By Debbi Wilgoren, Sari Horwitz and Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, April 17, 2007; 7:42 PM

The 23-year-old student who police say is responsible for one of the deadliest shootings in modern history was described by teachers and classmates at Virginia Tech as an eccentric loner whose writings were violent and troubling.

Cho Seung Hui, who graduated in 2003 from Westfield High School in Fairfax County, is is responsible for killing 32 people during a shooting rampage at two buildings on the sprawling campus in Blacksburg, authorities said today.

His body was found in Norris Hall, a classroom building, among those of several other slain students, Virginia state police superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty said. Cho, a senior and English major, had apparently taken his own life.

Law enforcement sources said that Cho died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on one of his arms, but they were not sure what the words meant.

Investigators also found a note left in the shooter's dorm room, said a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation. "It's sort of a manifesto" said the source, who described the note as a rambling and somewhat incoherent list of grievances. Among the people that Cho attacked in the note were those he considered rich, spoiled students, the source said. "It was just sort of against the world," the source said.

The source also said investigators believe there was a connection between the shootings and recent bomb threats on campus and are "trying to nail it down."

In a news conference after a convocation this afternoon at Virginia Tech , Gov. Timothy M. Kaine pledged a "very thorough after-action report of the event and the response" to address questions about the initial handling of the shooting spree.

Lucinda Roy, an English professor who taught a creative writing class that Cho attended, was so concerned about Cho that she had warned university police and officials about him, and volunteered to teach him by herself, to spare colleagues.

Roy, now the Alumni Distinguished Professor of English and co-director of the creative program, said university officials were responsive and sympathetic but indicated that because Cho had made no direct threats there was little they could do.

"I don't want to be accusatory, or blaming other people," Roy said. "I do just want to say, though, it's such a shame if people don't listen very carefully, and if the law constricts them so that they can't do what is best for the student."

On the morning of the shooting, Cho Sueng-Hui looked like he had every other day since he moved into his suite at Harper Hall, said his suitemate Karan Grewal.

Cho's face was blank, expressionless -- the only face Cho had been seen with, even among those who lived with him.

"He didn't have a look of disgust or anger," Grewal said. "He never did, there was always just one look on his face."

When Grewal, Cho and four others moved in August, the others tried to talk to Cho but never got a word in return.

"My impression was that he's shy," said Grewal, 21, an senior accounting major who lived in a room across the hall. "He never looked anyone in the eye. if you even say hi, he'd keep walking straight past you."

Inside Harper Hall this morning, students said they believed Cho lived in a suite on the second floor. The suite had a common room linking three bedrooms, each of which was shared by two students.

A reporter who briefly glimpsed the common room found it strewn with newspapers and soda cans, with one resident walking around. The common room appeared plain with beige walls. One of the doors facing the common room, which students believed led to Cho's room, was locked. Walkie-talkie conversation could be heard from behind the door. A hall monitor kicked out the reporter, saying that no media were allowed.

At a convocation today in Blacksburg, University President Charles Steger, who had received some criticism for his handling of the crisis, received a standing ovation from the large crowd. He said the event has been "overwhelming, almost paralyzing." President Bush, meanwhile, said the nation was watching and praying.

"This is a day of sadness for our entire nation," he said. "People all over the country are thinking about you, asking God to provide comfort for all who have been affected."

Investigators worked through the night gathering and removing evidence from Norris Hall, including a 9mm handgun and a .22 caliber handgun, officials said. A total of 31 people, including Cho, were fatally shot in the building.

Cho purchased one of the guns he used in the shooting, a 9mm Glock, from Roanoke Firearms, which captured the transaction on a surveillance camera, law enforcement sources said today. The gun was bought in March and authorities found a receipt from the store in Cho's backpack, the sources said.

Col. Steve Flaherty of the Virginia State Police said today that the weapons Cho used had been legally purchased by him "in accordance with Virginia law."

Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said ballistics tests showed that one of the weapons was also used in the shooting deaths of two people more than two hours earlier at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory building.

"It is reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both, but we don't have the evidence to take us there," Flaherty said.

Law enforcement officials said they are still talking to an acquaintance of the female student killed in the residence hall. That person was detained off-campus after the first shooting and has been labeled a person of interest.

Cho, described by fellow students as a loner, cleared a federal criminal background check at the time his green card was renewed in 2003, as did his family, a U.S. immigration official said.

