Virginia Tech: The Same Strength Stronger

I am among the great majority out there that did not know anyone who was killed that day, but what happened then had as much an effect on my life as anyone else. My wife Ashley works in Burruss Hall, the building right next to Norris Hall. That day she was scheduled to go to Chicago for work, but we had to come make a stop on campus before taking her to the airport.

I had already heard about the shootings in West Ambler Johnston Hall, but felt no need to avoid campus, as I believed that the individual had been or would soon be caught. We arrived earlier than anticipated and set up our laptops in Schultz dining hall to pass the time.

Eventually we got an e-mail saying that the person responsible for the AJ shootings was still in the area and that campus would be locked down. Not wanting Ashley to miss her flight we slipped out the back door of the building while maintenance workers were locking up the front.

As we drove from Virginia Tech to Roanoke towards the airport, police and rescue vehicles of all kinds sped in the other direction to respond to the violence to which we, at the time, were oblivious.

Seeing so many of them with their lights flashing and their sirens blaring prompted us to call around and find out what was happening. It was still too early in the day to get any good information, so we continued to the airport.

When we got there we learned that the gunman had made his way to Norris Hall. No estimates were given on the number of people injured or whether the situation had been handled. While we waited for the flight to board the numbers started coming in.