"Some were praying to a God they didn't even know."

Joe WestburyIndex

Georgia Baptist Heidi Weiss, a member of First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, was on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16 when a mentally disturbed student shot and killed 33 individuals, including himself. She was in Blacksburg to visit her fiancé, Daniel Hager, a junior from High Point, N.C.

An earthquake registering 10 points on the Richter scale could not have shaken Virginia Tech more than the horrific tragedy experienced on the Blacksburg campus on April 16. A 23-year-old South Korean student massacred 32 people in a shooting frenzy and then ended the bloodbath by committing suicide. The reverberations from this deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history have emanated from this university town in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains to every corner of the nation.

Georgia, like so many other states, was profoundly affected and grievously stunned by the chilling, nightmarish attacks that took the lives of five faculty members and some of the finest, brightest, most promising students on the “Hokie” campus.

Student Ryan Clark of Martinez, a resident advisor on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory where the carnage began, was among the victims of the shooting rampage; and Christopher Bishop of Pine Mountain was teaching an introductory German class when the gunman opened fire, killing the instructor.

Georgia Baptist Heidi Weiss, a member of First Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, was on the VT campus on the fateful morning of the now infamous shooting. She was in Blacksburg to visit her fiancé, Daniel Hager, a junior from High Point, N.C.

Weiss, a senior majoring in human services at Kennesaw State University, was visiting Hager when Cho Seung-Hui launched his murderous outburst. She was in a guest housing dorm room when she heard “a deafening announcement over the intercom system, shouting ‘This is an emergency! There is a shooter on campus! Take cover! Do not leave the dorms! Repeat, this is an emergency!’”

Weiss heard a commotion in the hallway and got dressed quickly, noting that it was about 9:30 a.m., and began to look for Daniel. When she located him they discovered an email on his computer urging all students to seek cover indoors.

“At first everybody thought it was like what happened early in the fall semester,” Weiss recalled, “when an escaped convict came on campus and shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy and a security guard. The campus was shut down then and students were sent into locked-down dorms.

“Then we got word that 20 students had been killed and it just sucked all the life out of the room. It is hard to put into words. It was surreal. We could look at the live newscast on television and then look out the window and see the same thing.”

Brandon PickettSBCV

Commenting on the Monday that will be etched in her memory forever, Weiss stated, “We got the people in the dormitory together and prayed. Daniel (a member of Green Street Baptist Church in High Point, N.C.) works with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and teaches a Bible study in the dorm. He usually has 10 to 15 students in his Bible study.

“Some of the students consistently refused his invitations to attend, but everyone participated in this prayer meeting. Some were praying to a God they didn’t even know.”

Together for support

Weiss related, “Daniel urged us to pray for one student in particular who was in the building where the shooter was on his killing spree. Finally, in the early afternoon the student we had prayed for came into the dormitory.

“He and others in his classroom had barricaded their door. In less than a minute Cho was banging at the door and pelting it with bullets, but he couldn’t get in. I think God heard our prayers for that student.

“Everyone at Virginia Tech seems to be coming together to support each other in this time of tragedy, and they will get through this by supporting each other,” Weiss surmised. “Daniel and I are praying for a great revival to break out on the campus in Blacksburg, and we are believing that somehow God will be glorified in all of this.”

Weiss added, “It is apparent that no one really wants to leave Virginia Tech. They still want to be ‘Hokies.’ We must all remember that the Bible says, ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.’”

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