VA TECH KILLER DESCRIBED AS LONER

An independent panel will conduct "a very thorough after-action review" of the events surrounding Monday's mass shooting at Virginia Tech, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said Tuesday as investigators probed further into the background student believed responsible for more than 30 deaths Tuesday morning (April 17), police identified Cho Seung Hui as the person responsible for the clasroom shooting, and said one of the two guns he owned also was used in the dormitory shooting. Cho was a senior English major from South Korea Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hinker said Cho, who lived in a dorm on campus, "was a loner and we are having difficulty finding any information about him." The Associated Press reported Cho's creative writing for his English classes was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service. Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, told the AP she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled." There was some concern about him," Rude told the AP. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this." MORE ON THIS STORY