Quotes from students: 'This is worse than Columbine' | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Quotes from students: 'This is worse than Columbine' | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

Updated at 11:26 a.m., Monday, April 16, 2007

Quotes from students: 'This is worse than Columbine'

Gannett News Service

Quotes from students and others affected by the shootings at Virginia Tech:

With the shock from this morning's shootings wearing off, Ryan Knicely, a public relations major from Staunton, Va., said he and many others felt safe enough to stay in their dorm rooms overnight.

"I think the grieving process has started here," Knicely said. "We kind of feel like this is over. We're just in shock here."

His friends seemed to have escaped, but with so many dead and injured, other students weren't as lucky, he said.

"This is worse than Columbine, and that's scary," he said.

Chez Hughes, a sophomore from Virginia Beach, had a friend in the Norris Hall classroom where the bulk of the shootings occurred. "The shooter shot everyone," she said. "(After the shooting ended,) someone ran in and said, 'If you're not injured, stand up.' (Her friend) was the only one who stood up.

"He's an absolute wreck right now."

Katie Zadrozny was on her way to an 8 a.m. class when a police officer rushed by her, stringing caution tape near her dormitory's stairs.

It wasn't until later that she learned the first round of deadly shootings had taken place minutes before, just two floors above hers in the West Ambler Johnston Hall.

"I didn't hear anything," said Zadrozny, a freshman engineering student from Staunton, Va.

Zadrozny said her roommate was concerned about her boyfriend, who hasn't been located since the shootings.

"She's handling," Zadrozny said. "We're trying to keep her calm."

A last-minute e-mail check before classes warned Tech junior Nathan Graham away from a walk that would have put him squarely in harm's way this morning.

"I wasn't familiar with the return address and thought maybe someone was trying to be funny," said the Fishersville, Va., native. "Then I read the next message and knew I'd better stay away. I usually walk right through that building (where the shootings took place). I would have been there."

Al Bourgeois of Churchville, Va., said his son Ryan, a sophomore engineering student at Virginia Tech, was in class next door to the engineering building where one of the deadly shootings took place.

"He could hear the shooting going on," Bourgeois said.

His son's class was placed on lockdown and SWAT teams arrived about 20 minutes later, Bourgeois said.

"People need to be praying for those families that didn't get their news like we did," Bourgeois said. "We just need to lift them up in our prayers."

"It's just very terrifying," said Bethany Bezak, 25, of Milford, Mich., who is working on her master's degree at Virginia Tech. "It's hard to even think through everything right now. And it's terrifying to know that we're so close to this taking place. There could be people we know who have been affected by this."

Bezak was in a basement office of Seitz Hall, about halfway between the two buildings where shots were fired.

It wasn't until 12:30 p.m. that her building was given clearance to evacuate, and that began the most harrowing part of the experience, she said. Her car was a half-mile from the building. She made the trek with a group of other students.

"We weren't strolling, by any means. It was definitely a fast-paced walk. It was probably the most frightening part of the whole experience. Your safety wasn't really ensured."

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