Cho Seung-Hui had been taken to a mental health facility in 2005 after an acquaintance worried he might be suicidal, police said Wednesday. AP Photo/Department of Homeland Security   Yellow ribbons grace lamp posts today in downtown Blacksburg, Va. The town is attempting to recover from a massacre of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech. AMY SANCETTA | Associated Press

The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the 23-year-old student shot 32 people to death and committed suicide Monday. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.

In November and December 2005, two women complained to campus police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho, but they considered the messages "annoying," not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.

But after the second complaint, Cho was taken to a mental health facility not connected to the university because an acquaintance reported that he might be suicidal, authorities said. Police did not identify the acquaintance.

Around the same time, one of Cho's professors informally shared some concerns about the young man's writings, but no official report was filed, Flinchum said.

The chief said he was not aware of any other contact between Cho and police after those episodes.

Police said it was unclear how long he was kept at the mental health facility, or what was learned about his Cho's mental health. Flinchum said he did not know whether the student was taken to the facility voluntarily or against his will.

After the first stalking incident, police referred Cho to the university's disciplinary system, Flinchum said.

But Ed Spencer, assistant vice president of student affairs, would not comment on any disciplinary proceedings, saying federal law protects students' medical privacy even after death. In any case, Cho remained enrolled up until his death.

"There is no blame from students," said Elizabeth Hart, a communications major and a spokeswoman for the student government. "Who would've woken up in the morning and said, 'Maybe this student who's just troubled is really going to do something this horrific?"'

She added: "There's no way to know which kids are just troubled students and who's going to develop into something greater."

SEARCH WARRANTS SOUGHT FOR MEDICAL RECORDS

Campus police on Wednesday applied for search warrants for all of Cho's medical records from the Schiffert Health Center on campus and New River Community Services in Blacksburg.

"It is reasonable to believe that the medical records may provide evidence of motive, intent and designs," investigators wrote in the documents.

Police searched Cho's dorm room and recovered, among other items, two computers, books, notebooks, a digital camera, and a chain and combination lock, according to documents. The front doors of Norris Hall, the classroom building where most of the victims died, had been chained shut from the inside during the rampage.

Fourteen people remained hospitalized Wednesday.

RECENT BIZZARE BEHAVIOR NOTED

Cho's roommates and professors on Wednesday described him as a troubled, very quiet young man who rarely spoke to his roommates or made eye contact with them.

His bizarre behavior became even less predictable in recent weeks, roommate Karan Grewal said.

Grewal had pulled an all-nighter on homework the day of the shootings and saw Cho at around 5 a.m., a few hours earlier than normal.

As usual, Cho didn't look him the eye or say anything, Grewal said. He said Cho usually worked alone on his computer and watched TV, including Friday night wrestling. He was always alone — in the dining hall, watching TV, working out with weights in the gym. He rarely spoke to anyone.

"I had no idea he was capable of this," Grewal said. "We were never told his teachers had concern about him committing suicide and all these dark feelings.

"We were never told that our suitemate was depressed or suicidal."

'IT WAS THE MEANNESS THAT BOTHERED ME'

Several students and professors described Cho as a sullen loner. Authorities said he left a rambling note raging against women and rich kids. News reports said that Cho, a 23-year-old senior majoring in English, may have been taking medication for depression and that he was becoming increasingly erratic.

Professors and classmates were alarmed by his class writings — pages filled with twisted, violence-drenched writing.

"It was not bad poetry. It was intimidating," poet Nikki Giovanni, one of his professors, told CNN Wednesday.

"I know we're talking about a youngster, but troubled youngsters get drunk and jump off buildings," she said. "There was something mean about this boy. It was the meanness — I've taught troubled youngsters and crazy people — it was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak."

Giovanni said her students were so unnerved by Cho's behavior, including taking pictures of them with his cell phone, that some stopped coming to class and she had security check on her room. She eventually had him taken out of her class, saying she would quit if he wasn't removed.

