Two days after the worst killing spree in
modern US history, the shooter again assaulted Virginia Tech - though this time
it was in videos and photographs. In the videos, Cho Seung-hui was as
garrulous as he was silent in his
normal life.
NBC played another round yesterday of the videos Cho mailed to the network in
the middle of the killings of 32 people at Virginia Tech. As in the videos
released on Wednesday, he repeats himself, again and again, saying the killings
could have been prevented and that he was carrying out the shootings for "the
weak and defenseless."
"This is it," he says in one video. "This is where it all ends. End of the
road. What a life it was. Some life."
He delivered a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs ."
"Today" show Matt Lauer said the decision to air the information "was not
taken lightly."
Some victims' relatives cancelled their plans to speak with the network
"because they were very upset with NBC for airing the images," co-host Meredith
Viera said.
NBC said the package contained a rambling and often incoherent 23-page
written statement, 28 video clips and 43 photos. Several of the photos showed
him aiming handguns at the camera.
The package arrived at NBC headquarters in New York on Tuesday and was opened
on Wednesday. It bore a Postal Service time stamp showing that it had been
mailed at a Blacksburg post office at 9:01 am on Monday, about an hour and 45
minutes after Cho first opened fire.
The package helped explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre:
where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the
first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second attack, at a
classroom building.
"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant
whose parents work at a dry cleaners in suburban Washington. "Your golden
necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka
and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't
enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."
Some of the pictures in the video package show him smiling; others show him
frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each
hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black
T-shirt, a backpack and a backward, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him
swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun
to his temple.
He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" a reference to the teenage killers
in the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
NBC News President Steve Capus said the package arrived in Tuesday
afternoon's mail, but was not opened until Wednesday morning. It was sent by
overnight delivery and apparently had the wrong postal code, NBC said.
Cho repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.
"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," he
says, apparently reading from his manifesto. "You thought it was one pathetic
boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to
inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."
（Agencies）
Vocabulary:
garrulous:
冗長絮叨的
tirade：言辭激烈的長篇演說
hedonistic
needs：享樂需求
brandish：威脅性地揮動或揮舞（武器）
（英語點津陳蓓編輯）
