NCJ Number
225859
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 78 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2009 Pages: 13-19
Date Published
January 2009
Length
7 pages
Annotation
The chaplain of the police department in Blacksburg, VA, the home of Virginia Tech, writes of his personal experiences, reactions, and responsibilities on April 16, 2007, the day of the mass shootings on the Virginia Tech campus.
Abstract
The author was a former deputy sheriff, the chaplain of the Blacksburg Police Department, and the senior pastor of the Blacksburg Baptist Church at the time of the Virginia Tech tragedy. His duties on the day of the shootings were primarily related to his responsibilities as the police chaplain, but he was also involved as a church pastor when a Virginia Teach student who was a member of his congregation had not been heard from by her parents was accounted for among the hospitalized or those found dead at the scene. His duties as police chaplain were primarily at the hospital where most of the wounded were taken. There he was summoned to a trauma room to minister to a student who had been seriously wounded. He then met ambulances arriving with students who needed emergency attention. He helped carry stretchers to waiting medical teams. It was during this period that he received a call from a church member about the missing student from the congregation. Acting as the student’s pastor, he made calls to other hospitals to determine whether or not she had been treated there, but with no success. He remained at the base hospital caring for the less severely wounded students, letting them talk and helping them with phone calls to their parents and friends. He helped set up a hospitality room for the friends of the wounded. Among his responsibilities in the days following the tragedy was to have informal conversations with police officers about the impacts on them of the shootings.