By Katherine Ramsland
Go to Video Footage
(Continued)
Bristling at "Injustice"
Another campus incident in 1991 involved an Asian man, Gang Lu, in the shooting deaths of five people at the University of Iowa. Gang Lu was a loner and an angry young man, despite the fact that he smiled a lot. He reacted quickly and seemed overly sensitive, so most people just left him alone. A native of Beijing, China, he had trouble with English as he applied himself in the university's Ph.D. program in physics. Lu had successfully submitted his dissertation on space plasma physics but saw the award he coveted go to one of his fellow students — also Chinese.
Lu appealed the process during the summer of 1991, but by fall, he'd waited long enough. On Friday afternoon, November 1, he brought a .38 revolver and shot two professors on his dissertation committee. Then he shot the person who'd won the award. Lu ran to the physics department and shot the chair, execution-style, before shooting the vice president for academic affairs and her receptionist (who survived). Finally, he shot himself in the head. As police searched his background, it became clear that he'd planned this incident for months with an anger fueled by his grievance against the university for not duly recognizing him. From notes he left behind, he'd apparently believed he was righteously battling a great evil.
 |
| Marc Lepine |
In another classroom shooting in 1989, twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine in Montreal shot female students at an engineering school to make a statement against feminists. He believed that career women had caused his life failures and that only violence would teach them a lesson about staying at home. With a hunting knife and several guns, he went to a classroom, where he ordered the women against the wall and shot them, killing six. He then went through the building, shooting others before ending his life in a third-floor classroom. His victim toll was fourteen women dead and fifteen wounded students of mixed gender.
So it's not just middle-aged white guys with a grudge. The idea for mass murder can seem like a genuine solution to mind distorted by delusions and self-centered demands.
Next Page
Previous Page
VA Tech Massacre Full Coverage & Breaking News
Go to Video Footage
For more daily crime news
default
increase
decrease
email
print
