Nation mourns U.S. university shooting victims
BLACKSBURG, Va., April 20 (Reuters) - The campus of Virginia Tech university emptied on Friday as memorial services for some of the 32 victims of Monday's shooting massacre began and the nation marked a day of mourning.
Thousands of grieving students headed home to family as a tragic week drew to a close, and mourning shifted to hometowns across the United States and around the world with the first funerals for students and teachers killed in the rampage.
Moments of silence were observed on the trading floors of financial markets in New York and Chicago and church bells rang out from coast to coast to mark the loss of four teachers and 28 students at the hands of gunman Cho Seung-Hui, 23.
Cho, a mentally disturbed English major, killed himself before police could intervene in the deadly shooting spree on this sprawling campus in the mountains of southwest Virginia.
Four days after the attack, and on the eighth anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in which 15 people died, there was a heightened sense of alert across the country, especially at educational institutions.
A high school in Parker, Colorado was evacuated after an explosion near the school and police said a suspect was detained. Police evacuated part of Arizona's state Capitol in Phoenix following a bomb threat.
After days of round-the-clock tears and vigils at Virginia Tech, only a small crowd of mourners gathered to observe a moment of silence at a makeshift memorial on the grounds of the university, home to some 25,000 full-time students.
Funerals for several victims were scheduled on Friday and Saturday near Blacksburg while other tributes were taking place overseas for victims from India, Israel and Peru.
The campus newspaper was closed and dark, planning no more stories on the shooting until a special edition on Monday, when classes are scheduled to resume. Students will have the choice of continuing their studies or ending their school year early.
Editor Amie Steele, 21, said the surreal chaos that gripped student journalists as they struggled to cover the biggest story of their lives has been replaced by exhausted grief.
"We are trying to stay away from the newsroom and have some time for ourselves," Steele said. "We all need a break, to calm down and regroup for Monday when students will finally be back in town."
SCHOOL COLORS
The campus bookstore was a rare spot of activity on campus, as visiting parents, families and journalists lined up to buy Virginia Tech T-shirts and sweaters to honor an alumni request that people nationwide wear the school's orange and maroon.
"The last few days have been crazy," said bookstore clerk Pierson Booher, an architecture student. "We got 1,600 mail orders yesterday morning alone."
Booher, 23, said other universities had called to request Virginia Tech flags to replace their own on campus flagpoles, while a funeral home hosting one of the student funerals called to order as many university pins the store could provide. Continued...
