Virginia Tech Students From Falls Church Reflect on Thursday’s Shooting

Nadine Coupard and Brian Lubnow left the Virginia Tech Blacksburg campus an hour before reports of a shooting surfaced.

The Falls Church natives and graduates said they received a message from the school’s emergency text system about the shooting and then from a flurry of Facebook and Twitter posts.

Coupard, a freshman at Virginia Tech, said she was in a car heading home for the break when she first heard the news.

“I wasn’t worried at first, but then Twitter and Facebook post made me concerned” said Lubnow, a sophomore at Virginia Tech.

A gunman allegedly killed two people, including a Virginia Tech police officer, Thursday. Police have not captured the alleged gunman, according to the Virginia Tech website. The first alert went out at 12:37 p.m., reporting shots had been fired in Coliseum Parking lot, according to the school’s website. In an alert sent at 12:47 p.m., the school offered a description: white male, gray sweat pants, gray hat with a neon green brim, maroon hoodie and backpack. He is traveling on foot.

Lubnow said he had returned to his off-campus home before the shooting but was in contact with his friends who were still in the library when the school locked down the campus. He said everything is at a standstill around Blacksburg as police search for the gunman. He said it took some time to reach his parents because of the high volume of phone calls leaving the area.

Lubnow, who has five finals, said his first exam was scheduled for Friday. The school has postponed examinations Friday and there are no immediate plane for rescheduling them according to the school’s website.

“When they catch the guy I’ll feel better,” Lubnow said during a telephone interview. “It’s terrible that we’ve gone through something like this before.”

In 2007, Seung-Hui Cho killed 33 people on the Blacksburg campus, according to a New York Times story.

Flags flew at half-staff Thursday on the campus in Falls Church. The graduate campus in the Northern Virginia Center was bare with only a few faculty members walking around. One faculty member said Virginia Tech staff was not allowed to speak about Thursday’s shootings.

Updates can be found here: http://www.vt.edu/. Family of Virginia Tech students can call 540-231-3787 for information.