Tech shooter had a history of stalking behavior

I think he should have been expelled, but since VA doesn't have a real anti-stalking law, perhaps they couldn't.

(CNN) -- Cho Seung-Hui was referred to a mental health facility in 2005 after officers responded to accusations he was suicidal and having inappropriate contact with female students, police said Wednesday. Police first investigated Cho in November 2005 after a student complained about him calling her and contacting her in person, university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

"The student declined to press charges and referred to Cho's contact with her as annoying," Flinchum said of the November investigation.

Police investigated him again the following month when a female student complained about instant messages Cho sent her, Flinchum said. After police spoke to Cho, they received a call from a student concerned that he might be suicidal. After speaking with Cho "at length," the officers asked him to see a counselor, and he agreed to be evaluated by Access, an independent mental health facility in the area, the chief said.

"A temporary detention order was obtained and he was taken to a mental health facility" on December 13, 2005, he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/18/vtech.shooting/index.html


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It gets worse.

You want more THERAPY? And touchy-feely hugs and understanding and pansy-ass mental health funding? And then you want to take guns away from law-abiding non-US-citizen psychopathic English students?

Why don't you just move to France? Here in Amurka, we just wait until the crazies snap and then make damn sure we can SHOOT BACK.

:evilgrin:

:thumbsup:

Too bad there wasn't any real follow-up on his inappropriate behavior.

There's at least one of those on every campus, in every neighborhood. They rarely do snap, but when they do, no one is surprised.

The problem is that there are a lot of people out there just like him who lead long, quiet and miserable lives. They drive everyone around them away, and many of them like it just fine.

Mental health freely available wouldn't have stopped this guy. That's the problem with these weirdos, they're way above the rest of us, have no problems, it's the world and everybody else in it that's wrong.

Unless we want every weirdo in this country forced into intense psychotherapy, something that's Stalinist in itself, we'd better just accept the fact that once in a blue moon, a weirdo will go berserk and people will get hurt.

Life is risk. There is no way to avoid most of it. As statistics go, as horrifying as these things are when they happen, the risk of this happening to us or anyone we know is extremely small. The only way to minimize it is to kill the civil rights of anyone who doesn't fit with an impossible norm, something I think few of us really want since the standard would quickly become political nonconformity.

any one could have done. (BTW, I don't blame her for not pressing charges. I have no idea of the facts of the case.)

Especially if he was somewhat threatening.

"just annoying". I can relate to that. I had a stalker when I was about 17 or 18 & I just found him a pest, not a threat (Of course, we didn't call them stalkers; we called them preverts & there were no stalking laws.)

If she just found him an irritant & not threatening she may have felt that filing charges would ruin his life with all the attendant police, lawyers, court dates, etc.

OTOH, you could be right & that she was scared to file charges.

He was reported to police on a couple of occasions, and still he was able to buy a gun? The gun checks need to be at least as tough as the "no fly" lists that are kept. It should be easier to disqualify someone from buying a gun, but allow them to challenge the disqualification in order to purchase one.

He was investigated, the student urged to press charges, and sent to mental health counseling. They did what they were supposed to do, as they did yesterday. As they did during the August 2006 shooting.

What the campus police did had nothing to do with VA and Federal gun laws.

Searches on my posts will sure I am far, far, FAR from a police booster, but all of this misguided criticism of the Tech cops is puzzling to me.

Two women are stalked. They knew this, whether charges were pressed against,
or not. The safety of the students should have been the top concern. Serial stalkers
don't just stop. They usually become more dangerous with each obsession. The
disturbing creative writing papers also raised a red flag. A roommate alerted
authorities because he thought Cho was suicidal. Come on, something more
should have been done to protect the students and faculty.

The law is flawed. The police and the university couldn't do anything to either expel nor arrest the student. The cops did what they were able to do. I'm betting some laws will be changed over this, although it will be too late.

after two women complained about getting THREATENING letters from him.
He met legal criteria for detention....see ABC News link below.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3052278&page=1

A doctor found that Cho's "insight and judgment are normal" and that he was not taking any medications, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

VT authorities take him to a psych hospital, they get an order from a Mag to evaluate him & a doctor finds his insight & judgment normal. I don't see how VT could have done more. :shrug:

accused of stalking. He wasn't the only one writing disturbing papers. He wasn't the only one that might be suicidal. And the others didn't get a gun & go on a killing spree.