Help needed with story: Was "Cho" Arrested or did he kill himself?

I posted my take on the Virgina Tech shootings yesterday on my blog, and unwittingly inserted the following photo:



Then the reports started coming out that the gunman, "Cho Seung-Hui", killed himself at the end of his rampage.

Stories about the shooting typically include his campus photo. It appears to be the same man being taken into custody in the photo above:



Same glasses and facial features.

In searching online for news stories using the words "Virginia Tech" and "Custody", I find a number of links to newspapers all reporting the same quote:

"Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter."

I find NO reference to ANYONE being taken into custody on any of the major network news sites: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX. Newspapers only.

So the big question is, just WHO is that being arrested in the top photo? Is it "Hui"? Was he arrested or did he kill himself? (or was he released and then killed himself? Or something else entirely???)

The reports right now are all too piecemeal to get a clear picture, so I need everyone's help.

And not really much like Cho.

Where did that picture come from? If it is from VT, I wouldn't be surprised if cops cuffed lots of people, just to lock down the area.

It's tough to decide based upon the two photos because the college/campus photo may have been taken a few years ago (I don't think Hui was still a Freshman, but the photo was probably taken when he was). That would affect the age and maybe even hair-style, but I know I've had the same glasses for YEARS.

I'm certain it's not the same guy. He was probably mistakenly arrested because the cops were looking for an Asian guy.

Man getting arrested has more pronounced receding hair (widow's peak), longer sideburns, wider face.

I'm not very good with faces, and they are, after all, both Asian. :sarcasm:

asian but do not resemble each other.

Then who is he, and why was he arrested?

We joke about "they all look alike", but did the cops arrest an innocent Asian guy because of it?

Better safe than sorry, as long as they didn't rough him up.

these two men don't look anything alike....to me

Ann Arbor

The two pictures may be years apart, and you can't really tell if in the second photo he is wincing in pain. But look at the ears.

The FBI says the ridges inside the ear are as distinct as fingerprints, and if you look closely, the ears in both photos look similar (if not identical).

and you say the two pictures "may be years apart"---upon what are you basing that?

When I went to college, they didn't give us a new photo ID every year. That looks like a Freshman photo.

Just found a link to a report that Hui was a Senior. That could put the two photos at as much as five years apart.

Compare the hairlines. Also, the guy in the top photo is much stockier, and it shows in his face. The cheeks are much fuller and he has jowls. THe lines that form around people's noses as they age are very prominent on the top photo. Those lines have barely begun to form on Cho.

The police were looking for someone of Asian descent, so naturally any Asians they encountered were detained until they could be cleared, though that's not quite the same thing as being arrested.

If you are going by "hairlines" or "weight"... two things that change over time, that's a flawed basis for comparison.

They don't look like the same person at all.

They look about a decade apart in age, too...

I saw an interview with a student that said that one kid was tackled and handcuffed after refusing to put his hands up for police. There were ordering all the students they were escorting out of the building to keep their hands up. She said one kid wouldn't, maybe that was him. I saw this guy on a video clip later sitting up against a wall handcuffed.

As far as the shooter every news source I can find is still reporting he shot himself in the head.

:hi: Good to have you here.

That man looks a little older and chubbier. Didn't they catch someone who they suspected and then let go?

A few reporters said they suspected it was the boyfriend of the girl he killed in the first shooting.

No resemblance at all, other than race and glasses.

Read my post above about the ears.

And the similarity of the glasses is more than suspicious.

making a conclusion that the ears look the same? Give me a break.

Even at the different angle, you can still see the upward angled ridge near the top of both ears of the men in both photos.

In fact, at my local VisionWorks, those glasses are similar to over 70% of the styles sold there....


In any event, the shooter shot himself in the head. Isn't the same dude...

What? You think "they all look alike" or something?

geesh.

I'm getting more than a little fed up with he subtle accusations of racism I'm getting on here.

Had I of not posted that second photo of Hui, what would any of you be basing your "They look nothing alike" claims on? I think trying to assert with absolute certainty that the two men "look nothing alike" based upon a single photo that may be several years old is a greater indicator of racism than anything I've suggested here.

We have a report from the police that "One shooter has been taken into custody", followed by a photo of a man, albeit not identical, but with some similarities, most notably the glasses, and NO confirmed reports of what happened to the man in the photo, only to have the people on here jump on me in the most reactionary way possible attacking me for implying "the all look alike" simply because both men are Asian. :puke:

Now, can the ADULTS please step up and address my question with some seriousness?

My Mom had glasses like that and she wasn't Asian. Should she have been arrested?

You might not realize the inherent racism in your post. I'm sorry - you probably don't think you are, yet the fact remains that more than one of us had the same response to you.

errrrrrrrrr....... what question was that again?

I saw on another internet forum that he is a VT school newspaper photographer who got too close to the action and was taken down...both for being too close and for matching the description. A VT student who is a friend of his was the one who identified him by name.

Sorry, can't find the original post right now.

That's the kind of 'more information' I'm talking about. Thank you. Good to know.

From the other forum:

This man cannot be the shooter. His name is Shao, and he's a photographer with Student Photography Services -- works with the Campus newspaper the Collegiate Times. I worked with him this summer when I served as Editor in Chief of the CT.

It all depends on the chronology of the pics. It's CERTAINLY the case that unless significant time has passed between the pictures being taken, they ARE NOT the same guy.

That being said ...

I see absolutely NOTHING that's glaringly different enough between the two photo's that would cause me to conclude that without question (as some here seem to be doing) these are two different people. If that's a freshman photo, he could have been as young as 17. If he's now 23 y.o., hasn't aged particularly well, and gained around 40 lbs in the intervening years...

For God's sake people, remember the Old Vs. New pics of Khalid Sheik Mohammed that came out around the time of his capture? There was a WAY bigger difference in appearance there than here.

Sorry, but without knowing more, I cannot rule out that these could be the same guy. No way. And, IMHO, neither can anyone else without more information.

That, alone, should dispel whether this alive much older fatter guy is the same as the shooter.

They aren't even close in appearance.

This is bizarre and smacks of something that's just wrong.