Breaking News: VA Tech Police Investigate Sounds of Gun Fire

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http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-11-13-0211.html

Thursday, Nov 13, 2008 - 02:10 PMUpdated: 02:30 PM


Virginia Tech police and Blacksburg police have sent out a campus alert about gunshot sounds being reported in Pritchard Hall, a residence hall.

The building was locked down after two people reported hearing what sounded like gunfire at about 1 p.m. An e-mail alert was sent at 1:40 to the campus community.

Police are searching the building. There has been no confirmation of a shooting.

The residence hall is directly across the street from a construction site, which university officials said could be the source of the sounds.

Pritchard Hall, a residence hall that opened in 1967 in the Prairie Community along Washington Street, is home to 1,000 residents and is billed as the largest all-male dorm on the East Coast.

The e-mail alert sent to students at 1:40 said: "Police are investigating reported sounds of gunshots in Pritchard Hall. Building is secured. No access in or out. Police searching room by room."

Reports of gunfire are especially sensitive onthe Virginia Techcampus where student gunman Seung-Hui Cho took 32 lives on April 16, 2007, before taking his own life.

Check back at inRich.com for updates.

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Tried to lock me in my classroom...I finished my exam and headed out the door to the protest of the TA who was proctoring the exam. Talk about feeling like a fish in a barrel, try hearing that there might be someone shooting on campus and then the next step is to get locked into the room you're in :uhoh: not really a comfortable feeling.

This is the latest email I got (just got home) : "
Police now believe that sounds from Pritchard were NOT gunfire. Investigation still ongoing.
Police have interviewed witnesses who saw and heard people, possibly students, exploding something outside Pritchard Hall.

At about 12:50 p.m. Thursday VTPD received a report of sounds like gunfire in the vicinity of Pritchard Hall. Police immediately secured the building and began a floor by floor and room by room search. During the course of the investigation , eyewitnesses reported seeing people, possibly students exploding firecrackers or something else in or near a dumpster near Pritchard. Police have found no evidence of gunfire from within or outside the building and believe the noises likely came from something other than gunfire.

- end of message -"
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I wonder how many of these kids really know what a gunshot actually sounds like?

Or have all the hand-wringing, panty-wetters conditioned these kids to live in fear for their life, every minute of the day?

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The obvious solution is to outlaw firecrackers.

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If vinegar and soda bottle devices are outlawed, and they are in some jurisdictions, then certainly so are true explosive devices like firecrackers.

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Armed wrote:

I wonder how many of these kids really know what a gunshot actually sounds like?

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While I thought the same thing (how many folks in that dorm actually know what a gunshot sounds like?), they likely aren't kids...most, if not all, are likely to be 18 or older. Petty point, I know, but one of the arguments used against carry on campus is that somehow a 21 yr old on campus is likely to be less mature than a 21 yr old off campus (and the folks arguing against often say "kids on campus").

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SaltH2OHokie wrote:

While I thought the same thing (how many folks in that dorm actually know what a gunshot sounds like?), they likely aren't kids...most, if not all, are likely to be 18 or older. Petty point, I know, but one of the arguments used against carry on campus is that somehow a 21 yr old on campus is likely to be less mature than a 21 yr old off campus (and the folks arguing against often say "kids on campus").

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Sorry - guess I'm showing my age.

Just noticed an update on the story, now they are looking for a couple of young men who they think were lighting off firecrackers in dumpster. This event was described in the news story as... a series of *explosions*... sheez... :banghead:

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Last year at MSU someone set off 3 works bombs in the courtyard outside my dorm. 5 min later 3 police suv's were there:lol: It was pretty funny but very dangerous if not done in a safe environment. They never found the people who did it, but they could have faced some bomb charge on a college campus:what:

Friend just told me they said that the "gunfire" was blanks that are used to drive nails into concrete.

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Last email I got:

Pritchard Hall has been reopened. Police have concluded their search and found no evidence of gunfire. Check web for more infomation.
UPDATE 2:55 PM

Police have interviewed witnesses who saw and heard people, possibly students, exploding something outside Pritchard Hall. Police have found evidence of cartridges from power actuated nailers used on construction sites. Police theorize that someone mechanically exploded the construction shells possibly by slamming the dumpster lid.[/code]

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Doug Huffman wrote:

If vinegar and soda bottle devices are outlawed, and they are in some jurisdictions, then certainly so are true explosive devices like firecrackers.

