Virginia Tech gunman sent package to NBC

April 18, 2007

According to police, Cho Seung-hui, the gunman who killed 33 people including himself on Monday at Virginia Tech., sent a package containing pictures and video to NBC, in between the first and second shootings at the campus. The package was timestamped by the United States Postal Service at 9:01 a.m., just under 30 minutes before the second shooting.

"This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation. We're in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth," said superintendent of Virginia State Police Colonel Steve Flaherty.

The package, which contained a DVD, allegedly contained "rants against rich people" and "warns that he wants to get even".

"[The package contained a] rambling, manifesto-like statement embedded with a series of photographs" and the material was "hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very disturbing — very angry, profanity-laced," said Steve Capus, the president of NBC News.

At least 23 videos are reported to be inside the package, in a QuickTime format, where Cho speaks about religion and how he hates rich people. No specific names were mentioned in the video. The pictures of Cho show him holding both guns believed to have been used in the shootings, and in some cases he is leaning against a white wall. There are also pictures of him showing hollowed out bullets and holding a knife. It is not known where the pictures or videos were taken.

No images of the either of the two shootings were inside the package, but it did include "vague references" to the shootings and asserted that "things like this didn’t have to happen," added Capus, who also said that the package had an incorrect address and ZIP code.

All of the material that Cho sent to NBC was immediately handed over to the FBI by NBC security guards wearing gloves for further analysis.

NBC plans to air some of the material on NBC Nightly News on Friday. However, the video is also being discussed on NBC's 24-hour news channel, MSNBC.