Virginia Tech says gunshots have been reported on campus, and authorities are seeking a suspect.
The university said in a Thursday post on Twitter that the shots were reported at the coliseum parking lot and that people should remain inside.
The suspect is described as a white male wearing gray sweat pants, gray hat with neon green brim, maroon hoodie and backpack.
I hope history is not repeating itself.
Cho Seung-Hui slaughtered 32 people, and then killed himself, on Virginia Tech's campus in 2007.
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UPDATE: Va. Tech: Police officer, 1 other killed
Virginia Tech officials say a police officer and another person have been shot and killed on the school's campus.
The suspect remains on the loose.
A news release from the school says the police officer had pulled someone over in what was a routine traffic stop Thursday. The officer was shot and killed during the traffic stop.
Witnesses told police the shooter ran toward a parking lot on campus. A second person was found dead in that parking lot.
My prayers are with the family and friends of the police officer and the other individual killed by the suspect.
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UPDATE: New information--
Lockdown Lifted at Virginia Tech After Shooting Leaves at Least 2 Dead
Virginia Tech says there is no longer a threat on campus and normal activities can resume after two people, including a police officer, were gunned down on Virginia Tech's campus on Thursday.
While officials would not confirm that the second victim in the shooting was in fact the gunman, a law enforcement source tells Fox News that authorities do believe that the second victim is the gunman, and that he suffered a self-inflicted wound.
So apparently, the police officer was the only murder victim and the gunman then killed himself.
How utterly senseless!
Why murder an innocent man just doing his job?
If the gunman was suicidal, then why add murder to the misery, why take someone else's life?
Assuming the gunman has some family, now he's committed them to a life of guilt. He's left his survivors to deal with the burden of murder and suicide.
My heart goes out to the police officer's loved ones.
Nothing is necessarily routine for an officer. A simple traffic stop turns into a deadly encounter.
It's so very sad.
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UPDATE: Another twist--
Slain Va. Tech officer identified as father, vet
A gunman killed a Virginia Tech police officer Thursday at a campus parking lot and then apparently shot himself to death nearby in an attack that shook the school nearly five years after it was the scene of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
...The officer, identified late Thursday as 39-year-old Deriek W. Crouse of Christiansburg, was killed after pulling a driver over in a traffic stop. Police said a gunman—who was not involved in the traffic stop—walked into the parking lot and ambushed the officer.
Shortly after, police found in a parking lot a man with a gunshot wound and a gun nearby. Authorities said he is suspected in the officer's slaying.
"The second victim is observed on the in-car video camera system with a weapon at the time of the initial encounter with the officer," state police Major Rick Jenkins said.
State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said investigators are trying to determine why the deceased suspect was wearing different clothing than that worn by the individual in the video and described by eyewitnesses.
Authorities said they did not know what the motive was and were investigating whether the officer was specifically targeted.
"At this point, we haven't been able to establish any kind of immediate connection between the officer and the shooter," Geller said. "That's obviously something that's being looked into."
...Crouse was an Army veteran and married father of five children and stepchildren who joined the campus police force about six months after the 2007 massacre. He previously worked at a jail and for the Montgomery County sheriff's department.
Very bizarre.
This story has changed so many times.
Now, the gunman wasn't the individual involved in the routine traffic stop.
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UPDATE: Ballistics tests--
Va. Tech officer, suspect shot by same gun
Police say ballistics tests have confirmed that a Virginia Tech police officer and a man suspected in his slaying were shot by the same handgun.
The Virginia State Police said in a news release early Friday that the tests have "officially linked the two fatal shootings."
State police said a review of Officer Deriek Crouse's in-car video showed a male suspect with a handgun at the officer's car at the time of the shooting Thursday afternoon. Crouse had pulled over a motorist, and police suspect that the gunman killed Crouse and then took his own life nearby.
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