Cho mailed writings to NBC

DEVELOPING / 5:10 p.m.

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech officials confirmed today that NBC News in New York City received a package of photos, videos and writings from gunman Seing-Hu Cho — a package apparently mailed after the first of two killing sprees on Monday.

“We have been working with the FBI, the ATF, and the Virginia Tech police department since discovering this new evidence existed,” said State Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty. “This may be a very new critical component of this investigation. We are in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth.”

The stunning development comes two days after Cho, a 23-year-old loner from Centreville, went on a rampage, taking the lives of 30 people - and likely two others - before turning a gun on himself.

The new development could give authorities a better idea of what provoked the deadliest shooting spree in United States history.

Larry Hincker, Virginia Tech spokesman, said NBC news will report on it tonight.

1:01 p.m.

BLACKSBURG — Officials confirmed today that the gunman behind Monday’s killing spree at Virginia Tech had previous run-ins with campus police for “annoying” two female students.

Officials also said Seing-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old from Centreville, had been admitted to a mental health facility in 2005.

The information comes two days after Cho went on a shooting spree, taking the lives of 30 people - and likely two others - before turning a gun on himself.

Given that neither of the two women he bothered was killed, the details still provide little indication as to why Cho targeted the 30 students, teachers and faculty inside Norris Hall, an engineering building on the bucolic Virginia Tech Campus.

Police have yet to officially link the two additional students killed in the Amber Johnston dormitory to Cho, but have said one of the two guns Cho used in the Norris Hall shooting was also used in the dorm.

“There is no connection at this particular point and time,” State Police Superintendent Colonel Steve Flaherty told reporters this morning. “That is not to say there might not be some type of connection” found during the investigation.

Mr. Flaherty said the same can be said about the two students from Cho’s high school Westfield High School, in Fairfax, Va., who were killed in the massacre - the largest in the history of the United States.

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