James and Vi Patrick spent Monday morning in agony, not knowing
if their son, David, was alive or dead. As parents, they faced the
unthinkable: a loose gunman on their son’s college campus, killing
people at random.
Morgan Hill – James and Vi Patrick spent Monday morning in agony, not knowing if their son, David, was alive or dead.
As parents, they faced the unthinkable: a loose gunman on their son’s college campus, killing people at random.
“It was total anxiety,” said James, a Morgan Hill Resident, who learned of the Virginia Tech shooting rampage Monday morning on a cable news channel.
For roughly one hour, James called his son’s cell phone, failing to connect through overwhelmed circuits.
Finally, at about 10am West Coast time, he connected with 18-year-old David, a freshman at the university who graduated from Live Oak High School in 2006.
“He told me all hell’s broken loose,” the father said. “There’d been a shooting, and he had been out on campus that morning.”
As news reports painted a more gruesome picture of the shooting rampage, David worried about one of his friends who had not returned to the dorm. The next morning, he learned his friend Matthew LaPorte, a sophomore from Pennsylvania, had been shot and killed.
James said his son and a group of his friends are staying at a a relative’s home in New Jersey until some of the shock wears off.
Requests by South Valley Newspapers for an interview with David were declined. The father has even denied an interview request from CBS news to protect his son and help him overcome the trauma of losing his friend to Monday’s massacre.
Authorities at Virginia Tech have confirmed 33 people, including the gunman, had been shot and killed in what was apparently the worst shooting rampage in U.S. history. The shootings occurred in two attacks on the Blacksburg, Va. campus. The first occurred at about 7:15am when two people were shot in a campus dorm. About two and a half hours later, 31 others, including the gunman, were killed at a classroom building across campus.
James said he and his son are angry at the way campus police responded. After the first attack, he said, the campus should have been locked down. Additionally, administrators should have recognized “red flags” about the shooter’s mental state. The gunman, who committed suicide as police moved in, was Cho Seung Hui, a student at the university. For more than a year, campus authorities were aware of Cho’s troubled mental state.
“The president of the campus (Charles Steger) should resign,” James said. “We don’t understand why precautions weren’t taken after the first shooting. And the shooter had red flags going back to 1995.”
Gavilan College spokeswoman Jan Bernstein Chargin said the Gilroy-based community college, with satellite campuses in Morgan Hill and Hollister, would review its safety polices in light of the shooting.
“Needless to say, we’re shocked as much as anyone else about what happened Monday,” Bernstein Chargin said. “Many on campus have been discussing how to provide support for those who need it. I know our counselors have spoken to students who are upset by the tragedy. And, of course, people have had lots of questions about our own safety plans.”
Today, a committee of staff members, administrators, faculty and students will begin reviewing Gavilan’s emergency preparedness plan. Additionally, the campus is organizing a vigil for Monday so students can reflect on the tragedy.
Pat Harris, a spokeswoman for San Jose State University, said the school held an emergency drill Wednesday morning after gathering members of its building emergency team at an auditorium to discuss emergency procedures. Harris said the drill was not in response to the Virginia Tech tragedy, but was rather planned in advance to promote safety. She said the drill was conducted at a selected number of buildings and was not campus-wide.
San Jose State President Don Kassing, in a prepared statement to the campus community posted on the school’s Web site, said while the university can never fully prepare for such random acts of violence, administrators are “proactive” in researching and implementing ways to deal with any kind of emergency.
“Our hearts, thoughts and our prayers to out to the Virginia Tech community. We are one family in higher education … ” Kassing said, assuring students, teachers and family members that the school is ready to respond to any type of violence with well trained police officers and agreements for response with the San Joe Police Department and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
