The scene of the Virginia Tech shooting.

It was a routine traffic stop on the Virginia Tech campus.  Campus police officer Deriek W. Crouse, 39 and a former deputy, prison guard, and US military veteran, had stopped someone in the Coliseum parking lot when things turned violent just after noon yesterday.  Shots were fired.  At the end of it all, two people were dead and Virginia Tech’s Blackburg campus was locked down to prevent an escalation of violence.  The gunman killed the officer, then killed himself as police closed in on him.

“Today, tragedy again struck Virginia Tech,” said Virginia Tech’s president, Charles Steger.  “I can only say that words don’t describe our feelings.”

If there’s one good thing to be taken away from this whole situation, it’s that Virginia Tech’s revamped early warning system for violent incidents worked like a charm.  Students were warned via text and campus television to stay indoors and keep out of sight, and between 12:36 to 4:31 PM, Virginia Tech’s normally bustling campus was a ghost town, as students and staff kept calm and kept out of the way of the police.  That part’s fortunate; however, the fact that an otherwise innocent police officer was shot and killed is bad.

In the 90’s, the big story was school shootings; in the 2000’s, I guess the big story is shootings on college campuses.  This is getting to be a disturbing trend, and I have no idea why.

Tags: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, Deriek W. Crouse, Virginia Tech shooting, two dead in Virginia Tech shooting, traffic stop turns deadly at Virginia Tech, violence, college violence, violence on college campus, Charles Steger, Virginia Tech Shooting 2011, another shooting at Virginia Tech

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