'In Our Backyards': Cho's Hometown Stunned

ByABC News
April 20, 2007, 11:57 AM

CENTREVILLE, Va., April 20, 2007 — -- You can leave the campus of Virginia Tech, put the town of Blacksburg behind you, drive 200 miles northeast through Virginia and pull off the interstate when the sign says Centreville, Va., and in a way you're right back again in the shock and sorrow of Monday's massacre in which 33 people died.

This subdued and pretty bedroom community and communities around it were home to five of Monday's victims -- Maxine Turner, Mary Read, Leslie Sherman, Reema Samaha and Erin Peterson -- and also the gunman, Seung-hui Cho.

Samaha and Peterson both attended Westfield High, which is located in Centreville, and so did Cho. That brought the Virginia Tech killings home in a way that nobody wanted.

"I was watching the news yesterday, and it seemed so far," said Gabriela Tasende, a Centreville resident. "It was sad, but it seemed so far. And then this morning, it was such a shock to see it right in our backyards. And even though it sounds like a cliché, you know, you say, 'It doesn't happen in my neighborhood.' It's true. Sometimes you don't think it's ever going to happen in your neighborhood."

Sarah DeFluri knew Cho slightly because they shared classes in high school and once at Virginia Tech. She said she'd never sensed he was capable of the violence that erupted this week -- though on Monday, after the shootings, she and her friends thought of him briefly.

"Before we found out who the shooter was, my roommates and I were watching the news and we were all, 'What if it were Seung?'" she said. "But then we thought it was too weird -- we're just accusing this poor guy. He's too shy to do anything like that. But his name definitely came up before we knew."