'IT WAS ALMOST LIKE TALKING TO A HOLE'

Lucinda Roy, a co-director of creative writing at Virginia Tech, said she tutored Cho after that. She said she tried to get him into counseling in late 2005 but he always refused.

"He was so distant and so lonely," she told ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday. "It was almost like talking to a hole, as though he wasn't there most of the time. He wore sunglasses and his hat very low so it was hard to see his face."

Roy also described using a code word with her assistant to call police if she ever felt threatened by Cho, but she said she never used it.

Cho's writing was so disturbing, though, he was referred to the university's counseling service, said Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department.

In screenplays Cho wrote for a class last fall, characters throw hammers and attack with chainsaws, said a student who attended Virginia Tech last fall. In another, Cho concocted a tale of students who fantasize about stalking and killing a teacher who sexually molested them.

"When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare," former classmate Ian MacFarlane, now an AOL employee, wrote in a blog posted on an AOL Web site.

"The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of."

He said he and other students "were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter."

"We always joked we were just waiting for him to do something, waiting to hear about something he did," said another classmate, Stephanie Derry. "But when I got the call it was Cho who had done this, I started crying, bawling."

STILL NO CLUES ON A MOTIVE

Despite the many warning signs that came to light in the bloody aftermath, police and university officials offered no clues as to exactly what set Cho off.

Cho — who arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., where his parents worked at a dry cleaners — left a note that was found after the bloodbath.

A law enforcement official described it Tuesday as a typed, eight-page rant against rich kids and religion. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"You caused me to do this," the official quoted the note as saying.

Cho indicated in his letter that the end was near and that there was a deed to be done, the official said. He also expressed disappointment in his own religion, and made several references to Christianity, the official said.

The official said the letter was either found in Cho's dorm room or in his backpack. The backpack was found in the hallway of the classroom building where the shootings happened, and contained several rounds of ammunition, the official said.

Monday's rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart — first at a dormitory, where two people were killed, then inside a classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died. Two handguns — a 9 mm and a .22-caliber — were found in the classroom building.

According to court papers, police found a "bomb threat" note — directed at engineering school buildings — near the victims in the classroom building. In the past three weeks, Virginia Tech was hit with two other bomb threats. Investigators have not connected those earlier threats to Cho.

MOURNING ON CAMPUS

Tuesday night, thousands of Virginia Tech students, faculty and area residents poured into the center of campus to grieve together. Volunteers passed out thousands of candles in paper cups, donated from around the country. Then, as the flames flickered, speakers urged them to find solace in one another.

As silence spread across the grassy bowl of the drill field, a pair of trumpets began to play taps. A few in the crowd began to sing Amazing Grace.

Afterward, students, some weeping, others holding each other for support, gathered around makeshift memorials, filling banners and plywood boards with messages belying their pain. With classes canceled for the rest of the week, many students left town.

"I think this is something that will take a while. It still hasn't hit a lot of people yet," said Amber McGee, a freshman from Wytheville, Va.

HANDLING OF DISASTER TO BE REVIEWED

Kaine said he would appoint a panel at the university's request to review authorities' handling of the disaster. Parents and students had complained that the university should have locked down the campus immediately after the first burst of gunfire and did not do enough to warn people.

"I'm satisfied that the university did everything they felt they needed to do with the heat on the table," Kaine told CBS' "The Early Show" on Wednesday. "Nobody has this in the playbook, there's no manual on this."

Congress planned to hold its first hearing on the shootings Thursday, focusing on law enforcement resources needed to protect the country.

Virginia Tech students got another scare Wednesday morning as police in SWAT gear with weapons drawn swarmed Burruss Hall, which houses the president's office.

"They were just screaming, 'Get off the sidewalks,"' said Terryn Wingler-Petty, a junior from Wisconsin. "They seemed very confused about what was going on. They were just trying to get people organized."

The threat targeted the university president but was unfounded and the building was reopened, Flinchum said.

One officer was seen escorting a crying young woman out of Burruss Hall, telling her, "It's OK. It's OK."