|
新聞背景：美國弗吉尼亞理工學(xué)院16日發(fā)生槍擊案，一名男子打死21人、打傷21人后死亡，釀成美國歷史上死亡人數(shù)最多的校園槍擊案。
At
least 32 people were killed in Blacksburg, Virginia, when a gunman opened
fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech University Monday in the
deadliest mass shooting rampage in the United States. The gunman, then
took his own life, campus police chief Wendell Flinchum told reporters.
VOA's Peter Fedynsky reports.
A student reporter with a cell phone recorded scenes of police
approaching one of the buildings on the campus of Virginia Tech University
in Blacksburg where the shootings occurred.
The events unfolded in the morning over two hours in two separate
locations. University President Charles Steger says only one gunman seems
to have been involved. 
"The shooter in Norris Hall is deceased," he said. "There are multiple
fatalities. The number of fatalities has not been
confirmed."
Steger says Virginia Tech University was hit with a
tragedy of monumental proportions.
"The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall
us and I want to extend my deepest and most sincere and profound
sympathies to the families of these victims, which include our students,"
he said.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says President Bush is horrified by
the killings and that his thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Asked
about gun control policy, Perino says Mr. Bush believes in the people's
constitutional right to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed.
"If there are changes to the president's policy, then we will let you
know," she said. "But we've had a consistent policy of ensuring that the
Justice Department is enforcing all of the gun laws that we have on the
books and making sure that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law."(編輯注：此處錄音有誤)
Perino says state and local authorities are leading the investigation,
adding that federal law enforcement assets are available, if Virginia
should request them.
America's first encounter with a campus
massacre occurred in 1966, when a sniper at the University of Texas shot
and killed 13 people. In 1999, 12 students and a teacher were killed by
two boys at Columbine High School in the suburban town of Littleton,
Colorado. In October 2006, an armed gunman killed six girls in a one room
Amish schoolhouse in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Virginia Tech President Charles Steger says the university will hold
convocation on Tuesday to commemorate victims of the tragedy in
Blacksburg. | 
