The week of April 16th, 2007 is one Virginia Tech students, parents, faculty and local Blacksburg residents will never forget. While sadness and shock colored our first memories, we will always remember how we first learned of the tragic events that unfolded at West Ambler Johnson and Norris Hall on that morning. In the past … Read more
Remembering April 16th, 5 Years Later
April 20th, 2012 | Posted by in Where Were You? - (0 Comments)
April 16th, 2007 started like most for me. I didn’t get up until about 9 am, as I had my first class at around 11 am. After I had gotten ready, I was eating breakfast when my roommate, Justin Born, texted me telling me that students were evacuating campus; some idiot that made a bomb … Read more
On April 16, 2007 I was in Norris 211. I had trudged across the Drillfield that Monday morning planning on attending my three back-to-back classes and then going back and taking a nap in my dorm. As my classmates trickled in that morning to French class there was mention of how they had been searched … Read more
On April 16th, 2007, I was 21 and finishing up my junior year. I was studying in Deets that morning, although I was supposed to be attending class in Randolph Hall. I remember the manager of Deets coming out and announcing that there was a report of multiple shooters on campus and he advised us … Read more
I was… a student of Jocelyne Couture-Nowak
April 22nd, 2012 | Posted by in Where Were You? - (0 Comments)
On the morning of April 16, 2007, I crawled down to the foot of my bed and hopped over to my computer desk to check my email around 9:45 a.m. When I tapped in my Virginia Tech email login info, a gray screen read “Fatal Error.” I tried again, and again, and again. I realized … Read more
I was at Sharkey’s on the morning of April 16th….upstairs in the office when I heard the police driving through Main Street urging everyone to stay in and away from the windows. I had no idea what could be taking place. A little while later a friend stopped by to tell me about what was … Read more
I was… studying in Prague, Czech Republic
April 16th, 2012 | Posted by in Where Were You? - (1 Comments)
It was 2:30pm and I had just walked back to my dorm in Prague where I was studying that semester. I got back to my desk, got on AIM as usual to check in with friends when a friend began unraveling something happening back home. Her facts were sporadic, but no doubt horror resounded from … Read more
I was… in the Richmond Police Homicide Unit
April 16th, 2012 | Posted by in Where Were You? - (0 Comments)
On April 16, 2007, I was working in the Richmond City Police Department Homicide Unit and had been assigned there for 4 years. I had overseen hundreds of murder investigations during this time period. Each and every murder bothered me. None of them made any sense and the aftermath of the crime always led to … Read more
Where was I on April 16, 2007? I’ve learned not to wear Hokie apparel if I am not prepared to be asked. Was I not where I should have been, or exactly where I needed to be? That morning I was in my dorm, East Campbell Hall, sleeping in after a long weekend just a drillfield away … Read more
There are too few traits I can claim as my own without blushing, and I would like to consider the gift of memory as being one of mine. Reflecting on the April 2007 tragedy of Virginia Tech, however, has left me in an embarrassment of amnesia. It was early in the week, I know this … Read more
