BLACKSBURG, Va. -- He was a quiet English major - a loner who avoided eye contact and conversation and whose creative writing so disturbed one professor that she sought intervention for him.
Cho Seung-Hui, the gunman in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage that left 33 dead and more than a dozen injured, was described by those who knew him as troubled and anti-social.
The 23-year-old South Korean native lived in a residence hall, sharing a three-bedroom suite with young men who said they barely knew him.
"I never saw him with anyone," said Cho's roommate, Joe Aust, 19, a sophomore from Westminster. "He ate alone in the dining hall and shunned any attempts at friendship."
Cho shot himself as police closed in on Norris Hall, the engineering building where police believe he opened fire in at least four classrooms, killing 30. Two hours earlier, police believe, he shot to death a freshman woman and a popular residence hall adviser across campus, at a residence hall near his own dormitory.
When police searched Cho's undecorated room late Monday, they found a note with "a rambling list of grievances" against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus, sources told the Chicago Tribune.
There was no evidence that Cho left behind a suicide note, Col. W. Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said at a news conference yesterday.
A search warrant return filed in Montgomery County (Va.) Circuit Court shows that police seized a chain and padlocks - investigators said several entrances to Norris Hall had been chained shut from the inside - and dozens of books, notebooks and computer items from Cho's room Monday night.
Police said the two guns found at Norris Hall, a Walther P22 and a Glock 9 mm handgun, were purchased legally, one as recently as last month.
Cho had shown recent signs of disturbing behavior, setting a dormitory room on fire and allegedly stalking women, an investigative source told the Tribune.
Also, in an application to search Cho's dorm, authorities wrote that Virginia Tech had received two previous bomb threat notes, and that they were seeking to determine whether they were written by Cho.
A third note with a bomb threat - this one against engineering department buildings - was found near Norris Hall and was believed to have been written by Cho, the search application says.
His roommates in Harper Hall said that Cho's behavior around them was unusual - but not alarming.
