Cho Seung-Hui, who killed at least 30 people at Virginia Tech university, was taken to a mental health facility out of concerns he was suicidal in 2005.
BLACKSBURG: The gunman who killed at least 30 people at a US university this week was briefly taken to a mental health facility out of concerns he was suicidal in late 2005, police said on Wednesday.
University Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his officers approached Cho in late 2005 when two women students complained of "annoying" phone calls and instant messages from him.
Flinchum said that the women were not among the dead.
"Neither one of them are among victims," he said.
"I'm not saying they were threats" I'm saying they were annoying. That's the way the victims characterized them, as annoying messages," Flinchum said.
After the second incident Cho's roommate told police he "might be suicidal," prompting them to issue a "temporary detention order" and send him to a mental health facility for evaluation, Flinchum said.
Authorities would not say how long Cho was evaluated.
"We did not have any contact with him after December 2005 that I'm aware of at this time," Flinchum said.
Police asked him to see a counselor, and Cho was later "taken to a mental health facility," Flinchum told reporters.
Campus counselors said they did know whether Cho had been treated by university mental health professionals, but if they had found him to be any danger to others, they would have had to warn the university.
"If there is a danger, we are required to warn," said Chris Flynn, director of the counseling center.
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Cho's mental state was not considered when he purchased the two handguns believed to have been the weapons used in the shootings.
"No record on the firearm check said that he had anything that prohibited him from purchasing a gun," Flinchum told reporters.
Cho killed at least 30 students and teachers in a classroom building Monday and is suspected of having killed two other students in another campus building about two hours earlier.
Fellow students and teachers have described a troubled loner whose writings for his English degree were so laced with violence and disillusionment that they alarmed some of those around him.
Cho, who immigrated to the United States 15 years ago with his family and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., chained doors closed to prevent escape and worked his way through classrooms, shooting his victims one by one. He later killed himself.
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said he would appoint W. Gerald Massengill, who headed the Virginia State Police during the Sept. 11 attacks and the killing spree of a sniper pair in 2002, to head a panel to review the university's response to the shootings. The review had been requested by the university.
Neighbours, roommates and teachers described Cho as a withdrawn person who rarely spoke. Two students who said they were Cho's roommates said he had harassed several female students and once told them he wanted to kill himself, which prompted the roommates to report their concerns to the police.
Cho used two handguns, which police confirmed he had purchased legally, and stopped only to reload. Police have stopped short of saying he was responsible for the shooting deaths of two other people two hours earlier at a dormitory but said tests showed the same gun was used in both incidents.
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