Va. Tech Shooter Was Laughed At
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Long before he boiled over, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at because of his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in suburban Washington, former classmates say.
Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003, recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation.
"As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China"
Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and when it was Cho's turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled. Finally, after the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded ``like he had something in his mouth,'' Davids said. ``As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,''' Davids said.
Cho shot 32 people to death and committed suicide Monday in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. The high school classmates' accounts add to the psychological portrait that is beginning to take shape, and could shed light on the video rant Cho mailed to NBC in the middle of his rampage at Virginia Tech.
By MATT APUZZO
Associated Press Writer
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - Long before he boiled over, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at because of his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in suburban Washington, former classmates say.
Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., with Cho in 2003, recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation.
"As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China"
Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud, and when it was Cho's turn, he just looked down in silence, Davids recalled. Finally, after the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that sounded ``like he had something in his mouth,'' Davids said. ``As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,''' Davids said.
Cho shot 32 people to death and committed suicide Monday in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. The high school classmates' accounts add to the psychological portrait that is beginning to take shape, and could shed light on the video rant Cho mailed to NBC in the middle of his rampage at Virginia Tech.
