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Va. Tech gunman called 'mentally ill'
By UPI Staff
United Press International
April 19, 2007
BLACKSBURG, Va. (UPI) -- Cho Seung-hui, the accused Virginia Tech shooter, had been declared "an imminent danger" to himself and voluntarily hospitalized as "mentally ill."
A court document Wednesday said the 23-year-old South Korean immigrant -- a senior English major at the Blacksburg, Va., campus -- was referred to a mental health facility Dec. 13, 2005, CNN reported. Campus police took Cho to St. Albans Behavioral Health Center, a Montgomery County mental facility, after authorities and fellow students feared he was suicidal -- following allegations he was stalking two female students.
A psychologist evaluated Cho as "depressed" but wrote his "insight and judgment are normal," the Richmond Times-Dispatch said. Cho denied he was suicidal.
NBC News reported Cho mailed the network a long rambling manifesto with text, images and videos before he killed 30 people in the assault on Norris Hall classrooms Monday. NBC turned the multimedia document over to the FBI.
National Public Radio said the manifesto was sent in the two hours between a shooting that killed two students at West Ambler Johnson Hall, a dormitory, and the shootings at Norris Hall.
Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said a female student complained about Cho calling and contacting her in November 2005, but declined to press charges. The next month, another female student complained about Cho's instant messages, but Flinchum said no direct threats were ever made.
Cho's shooting rampage ended with 33 dead, including Cho, who took his own life. Nine shooting victims remained hospitalized, NBC said.
Copyright 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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