Seung-Hui Cho

Seung-Hui Cho (조승희, Korean name ordering Cho Seung-hui; January 18, 1984 – April 16, 2007) was a South Korean mass murderer responsible for the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.

Cho was born on January 18, 1984, in the city of Asan, in South Korea's South Chungcheong Province.

Cho and his family lived in a basement apartment in the city of Seoul for a few years before immigrating to the United States.

Cho's father was self-employed as a bookstore owner, but made minimal profits from the venture.

Seeking better education and opportunities for his son and daughter, Cho's father immigrated to the United States with his family in 1992, when Cho was eight years old.

The family lived in Detroit, then moved to the Washington metropolitan area after learning that it had one of the largest South Korean expatriate communities in the U.S. Cho's family settled in Centreville, an unincorporated community in western Fairfax County, Virginia, west of Washington, D.C. Cho's father and mother opened a dry-cleaning business.

After they moved to Centreville, Cho and his family became permanent residents of the United States as South Korean nationals.

His parents became members of a local Christian church, and Cho himself was raised as a member of the religion, although in a note Cho "railed against his parents' strong Christian faith."

Some members of Cho's family who had remained in South Korea had concerns about his behavior during his early childhood.

Cho's relatives thought that he was selectively mute or mentally ill and have stated in interviews that he rarely spoke or showed affection.

During Cho's ninth-grade year in 1999, the Columbine High School massacre made international news.

Cho was reportedly transfixed by the news and idolized Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

Cho wrote in a school assignment about wanting to "repeat Columbine".

The school contacted Cho's sister, who reported the incident to their parents.

Cho was sent to a psychiatrist.

Cho graduated from Westfield High School in 2003.

Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with two semi-automatic pistols on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

This killing is the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, and was at the time the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

A senior-level undergraduate student (creative writing) at the university, Cho died by suicide after police breached the doors of Virginia Tech's Norris Hall which Cho had locked with heavy chains, where most of the shooting had taken place.

Born in South Korea, Cho was eight years old when he immigrated to the United States with his family.

He became a U.S. permanent resident as a South Korean national.

At the time of the shooting, Cho had the legal status of resident alien.

In middle school, he was diagnosed with a severe anxiety disorder with selective mutism, as well as major depressive disorder.

After his diagnosis, he began receiving treatment and continued to receive therapy and special education support until his junior year of high school.

Cho was bullied throughout high school.

During Cho's last two years at Virginia Tech, several instances of his abnormal behavior, as well as plays and other writings he submitted containing references to violence, caused concern among teachers and classmates.

In the aftermath of the shootings, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine convened a panel consisting of various officials and experts to investigate and examine the response and handling of issues related to the shootings.

The panel released its final report in August 2007, devoting more than 20 pages to detailing Cho's troubled history.

In the report, the panel criticized the failure of the educators and mental health professionals who came into contact with Cho during his college years to notice his deteriorating condition and help him.

The panel also criticized misinterpretations of privacy laws and gaps in Virginia's mental health system and gun laws.

In addition, the panel faulted Virginia Tech administrators in particular for failing to take immediate action after the first two deaths of Emily J. Hilscher and Ryan C. "Stack" Clark.

Nevertheless, the report did acknowledge that Cho must still be held primarily responsible for the killing, despite his "emotional and psychological disabilities [having] undoubtedly clouded his own situation".

During an ABC News Nightline interview on August 30, 2007, Cho's grandfather reported his concerns about Cho's behavior during childhood.

According to Cho's grandfather, Cho never made eye contact, never called him grandfather, and never moved to embrace him.

Cho attended the Poplar Tree Elementary School in Chantilly, an unincorporated, small community in Fairfax County.

An anonymous family acquaintance claimed that "Every time he came home from school he would cry and throw tantrums saying he never wanted to return to school" when Cho first came to the U.S. According to a former fifth grade classmate of Cho's, Cho finished the three-year program at Poplar Tree Elementary School in one and a half years and was pointed to as a good example by teachers, and was not disliked by other students.

Cho attended two secondary schools in Fairfax County: Ormond Stone Middle School in Centreville and Westfield High School in Chantilly.

By the eighth grade, Cho had been diagnosed with selective mutism, a social anxiety disorder that inhibited him from speaking in specific instances and/or to specific individuals.

He was reportedly bullied for his shyness and unusual speech mannerisms throughout high school, and at least once for his ethnicity.

Other former classmates stated he was a loner who did not seem interested in interacting when teachers or other students tried to include him.