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Athletes react to VT Shootings

Monday, April 16, 2007

Nathan Warters, Media General News Service

Kevin Kadak could have run. The Virginia Tech sophomore could have used those sinewy legs of his and bolted clear across campus.

But before he could register what was going on, he was ordered against a wall by a police officer and told not to move. Moments later, his shoulder was propped tightly against the limestone exterior of Norris Hall as the pop, pop, pop of a pistol penetrated his ear drums.

Suddenly, this weekend’s ACC track and field championships weren’t so important. Kadak, a track and field runner from Forest, just wanted to live.
He was lucky. He was outside of Norris. The people inside were fighting for their lives. A gunman killed at least 30 people inside the academic building before turning the gun on himself.

It is believed that the same man killed two students earlier in the morning in a West Ambler-Johnston Hall dormitory room.

“When I saw all the cops screaming and yelling and telling us to get down or up against the building, then I kind of figured, ‘Holy crap, what’s going on?’ After another minute of hearing (the popping noises) again, I kind of realized it really was gunshots,” Kadak said.

Virginia Tech athletes from the Lynchburg area expressed shock and grief over Monday’s tragic events. It hardly mattered that the university cancelled all athletic events and practices for Monday and today.

“Running is not a priority right now,” said Kadak, who is expected to compete for Tech in this weekend’s ACC championships in College Park, Md. “Who cares about track when you’ve got what happened today?”

The school is giving everybody on campus, athletes included, time to grieve. Classes were cancelled Monday and today, and it is not known how Monday’s events will affect the rest of the week’s academic and athletic schedule.

Kadak said all of his track teammates were unhurt. ESPN.com reported that all of the school’s football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball players were accounted for as well.

“How could one person cause so many senseless deaths? I’m in shock,” Hokies football coach Frank Beamer told ESPN.com. “This is such a caring, friendly place. This is a college town. And now one person has an impact like this?”

Many students locked themselves into their rooms upon finding out about the shootings. Some got in their cars and left campus.

Liberty High School graduate Daryl Robertson, a freshman on the football team, and his roommate, Jason Adjepong, headed to Robertson’s Bedford home. Robertson said they’ll make the trip back to Blacksburg when study hall and practice resumes.

West Ambler-Johnston sits just yards from Cochrane Hall, where athletes like Robertson, Adjepong and Brian Saunders, a football player from Nelson County, live.

Police received a 911 call at 7:15 a.m. about the shooting at West Ambler-Johnston. Saunders walked out of Cochrane’s front door at 7:30. He was headed to class in McBride Hall, which sits adjacent to Norris.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” said Saunders, a freshman. “I heard ambulances coming and I saw police cars rolling in, and I thought it was just a normal kind of situation. When I found out that somebody was shot, I was like, ‘Wow.’”

Robertson was awake in the early-morning hours Monday, but he said he didn’t hear any gunfire. He was coming back from meetings at about 7:30 a.m. when he noticed a gathering of armed policemen in the field between the dormitories.

“When we came out of study hall, there were eight cops on the lawn right in front of my dorm,” Robertson said. “They caught me off guard. I was like, ‘They aren’t going to do all that just for somebody getting drunk or nothing like that.’ So I started calling around. I called my advisor, and she was like, ‘Somebody was shot in A-J. Just stay in your room. Don’t do anything.’”

Just a couple of hours later, at approximately 9:30 a.m., shots rang out inside of Norris Hall.

Kadak was just feet from the building’s front door when he was ordered against the wall. He peered out to the drill field and saw students frantically running from the scene.
He was thankful he didn’t try to get to class earlier. He might have been a part of the terror inside.
“There was definitely an angel with me,” he said.

When the gunshots stopped, officers directed everyone away from Norris. Kadak ran across the drill field and took shelter with other students inside the library.

“After they got us all running away from the building, they were kind of pushing people off the drill field and trying to get them in academic buildings,” Kadak said.

“It just so happens that I was on the path toward the library. They were yelling at everybody to get into buildings and the library was the closest one. Once we got in there, they actually locked us in the back of the library with no windows and really bad cell phone reception.
“There was probably 100 to 200 other people in there, all just basically sitting there not knowing what was going on. We were in there probably for close to two hours.”

The library was quiet. People huddled around computers to find out the latest news about what was going on. Some were frantically trying to reach their loved ones.

Kadak got just enough of a signal on his cell phone to reach his mother, Ann Marie.
“He called me before the TV coverage even started, so I knew he was OK, and I knew he had been escorted to the library and they were locked in there,” Ann Marie Kadak said.

Most of the students were able to promptly reach family members. Football player Barry Booker (Amherst) called his mother, Patsy, to tell her he was OK. Basketball player A.D. Vassallo (Hurt) sent his guardian, Gene Carwile, a text message. Softball player Morgan Harris (Rustburg) got in touch with her big sister. Runner Lisa McPherson (Forest) and baseball player Luke Padgett (Rustburg) also got in touch with family members.

“You’re wondering if everything is OK, and then once you hear, it’s a relief,” Carwile said. “But there’s also sadness because you know someone is going through this turmoil.”