`LiTHiuM
August 22nd, 2006, 12:16 AM
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/21/virginia.escapee.ap/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209621,00.html
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=434
I'm sure everyone has heard on the news or in passing of the Blacksburg, VA resident (well, sort of, he was homeless) who was arrested on charges of armed robbery, and when taken the hospital to treat a supposed strained wrist and ankle, overpowered his police watchmen, stole his gun, and shot an unarmed hospital security guard as he was fleeing the building. The security guard succumbed to his wounds and passed away over the night. This morning at 7 a.m., he shot and killed a sheriff who was searching for him, a little less than a mile from the heart of campus.
Personally, I have a 9:05 Psychology class which I went to with no problems, but when I was walking back, I saw a bunch of Au Bon Pain employees running out of the Graduate Life Center which is ~100 feet from Squires Student Center. When I got back, one of my friends who was hanging out in the library which is ~50 feet from Squires said that there had been a spotting of the suspect in the Student Center, that he may have a hostage, and that they had locked down all surrounding buildings. Note that this was the first day of classes, and he said all the freshmen who were in the library were pretty freaked out. We had all of our classes cancelled for the day around 10:45 a.m.
My roommate got up to see what the ruckus was about, and we decided to head over to Squires to see if we could see anything since apparently there were like 90 police cars surrounding it. On our way over there, we noticed snipers on the roof of the library and pretty much every surrounding building, and as we approached the tape, we saw the S.W.A.T. team enter the building with riot shields (Squires turned out to be a false alarm).
We left after about 5 minutes because not much was going on, and flipped on the local news when we got back. Of course it was on there, but we were pretty shocked to see it getting coverage on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/) and Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/) simultaneously. As I'm looking at it right now, CNNs main article is about William Morva and Fox's first listing in its main headlines is the same.
Later in the day, we went over to my friends apartment to grill and drink some beers, and ended up heading out to Christiansburg (Blacksburg isn't a very big town, Christiansburg is 15 minutes away and has the token Wal-Mart, all the chain restaurants, you get the picture), but on our way down the highway, there were police cars spaced out about ~100 feet from each other with officers looking into the fields with rifles and automatics. We found out when we were heading back that he had been detained.
I've never been really exposed to anything like this before, and to see S.W.A.T. members raiding a building that you're in everyday, snipers watching over the route you've taken to class for the past year and a half, or fully-loaded officers patrolling a highway not even a mile from Lane Stadium, it's all pretty mind-blowing, not to mention all the national media coverage that this whole thing got.
Anyways, didn't really have a major point to this other than to kind of summarize and comment on what happened today, and I thought some of you who were interested in this might appreciate it. I'll check this tomorrow to answer any questions you guys have or anything like that. Night, I have my REAL first day of classes tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209621,00.html
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2006&itemno=434
I'm sure everyone has heard on the news or in passing of the Blacksburg, VA resident (well, sort of, he was homeless) who was arrested on charges of armed robbery, and when taken the hospital to treat a supposed strained wrist and ankle, overpowered his police watchmen, stole his gun, and shot an unarmed hospital security guard as he was fleeing the building. The security guard succumbed to his wounds and passed away over the night. This morning at 7 a.m., he shot and killed a sheriff who was searching for him, a little less than a mile from the heart of campus.
Personally, I have a 9:05 Psychology class which I went to with no problems, but when I was walking back, I saw a bunch of Au Bon Pain employees running out of the Graduate Life Center which is ~100 feet from Squires Student Center. When I got back, one of my friends who was hanging out in the library which is ~50 feet from Squires said that there had been a spotting of the suspect in the Student Center, that he may have a hostage, and that they had locked down all surrounding buildings. Note that this was the first day of classes, and he said all the freshmen who were in the library were pretty freaked out. We had all of our classes cancelled for the day around 10:45 a.m.
My roommate got up to see what the ruckus was about, and we decided to head over to Squires to see if we could see anything since apparently there were like 90 police cars surrounding it. On our way over there, we noticed snipers on the roof of the library and pretty much every surrounding building, and as we approached the tape, we saw the S.W.A.T. team enter the building with riot shields (Squires turned out to be a false alarm).
We left after about 5 minutes because not much was going on, and flipped on the local news when we got back. Of course it was on there, but we were pretty shocked to see it getting coverage on CNN (http://www.cnn.com/) and Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/) simultaneously. As I'm looking at it right now, CNNs main article is about William Morva and Fox's first listing in its main headlines is the same.
Later in the day, we went over to my friends apartment to grill and drink some beers, and ended up heading out to Christiansburg (Blacksburg isn't a very big town, Christiansburg is 15 minutes away and has the token Wal-Mart, all the chain restaurants, you get the picture), but on our way down the highway, there were police cars spaced out about ~100 feet from each other with officers looking into the fields with rifles and automatics. We found out when we were heading back that he had been detained.
I've never been really exposed to anything like this before, and to see S.W.A.T. members raiding a building that you're in everyday, snipers watching over the route you've taken to class for the past year and a half, or fully-loaded officers patrolling a highway not even a mile from Lane Stadium, it's all pretty mind-blowing, not to mention all the national media coverage that this whole thing got.
Anyways, didn't really have a major point to this other than to kind of summarize and comment on what happened today, and I thought some of you who were interested in this might appreciate it. I'll check this tomorrow to answer any questions you guys have or anything like that. Night, I have my REAL first day of classes tomorrow at 8:00 a.m.