacting on-duty management, Sapp said.
By that time, other occupants of the
apartment building had noticed
smoke and called for help.
“That’s our understanding. They
just didn’t know what to do,” Sapp
said. “They knew they had a problem, but they didn’t know what to
do.”
The fire “flashed” moments after
firefighters arrived at about 6:10
p.m., Sapp said, setting the entire
second floor on fire.
“It got a fairly significant head
start on us,” Sapp said. “In this case,
it had burned out of control for so
long, it had allowed it to get into the
common area” of the attic.
A fire department vehicle sustained about $250,000 in damage
from heat that radiated from the
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intense blaze. Sapp said it was
unclear how long the vehicle would
be out of service.
Yesterday evening, residents of the
building’s downstairs apartments
were removing personal items from
their former homes.
MU junior Dennis Blust said he
was able to remove some clothing
and household items from Apt. 901.
“I don’t know if any of it will be
good,” Blust said, “but it didn’t burn,
so I took it out.”
Blust said he was asleep at the
time of the blaze and awakened as a
man started yelling outside for everyone to get out of the building. He said
the most important thing was no one
was hurt.
“The guy that lived up there looked
sick to his stomach, but I told him,
‘Stuff happens,’ ” he said. “Everyone
got out.”
Chelsea McClain said she was
staying in a hotel until she could
move into another apartment in the
complex.
Her
clothes
were
destroyed, but she was able to save
her jewelry and other items.
“What can you do? Accidents happen,” she said. “Unfortunately, it happened to me.”
Joyce Morse, operations administrator for Raul Walters Properties,
said it was helpful that the American
Red Cross aided the residents — all
MU students — with housing, clothing and food.
“There’s no one that seems to be
extremely upset or anything,” Morse
said. “They just looked at it as an
accident that happened.”
Morse said the company plans on
rebuilding, but no timetable is set.
Reach Joe Meyer at (573) 815-1718
or [email protected].
Don Shrubshell photo
Assistant Fire Marshal Clayton Farr Jr. of the Columbia Fire
Department inspects damage at 1021 Ashland Road, where a
fire destroyed eight apartments Monday, displacing 20
residents. Occupants escaped unharmed, but two firefighters
suffered injuries battling the blaze. The landlord has helped
all but four of 13 tenants find other housing.
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