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You have got to be kidding me...... vinegar and soda bombs.... outlawed.?

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CRF250rider1000 wrote:

Last year at MSU someone set off 3 works bombs in the courtyard outside my dorm. 5 min later 3 police suv's were there:lol: It was pretty funny but very dangerous if not done in a safe environment. They never found the people who did it, but they could have faced some bomb charge on a college campus:what:

Friend just told me they said that the "gunfire" was blanks that are used to drive nails into concrete.

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What's a "works bomb"?

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Yea i just got back from class, where I asked everyone who was signed up for the VT alert thing if they got a text message or anything. About 2/3 of them said no, and I only heard about it because a friend text messaged me.

And of course our TA kept teaching like nothing happened, I sit right next to the door too - guess where I was looking the entire class :lol:

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Neplusultra wrote:

The obvious solution is to outlaw firecrackers.

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Barack will take care of that for us.......

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A works bomb is a two litre bottle that explodes my mixing a specific solid and liquid that are available at any wal mart or target that I won't mention for obvious reasons:uhoh:

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or a MRE bomb

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Most any weak acid plus a reactive metal or metallic salt in a weak pressure vessel.

You want nitrogen triiodide, picrates, azides, ANFO? All that was taught in HS chemistry back before the Obamination began. I was taught by a USAF Brig. Gen. complete with demonstrations and fun.

Like scattering NI3 crystals across the pachuco's bench carseat or putting a pea of calcium in a bottle cap of water under his hood.

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Oh for the days of tormenting the denizens of the Pritchard "Pit" with late night epithets intended to draw fire. :cuss:

I think they now have it locked-down from the exterior, and the pit-facing windows are rigged so they cannot be opened wide enough for a good throw at anybody so bold as to do "the lap" around the pit in the late hours of the night. :?

At least that's what I heard. :dude:

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.

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Doug Huffman wrote:

You want nitrogen triiodide, picrates, azides, ANFO? All that was taught in HS chemistry back before the Obamination began. I was taught by a USAF Brig. Gen. complete with demonstrations and fun.

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Ahhh, nitrogen tri iodide! Haven't heard about that in many years. I think they used to call it "chemist's flypaper". Its harmless when damp, but when it dries, the smallest touch will set it off. A guy I knew in school made some and put a little patch of it on his roommate's bedsheet. Roommate was most displeased.

You'd probably get a visit from the FBI or BATFE for pulling stunts like that anymore. I almost got busted for throwing cherry bombs in the empty trash bins at the bottom of the dorm stairwell. The sound was impressive, though.....

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foxcall wrote:

Yea i just got back from class, where I asked everyone who was signed up for the VT alert thing if they got a text message or anything. About 2/3 of them said no, and I only heard about it because a friend text messaged me.

And of course our TA kept teaching like nothing happened, I sit right next to the door too - guess where I was looking the entire class :lol:

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Wimps. I went to college up near Baltimore. We were lucky if we got weekly emails summarizing how many people had been mugged/killed within a mile radius of the campus line. And we had an armed-to-the-nose campus police and a Baltimore County police barracks directly adjacent. They'd sorta be like this...

"It has come to the attention of campus police that 2 males (non-students) were murdered a block south of campus last week by an armed gunman. If you know anything about this, please let us know. Oh, and watch your back out there."

Then there was that time that a student murdered a girl in December, during winter break. And wasn't arrested til March. Spring semester started February 1st. So yeah, he'd been going to classes and whatnot and no one knew the difference. His roommate was like... "He seemed normal to me."

The best thing about that murder case (if there is a best thing) was that while he was beating the girl to death with a log in the woods on the side of the road, he accidentally hit redial on his cell phone. The girl was the last person he called, so.. you see where this is going. She had the phone in her purse, which was laying beside her during the beating. It went to voicemail and the majority of the audio of the encounter was saved to her voicemail mailbox. The reason it took so long for the police to make an arrest (you'd think an audio recording during the killing from someone's telephone number would kinda point in the right direction) is because it took 2 months to find her body. Up til then she had just been missing.

You stay classy, Baltimore.