Test run

Its possible the Virginia Tech killer was practicing at Norris Hall two days before the killing spree.

ROANOKE, Va. - Two days before the Virginia Tech massacre, witnesses saw a suspicious man in a hooded sweat shirt and found at least one exit door chained shut in the building where Seung Hui Cho killed 30 people, police said Friday.

Cho chained most of the exits of Norris Hall before firing 174 rounds of ammunition in just more than nine minutes there, but investigators said they had no indication he was the person who had chained the exit the first time.

"It would be speculation to suggest that he was practicing locking the doors," State Police Superintendent Col. Steve Flaherty said in the first update on the investigation in months.

Police did not learn of the April 14 incident until after Cho killed 25 fellow students and five faculty members in four Norris Hall classrooms April 16, State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said. Police would not say who reported seeing the man, or who found the door chained.

Cho, a mentally disturbed student, also killed two people in a dormitory and fatally shot himself as police broke through the chained doors. Another 23 people were wounded, Flaherty said.

Like most tragedies and disasters, The Virginia Tech massacre could have been avoided. If school officials had taken immediate action after the first two killings or if authorities would followed up on Cho's mental status, or in this instance some one reporting the April 14th incident to police. Maybe 32 innocent people would be alive today.

Investigators have not found the hard drive to Cho's computers, Flaherty said.

"That's a piece of evidence we would love to find, along with his cell phone and possibly some other documents," he said.

My guess is that Cho disposed of these either just before the first killings or during the time he went to mail his package to NBC. There is plenty of evidence to say there was a method behind this young man's madness.

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