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'Gunman practiced shooting'
Man at outdoor shooting range says Cho was there in weeks before rampage
BY BILL MCKELWAY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 22, 2007
BLACKSBURG -- The Virginia Tech gunman who with deadly efficiency gunned down 32 students and teachers Monday apparently practiced his craft at a remote outdoor shooting range 8 miles from his dormitory.
"I can't hardly remember a name, but I never forget a face, and it was him," Randy Elmore said Friday as he scavenged shell casings from a Jefferson National Forest shooting range where he said he witnessed Seung-Hui Cho practicing his marksmanship.
In the weeks before the deadly shootings, Cho familiarized himself with a handgun by firing at a cardboard box 25 yards away under the brow of Brush Mountain, Elmore said.
In addition, Elmore said he recognized a young woman from the range whose picture was among those of the Virginia Tech victims. He did not know her identity. Search warrants suggest that Radford student Karl David Thornhill and Tech student Heather Haugh could have crossed paths with Cho on the range. Haugh was the roommate of Emily Hilscher of Woodville, who lived in a Virginia Tech dormitory near Cho's and was one of his first two victims.
Elmore, 54, a rugged man with gnarled hands and an aching back, said he immediately recognized Cho on Wednesday night when his image, a gun in each hand and a grimace on his face, appeared on television screens across the country.
"I was in my trailer talking with my girlfriend on the phone and I said to her, 'Hold on. There he is.'"
Earlier that day, Elmore said men who identified themselves as agents with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appeared on the shooting range saying they were investigating the college shootings.
A Virginia State police spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the site west of Blacksburg was of interest and a spokesman for ATF did not immediately return a call asking for comment.
Elmore's claim, if substantiated, though, could help account for Cho's movements and habits in the weeks before the shootings, a period of time about which little has been made public by authorities.
"He never said nothing. He wouldn't look at nobody and would fire off maybe a box of shells and then leave," said Elmore who collects brass shell casings from the range and redeems them for scrap money.
"I get maybe $1.10 a pound," Elmore said, noting that he dismisses inch-long .22 caliber casings for larger, more valuable .30 and .45 caliber scrap. "You pick up a thousand of .22's and maybe fill the bottom of a five-gallon bucket," Elmore explained.
That made Cho a person of noninterest for Elmore. "He didn't shoot nothing but .22's; at least I never heard a pop that sounded bigger."
Elmore said he saw Cho about three times in the past six weeks. He never saw a vehicle or clothing any more provocative than a pair of jeans. But during those weeks, Elmore said, Cho's hair had not been shaved close to his head, the style the 23-year-old senior apparently affected for Monday's rampage.
But Elmore added another element of mystery about Cho, noting that the federal agents said they were specifically looking for .50 caliber casings. That size of shell takes a large rifle to fire, a type of weapon that has not figured publicly in the investigation of the slayings.
Elmore and students said the shooting range in the federal park is a popular hangout for Virginia Tech students. Bare of amenities, the range features a single row of wooden shooting tables and a 100-yard deep shooting area. It is unlighted and warns shooters not to fire at electronic equipment such as cell phones and other sorts of electronic gadgetry because they can contain contaminated materials. The range is strewn with shotgun casings, beer and soda cans filled with bullet and pellet holes, and all sorts of trash. There is a metal cylinder for donations to help keep up a roadway leading to the site.
While Cho's shooting prowess is likely of little investigative use to authorities, contacts he made on the range, or people he was attracted to or met, could be significant.
A search warrant filed last week in Montgomery County Circuit Court to search Thornhill's Blacksburg residence for guns makes that clear.
Obtained by the Virginia Tech Police Department on Monday, the warrant shows that Hilscher's roommate told police that she, Haugh, had fired weapons at a range with Hilscher's boyfriend Thornhill "as recent as two weeks ago."
A police affidavit accompanying the warrant did not specify what range or say if Hilscher had fired weapons, too. It identified the roommate as Heather "Haughn," apparently Virginia Tech student Heather Haugh.
Haugh has not responded to requests for comment. Thornhill has also not returned calls or e-mails.
Police have stressed that Thornhill is no longer a person of interest.
Cho owned two handguns, according to authorities. He bought his weapons at different places. He purchased the Walther P22, a .22-caliber handgun, from an online seller and picked it up at JND Pawnbrokers in Blacksburg on Feb. 9.
More than a month later -- Virginia law limits gun purchases to one a month -- Cho bought the second handgun, a 9mm Glock 19. He bought it at Roanoke Firearms in Roanoke, about 30 miles north of Tech. He used a credit card to pay the $571 for the gun.
