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Tech: Many Unaware Of First Shootings

April 17, 2007

By Olympia Meola

Virginia Tech junior Andrew D. Peldunas reported to his first class yesterday at 8 a.m., unaware that two people had been shot in a campus dorm and that the gunman was on the loose.

He remained unaware through his 9:05 a.m. class, too.

It wasn't until he walked out of the building a little after 10 and saw the barrel of a police officer's gun about 20 feet away that he realized something terrible was happening.

"It was like a movie," he said. "Definitely I think people after the fact — after we were let go people realized what was going on. It was intense, but people were a little more disconnected from it."

The officer yelled for him to get back inside the building, where he hunkered down in a stairwell with other frightened students who tried to piece together what trauma had disrupted the typical hum of their rural campus.

Several students interviewed by The Times-Dispatch said they attended their first classes of the day unaware of a double-shooting in a campus dorm about 7:15.

"I'm disgusted. We got an e-mail around 9:30 saying there was a shooting in [West Ambler Johnston dorm]. Right after that was when he was in Norris," said Peldunas, a 23-year-old junior from Ohio. "I don't care if anyone was even hurt, if there was a shot on campus, that's definitely something to be considered."

Kelli Erk, an 18-year-old freshman who graduated from Deep Run High School in Henrico County, also reported to her 8 a.m. class unaware of what was happening. There, she met her roommate, who said she saw a student being carried on a stretcher but didn't know why.

"It's been really disturbing to think that they waited so long," Erk said yesterday evening. But once the information started to flow, she said, the school kept students well informed for the rest of the day.

Peldunas described how he watched the chaotic scene of six or seven students being hauled out of Norris on stretchers. Every few minutes, students would run out of Norris "frantically running kind of low" with their hands in the air, he said.

At one point, a law-enforcement official walked toward Norris with bolt cutters, Peldunas said. Finally, a group of police officers surrounded a man Peldunas suspects was the gunman and took him to an ambulance.

"The tone seemed to lighten up, and they were walking around with a little more confidence, I guess," he said. "We suspected that was a gunman — the gunman."

Tech senior Josh Bell walked to class from his off-campus apartment without knowing about the morning's trauma. On his way to class, he passed a large construction site and didn't think twice about loud noises he heard. Then three ambulances passed him, and he realized something wasn't right.

Bell estimates he was 75 to 100 yards from Norris Hall during the shootings there and that he heard 10 to 20 gunshots.

"I honestly thought it was some kind of hammer pounding or machinery involved with [the construction site]," said Bell, who is from the Richmond area. "At the time, it didn't register that it was gunshots."

Once he reached his class building near Norris Hall, students were rushing inside, telling varied stories, trying to piece together the events unfolding across campus.

Some students said they crouched close to the ground or were frisked as they were leaving Norris. Others said they passed by bodies while trying to exit.

One of those wounded yesterday was Colin Goddard, whose mother, Anne Lynam Goddard, is president of the Richmond-based Christian Children's Fund.

Ellie Whinnery, global communications manager for the organization, said last night that Anne Goddard said her son went through surgery yesterday for three gunshot wounds but that the wounds were not considered life-threatening. Doctors are optimistic, Whinnery said.

Another Richmond-area student injured was identified by NBC-12 as Allison Cook, a 2005 graduate of Mills Godwin High School in Henrico County.

Katharine Kamer, a 21-year-old senior who graduated from Mills Godwin, said she was in Patton Hall, which is close enough that Norris can be seen from a window.

She got out of class right before 10 a.m. and was told to not leave the building because of a shooting in West Ambler Johnston. From the second floor of her building, she could see police crouched around Norris but not much activity. A student next to her said he had heard gunshots and saw people jumping from windows at Norris.

Kamer said one girl who jumped from a window ran into her building and was being treated for a back problem.

"She was crying, and they were telling her to be calm," Kamer said. "They were telling her it would be OK."

Kamer, who like other students was told to stay away from all windows, was allowed to leave about 12:15 p.m. Police escorted her to her off-campus apartment, which she shares with Bell.

Erk said she believes she had touched base with all of her friends and they are OK, but the school had not yet released a list of the dead and injured.

"Pretty much everybody that I know is fine and safe," but "there is always the possibility that you overlooked somebody and they're still out there."

Contact staff writer Olympia Meola at omeola@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6812.