'I die like Jesus Christ'
2007-04-19 07:27
Blacksburg - The gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university paused during the bloodbath to mail a package with photos of himself brandishing weapons and a
video of a hateful, rambling manifesto.
Cho Seung-Hui railed against wealth and debauchery,
portrayed himself as a defender of the weak, and voiced
admiration for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in
messages laced with rage showed by NBC News on Wednesday.
"You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option,"
Cho, who killed himself after the shooting rampage on Monday,
said in the video portion of the package that NBC received on
Wednesday and turned over to the FBI.
"Thanks to you I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire
generations of the weak and the defenceless people," Cho said,
adding that "when the time came, I did it. I had to".
The video showed the 23-year-old student speaking against
several backgrounds with a menacing expression on his face,
while photographs showed him brandishing the two handguns he
apparently used in the shooting spree, the deadliest in modern
US history.
'Now you have blood on your hands'
Other photos showed Cho, clad in a dark vest in which he
carried the ammunition he used to shoot his victims, in
threatening poses with a hammer and a knife and with a gun
pointed at his own head.
"Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash
off," Cho said without making clear to whom his remarks were
directed.
The bizarre new twist added to an already chilling portrait
of Cho from roommates and teachers who described him as a
disturbed loner who was mentally ill.
It came after university police said that Cho had been
accused of stalking women students and was taken to a
psychiatric hospital in 2005 because of worries he was
suicidal.
A Virginia court order issued at the time declared
him "mentally ill" and said he presented "an imminent danger to
self or others," ABC News reported.
NBC said the package received at its New York headquarters
bore a time stamp that showed it was mailed between Cho's
killing of two people in a dormitory and his attack two hours
later on classrooms where he cut down 30 more people.
Desire to get even
In the video, Cho mixes religious references with disgust
at what he calls the hedonism surrounding him.
"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats? Your golden
necklaces weren't enough, you snobs? Your trust fund wasn't
enough? ... Those weren't enough to fulfil your hedonistic
needs? You had everything."
An 1 800-word written diatribe in the package was laced
with profanity and expressed a desire to get even, the network
said. It mentioned "martyrs like Eric and Dylan," an apparent reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who shot dead 12 students and a teacher at Columbine school in Colorado and then killed themselves.
NBC News president Steve Capus was quoted as saying while
the package did not include any images of the shootings
themselves, it did contain "vague references".
Despite encounters with the law and his past psychiatric
treatment, Cho was able to legally purchase the two handguns he
used in the attack. The shooting has rekindled debate over US
gun laws, the most lenient in the Western world.