Editor’s Note: Please read Part One of this series, Part Two of this series and Part Three of this series to get the necessary background information about the university, the attacker, Seung Hui Cho, the earlier events of the morning of the attack and an over view of the attack itself before reading this installment.
As is true with almost every “report” about police response to an active shooter event, many statements were made about how long it took for the police to neutralize Cho. Gaining entry was, in and of itself, a challenge since Cho had changed shut the closest doors to the area he planned to attack. That wing of Norris Hall is three stories and while Cho did all of his killing on the second floor, that’s the ground floor at the central part of the building and the second story at the end of the wing he attacked. The officers arrived in a very timely fashion only to discover that they were barricaded out. They had to breach a door to make entry. That was done with a shotgun and Cho’s final shot – his suicide shot – was heard immediately thereafter.
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
