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http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3052278&page=1
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 44 > § 922
§ 922. Unlawful acts
VT Killer Ruled Mentally Ill by Court; Let Go After Hospital Visit
Killer Harassed Two Female Students; School Worried He Was Suicidal
By NED POTTER and DAVID SCHOETZ
April 18, 2007 — - A Virginia court found that Virginia Tech killer Seung-Hui Cho was "mentally ill" and dangerous. Then, the state let him go.
In 2005, after a district court in Montgomery County ruled that Cho was either a danger to himself or to others, he was evaluated by a state doctor and ordered to undergo outpatient care.
The ruling came after Cho was taken by police to a nearby psychiatric hospital for evaluation in December 2005, after two female schoolmates said they received threatening messages from him and police and school officials became concerned that he might be suicidal.
That information came to light two days after Cho, a Virginia Tech senior, killed 32 people and then himself in a shooting rampage on the university's campus.
Police obtained the order from a local magistrate after it was determined by a state-certified employee that Cho met the necessary legal criteria for temporary detention -- which may include being a threat to others and being unable to care for himself.
Under Virginia law, "A magistrate has the authority to issue a detention order upon a finding that a person is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization or treatment.
"The magistrate also must find that the person is an imminent danger to himself or others," says the guideline from Virginia's state court system.
Wendell Flinchum, the chief of the Virginia Tech police department, said that it's common for police to work with state-affiliated mental health facilities because it is easier to obtain the detention order.
"We normally go through access [appealing to the state's legal system for help] because they have the power to commit people if they need to be committed," said Flinchum at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Cho was taken to Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Center in Radford, Va., a private facility that can take 162 inpatients, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
The university said it did not know whether Cho had gone to the hospital on his own or was taken there under protective custody, which is a possibility under a temporary detention order.
Authorities did not say how much time Cho had spent at the hospital.
One of the young women complained in November 2005 that Cho, then 21, was stalking her, but she declined to press legal charges against him. Police interviewed Cho for the first time and referred the case to the school's internal disciplinary board.
It's unclear whether any action was ever taken by the school, although Edward Spencer, a school vice president, said that it's not uncommon for a complaint to never reach a full hearing.
A second girl, less than two weeks later, told authorities she received disturbing instant messages from Cho, and asked police to make sure there was "no further contact" from him.
Police spoke to Cho the next day. They say that shortly after, they received a call from an acquaintance of his, expressing concerns that he might be suicidal.
For a third time, police met with him. "Out of concern for Cho, officers asked him to speak to a counselor," Flinchum said. "He went voluntarily to the police department."
Police say Cho talked with a therapist from a local mental health agency not affiliated with Virginia Tech. That agency had authority to seek the detention order from a local magistrate.
The student complaints that brought Cho to the attention of authorities came during the same time that creative writing professor Lucinda Roy went to administrators to voice her concern about violent themes in Cho's writing.
Roy told ABC News that Cho seemed "extraordinarily lonely -- the loneliest person I have ever met in my life."
But authorities said they had no contact with Cho between then and Monday's mass killings.
While the school, citing privacy laws, did not conclusively say that school counselors had ever worked with Cho, they did say that a system for working with outside mental health agencies and local authorities is in place.
"Clearly, mental health professionals have a legal and moral responsibility," when a student presents a possible risk, said Christopher Flynn, head of the university's counseling center. "We have a duty to warn."
But Flynn also said that signs of trouble in Cho's behavior were not a clear indicator that action would follow. "It is very difficult to predict when what someone perceives as stalking, is stalking."
A Loner, Mysterious Even to His Roommates
Seung Cho was quiet -- so quiet that some classmates of his say they never heard his voice in three years. His roommates reported he was distant and private, eating by himself night after night, and watching wrestling on TV.
Cho's roommates say he obsessively downloaded music from the Internet. One of his favorites was the song "Shine," by Collective Soul, which he played over and over
He even scribbled some of the lyrics on the wall, they said -- lyrics like, "Teach me how to speak; Teach me how to share; Teach me where to go."
He was early to bed and early to rise, normally in bed by 9 p.m., and sometimes up by 5:30 the next morning. His roommates tell ABC News they would see him in the morning putting in his contact lenses, taking prescription medication and applying acne medicine to his face.
"He pretty much never talked at all," said Joseph Aust, who shared a bedroom with him in a six-person dorm suite in Harper Hall. "I tried to make conversation with him earlier in the year. He gave one-word answers.
"He pretty much never looked me in the eye," Aust said.
In recent weeks his routine had changed. His roommates say he went to the campus gym at night, lifting weights to bulk up. He went for a haircut -- surprising them by coming back to the room with a military-style buzz cut.
Aust and another roommate, Karan Grewal, say they were aware that Cho had pursued women on campus. They said he also seemed to have an imaginary girlfriend, a supermodel named "Jelly."
Students say he seemed as quiet as ever in the days before Monday's rampage.
Trey Perkins, a student who saw Cho during the shooting spree, said it was unreal, "being that close to a monster."
Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures
TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 44 > § 922
§ 922. Unlawful acts
(d) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person—
...
(4) has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to any mental institution;
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