"His check came back clean," the official said. "The whole family didn't have a problem."

A South Korean native, Cho immigrated to this country as a child. The family of four entered the United States with a sponsor, typically an American relative of one of the parents, an immigration official said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was reviewing Cho's background investigation and green card renewal application form and expected to release redacted versions later today.

In the Centreville neighborhood where Cho's parents lived, neighbors said local and federal authorities were seen taking pictures and searching the house Monday night.

Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns.

Marshall Main, a neighbor who lived across the Chos in the quiet community of townhomes, said the Chos were hardly ever home, but always waved and smiled when greeted. The couple worked long hours at a dry cleaner, neighbors said.

Responding to widespread criticism that the university may have avoided the second, and more vicious, attack by locking down the campus after the first shooting, Virginia public safety secretary John Marshall called the law enforcement response "coordinated, prompt, professional."

"Yesterday morning, President Steger and his staff made the right decisions based on the best information they had available at the time," Marshall said. "Our focus needs to remain on the ongoing criminal investigation and, most importantly, on dealing with the needs of the victims and families here at Virginia Tech."

In an interview this morning with CNN, Steger said campus police at first thought the dormitory shooting was an isolated incident and concentrated on securing that building rather than the sprawling campus. "We've handled this as skillfully as anyone," he said.

Flinchum said the names of those killed in the rampage will not be officially released until all the dead have been identified and all their next of kin notified, a process the state medical examiner said could take several days. University spokesman Hincker said only a handful of victims have not yet been identified.

The names of some of the dead have started to trickle out. The victims from West Ambler Johnston were Emily Hilscher, a 19-year-old student from Rappahannock County, and Ryan C. Clark, a senior and resident adviser from Georgia.

Hilscher's death was confirmed by John W. McCarthy, the county administrator for Rappahannock County. McCarthy said law enforcement authorities in Rappahannock had been briefed by their counterparts in Blacksburg.

Hilscher, who graduated last year from Rappahannock County High School, was a freshman who was studying to be a veterinarian and had worked at a local veterinary office during the summer, McCarthy said. She was an animal lover and was fond of horse riding.

"She was a beautiful, smart, great kid," he said. With only about 7,000 people in the close-knit county, practically everyone knows everyone else, he said. "And Emily was certainly well known and loved."

Her parents, Eric and Beth Hilscher, are now in Blacksburg.

McCarthy said Hilscher had no known connection to the gunman -- "none at all that we're aware of." As for the reason she was targeted, he said, "As far as we can tell: wrong place, wrong time."

Clark was pursuing a double major in English and biology and expected to work for an advanced degree in psychology, according to Web site of the Marching Virginians, the school marching band. Clark played in the band.

Kelley Pierce, who lives in the dorm, described him as friendly, charismatic and deeply respected.

Monica Price, 23, of Annandale, who graduated from Virginia Tech in December and knew Clark, said he was spending an extra academic year at the university.

Price said she was told that Clark had gone to check yesterday morning after hearing that a possible outsider was in the dormitory.

Dozens of people were injured in the rampage, either shot or hurt when jumping from building windows to escape the gunfire. Hospital spokesmen said this morning that 17 people were still receiving treatment at four different hospitals. Two were in critical condition; the rest were in stable or good condition, the spokesmen said.

Shaken students who witnessed the attacks said the gunman wielded both weapons simultaneously and had a calm but serious expression on his face. In a televised interview, one student described hearing gunshots from adjacent classrooms and barricading a door to keep the attacker from turning on him.

"We were just trying to hold that table against that door," student Zach Petkewicz told CNN. "Thankfully, we weren't in front of it when he started to shoot through it."

Petkewicz told the cable network that a couple of his classmates were on the phone with 9-1-1 throughout the shooting rampage, and that he could hear police shouting from outside the building. No one in his classroom was hurt, he says.

Classes have been cancelled at the university for the remainder of the week.

Norris Hall will be closed for the rest of the semester, with classes and faculty offices relocated elsewhere.

Before traveling to Blacksburg, Bush ordered that flags at the White House, public buildings and military posts be flown at half mast until Sunday.

At the campus student center in Blacksburg this morning, officials stretched a black banner between the outside columns. It bore only a date, in large white numbers: 4.16.07.

Staff writers Michael Abramowitz, William Branigin, Susan Levine, Jerry Markon, Spencer S. Hsu, Michael Ruane, Howard Schneider and Ian Shapira contributed to this report.