Lockdown Lifted at Virginia Tech After Shooting Leaves at Least 2 Dead

 

 

BLACKSBURG, Va. –  DEVELOPING:  Two people, including a police officer, were gunned down on Virginia Tech's campus on Thursday, according to the university.

A Virginia Tech police officer was shot shortly after noon during a traffic stop in the Coliseum parking lot near McComas Hall, a gymnasium on the 2,600-acre campus. The unidentified officer later died.

Witnesses reported to police that the shooter fled on foot toward a parking lot, where a second unidentified victim was found dead.

The whereabouts of the gunman remains unknown. The suspect, according to an earlier posting on the school's website, is described as a white male wearing gray sweatpants and a gray hat with a neon green brim.

University officials have scheduled a 4:30 p.m. media briefing.

"Several law enforcement agencies have responded to assist," read a posting on the school's website. "Virginia State Police has been requested to take lead in the investigation."

Messages seeking comment from school officials were not immediately returned.

"There is an active campus alert in Blacksburg," read a notice on the school's website. "Everyone should seek shelter or stay where you are. Blacksburg Transit service is suspended until the alert is lifted."

Reporters of subsequent gunshots heard on campus were unfounded, the university announced. Schools in nearby Montgomery County were reportedly locked down following the shooting.

Britni Wilson, a student at the school, told Fox News she and other students were remaining indoors.

"It doesn't seem like too much is going on around here," she said. "We're all just staying in, nothing else is really going on downtown."

Julia Fleming, a Virginia Tech freshman, told WDBJ-TV she did not hear any shots being fired, but saw the officer covered in blood.

"I guess the officer didn't make it because they covered him with sheets," Fleming said.

On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior English major at the school, killed 32 students and faculty before committing suicide in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

"It's crazy that someone would go and do something like that with all the stuff that happened in 2007," 19-year-old sophomore Corey Smith told The Associated Press. "It's just weird to think about why someone would do something like this when the school's had so many problems."

Final exams scheduled for Friday have been postponed.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Via: Fox News