Family says he was
autistic
Childhood friend describes him as model student who used to be
popular
But all this apparently changed when he went to high school and was
taunted
April
22, 2007
WHEN Cho Seung-hui was in high school, there was a reason why he
was a loner who never opened his mouth to speak.
Because when he did, his classmates would point and laugh at him,
telling him to 'go back to China'.
And experts say that the experience of being friendless and bullied
made Cho, who gunned down 32 students at Virginia Tech on Monday
before killing himself, a 'textbook' case of a mass killer.
Mr Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior who graduated from
Westfield High School in Chantilly, Virginia, with Cho in 2003,
recalled that the South Korean immigrant almost never opened his
mouth and would ignore attempts to strike up a conversation,
reported the Associated Press.
Once, in English class, the teacher had the students read aloud,
and when it was Cho's turn, he just looked down in silence, Mr
Davids recalled.
Finally, after the teacher threatened him with an 'F' for
participation, Cho started to read in a strange, deep voice that
sounded 'like he had something in his mouth,' Mr Davids said.
'As soon as he started reading, the whole class started laughing
and pointing and saying, 'Go back to China,' he added.
Ms Stephanie Roberts, 22, a classmate of Cho's, said she heard that
Cho had been picked on several times, though she never witnessed it
herself.
'There were just some people who were really mean to him and they
would push him down and laugh at him,' she said.
DIDN'T SPEAK ENGLISH WELL
'He didn't speak English really well and they would really make fun
of him.'
The taunting got so bad for Cho that news quickly spread around
school that he had drawn up a 'death list' of students he wanted to
kill.
Cho's family members in South Korea said that he had a withdrawn
personality because he was autistic.
Still, childhood friend Kim Gyeong-won painted a very different
picture of him.
Mr Kim, a 23-year-old senior at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, told
the Joong Ang Daily that Cho was an athletic student who excelled
at mathematics and English.
He was even held up as a role model by his teachers, said Mr Kim,
who was friends with him for three years when they attended the
Poplar Tree Elementary School in Fairfax County, Virginia.
'Teachers said Seung-hui finished the three-year program in a year
and a half, and they used him as an exemplary model for other
students,' said Mr Kim, who hasn't spoken to Cho since his family
moved to another state in 1997.
'He was mature, and nobody hated him. Cho was recognised by friends
as a boy of knowledge.'
And even though Cho was shy and reserved back then, Mr Kim said
that he was a good dresser who was popular with the girls.
'Seung-hui could have been a popular kid, but he kept a distance
from others on his own,' he said.
'I only have good memories about him.'
But all that must have changed when he entered high school.
His high school classmates' accounts add to the psychological
portrait that is beginning to take shape, and could shed light on
the video rant Cho mailed to NBC in the middle of his rampage at
Virginia Tech.
In the often-incoherent video, Cho portrayed himself as persecuted
and ranted about rich kids.
Northeastern University criminal justice Professor James Alan Fox
told the San Jose Mercury News that Cho's background was consistent
with the profile of a school killer - a painfully awkward,
picked-on young man who lashes out with methodical fury at a world
he believed was out to get him.
'In virtually every regard, Cho is prototypical of mass killers
that I've studied in the past 25 years,' he said.
'That doesn't mean, however, that one could have predicted his
rampage.'
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Virginia's handgun laws differ from other states
HAD Virginia State strictly followed federal regulations on gun
sales, Cho Seung-hui may have never gotten his hands on the weapons
that he used to kill 32 people, anti-gun advocates say.
Under the so-called Brady Law, convicted felons or those who are
judged to be 'mentally defective' are barred from buying
guns.
Critics insist that Cho shouldn't have been able to buy the guns
because a judge had ruled in 2005 that he 'presents an imminent
danger to himself as a result of mental illness'.
However, Virgina's handgun laws are slightly different from those
followed by other states.
NOT RED-FLAGGED
In Virginia, a person is not red-flagged in the mental health
system unless he forcibly committed to a mental hospital.
Since Cho was only ordered to seek treatment at an outpatient
clinic, no record was made of his condition, allowing him to pass
background checks.
Since a judge had ruled Cho to be 'mentally defective', Mr Paul
Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence,
believes that he should have failed the checks.
'This event appears to have been preventable under the Brady law,'
he said.
Virginia officials have argued that they did nothing wrong because
they followed the state laws to the letter.