Students write book about the tragedy

This is Derek O’Dell, President of the VT Chess Club

Students Write First Book on Massacre
ABC News
Posted: 2007-07-20 23:21:06
Filed Under: Nation

(July 20) – If journalism is the first draft of history, the student journalists of Virginia Tech are about to make their contribution with a book about the campus tragedy that left 33 people dead, including shooter Seung-Hui Cho.

…Wounded victim Derek O’Dell remembered Cho’s expression as he walked into German class.

“I saw into his eyes, his face darkened by the shadow from his maroon cap. They seemed completely black and there appeared to be an emptiness behind them.”

“Sometimes you can look into a person’s eyes and see their life story and the hardships they’ve encountered. With him there was nothing,” O’Dell added.

Walsh, the student who helped barricade her classroom door, recounted that “he walked … almost like in a trance, like as it he had no cares in the world. He was just doing what he was doing.”

Here is the full story.