On the morning of April 16, 2007, 32 members of the Virginia Tech community were shot and killed in West Ambler Johnston Residence Hall and Norris Hall. The gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, then turned the gun on himself.

We continue to remember the 32 victims:

Ross A. Alameddine

Christopher James Bishop

Brian R. Bluhm

Ryan Christopher "Stack" Clark

Austin Michelle Cloyd

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak

Daniel Alejandro Perez Cueva

Kevin P. Granata

Matthew Gregory Gwaltney

Caitlin Millar Hammaren

Jeremy Michael Herbstritt

Rachael Elizabeth Hill

Emily Jane Hilscher

Jarrett Lee Lane

Matthew Joseph La Porte

Henry J. Lee Liviu

Librescu G.V. Loganathan

Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan

Lauren Ashley McCain

Daniel Patrick O'Neil

Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz

Minal Hiralal Panchal

Erin Nicole Peterson

Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.

Julia Kathleen Pryde

Mary Karen Read

Reema Joseph Samaha

Waleed Mohamed Shaalan

Leslie Geraldine Sherman

Maxine Shelly Turner

Nicole Regina White

The night of April 16, 2007, Hokies United, a student-organized response group, set up a memorial shrine with a semicircle of stones on the Drillfield in front of Burruss Hall, the university's administration building. The next day students placed large plywood boards, painted white, on the Drillfield for people to sign and leave expressions of grief, support, etc. Other spontaneous shrines appeared on campus and in the community.

The events of April 16, 2007, received intense media coverage, and people around the world responded. Virginia Tech received over 90,000 condolence items from all 50 states and 80 countries. These items included banners, posters, books of condolences, sound materials, various media materials, poetry, correspondence, resolutions, textiles, memorabilia, ephemera, and handcrafted items, including the handpainted stones of this collection. Thousands of these items were displayed for the university community through University Unions and Student Activities' Squires Student Union.

Items continued to be received for months and years afterwards, and families of those killed were offered the option of receiving many materials directly related to their loved ones from the Office of Recovery and Support, or having them placed in storage for later retrieval.