Student Journalists Break Ground With Book on Massacre

'April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers' is the first major book on the shootings.

ByABC News
July 20, 2007, 9:25 AM

July 20, 2007 — -- If journalism is the first draft of history, the student journalists of Virginia Tech are about to make their contribution with a book about the campus tragedy that left 33 people dead, including shooter Seung-Hui Cho.

"April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers" is the first major book on the shooting and combines tributes to the students and faculty victims with a collection of firsthand testimonials from those who lived through the morning of the massacre.

"All of a sudden a door just opened real fast, a guy came in with a gun he was very, very deliberate. He didn't say anything. Just came in and started firing," described student Garrett Evans, who was in German class when Cho began his rampage.

"I felt God move me away so he didn't shoot me in my head," said Evans, who was shot in both legs.

The shooter attacked four classrooms on the second floor of Norris Hall, killing 30 people and wounding 25. Earlier that morning he had killed two students in West Ambler Johnston dormitory, according to police.

ABC News got the first look at the book, which hasn't yet been released. The book is an oral history, edited by Roland Lazenby and the student staff of Planet Blacksburg, a news Web site serving the Virginia Tech community. During the hours that followed the shooting, the site received global attention for its breaking-news coverage.

The book records the fear and horror of those who lived through the attack. Erin Sheehan, a student who lay among the wounded students in an attempt to play dead, told reporters, "I saw bullets hit people's bodies. There was blood everywhere."

The book's firsthand accounts include the now well-known acts of heroism in the midst of chaos, like when Theresa Walsh and her classmates in Room 205 saved themselves by barricading the door, preventing Cho from entering the class.

"He tried getting into the door and he nudged it with his shoulder, but everyone was on their stomachs holding the legs of the table, pushing it up against the door," Walsh recalled.