Darci Eveleigh, a Kansas University junior from Coffeyville, right, watches CNN coverage of the shooting deaths at Virginia Tech during a bowling class at the Jaybowl in the Kansas Union. At least 32 people were killed Monday in the shooting rampage on the Virginia Tech campus.

Free State High School graduate Bryan Spangler left work early on Monday. Usually that is a good thing – but not this time.

The senior at Virginia Tech said he was sent home from his off-campus job as he, his university and the rest of the nation tried to come to grips with the deadliest shooting rampage in modern-day U.S. history.

Spangler, a computer science major in the School of Engineering, said he learned about the shootings through a series of e-mails from the university. He lives two blocks from West Ambler Johnston, a residence hall where the gunman first opened fire.

“I drove right by where it happened on my way to work, and there were probably eight to 10 police cars outside of the dormitory,” he said.

In a telephone interview, Spangler, son of Ron Spangler and Phyllis Buchele of Lawrence, said the horrific act was unbelievable.

“I never imagined anything like this would have happened,” he said. “It’s still kind of surreal at this point because I haven’t found out about anyone I know or anything like that. So, it doesn’t really feel real yet.”

Another ‘rough time’

Kansas University alumnus Thomas M. Murray, who teaches an undergraduate steel design course at Virginia Tech, fears he will know some of the 32 people who were killed or some of the 26 people who were injured. He has been teaching engineering and math classes at the Blacksburg, Va., campus since 1987.

Murray was at home during Monday morning’s rampage and said he was busy fielding e-mails and calls. He was scheduled to teach a lab class Monday afternoon and two lecture classes today – all have been canceled. He said it would be “very sad” when he returns to campus.

Murray, who received a doctorate in engineering mechanics from KU in 1970, said the incident has reminded him of two shooting deaths in Lawrence in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a result of racial tensions and opposition to the Vietnam War.

“That was a pretty rough time,” he said comparing it to Monday’s event.

Senseless tragedy

A recent Virginia Tech graduate who now is teaching at KU said his friends compared Monday’s horrific events to Sept. 11, 2001.

KU graduate assistant Matthew Drake earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology in May from Virginia Tech, where he still has a lot of friends and acquaintances.

“Most of the people who are there were around Washington, D.C., when 9/11 took place, and that’s the biggest comparison that I have gotten from my friends.”

Drake was dumbfounded by the whole incident.

So was KU women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson, who coached at Virginia Tech for 14 years – seven of them as head coach.

“The senselessness of this is just hard to grasp,” Henrickson said. “Why on earth would anyone? You are talking about the country’s brightest kids that are at the peak of their life and innocently sitting in class. That makes me sad.”

Henrickson said she talked Monday morning with Beth Dunkenberger, women’s head basketball coach at Virginia Tech, while she was in lockdown at her office.

“She either had been crying or was crying when I talked to her,” Henrickson said. “She said no one could possibly imagine what this is like.”

Henrickson said Virginia Tech is comparable in size to KU and said it has one of the top 10 engineering schools in the country. She said the college is unfairly being dubbed “unsafe.”

“It is a safe place. I mean it is,” she said. “What’s scary is it is like Columbine and the Amish shooting in Pennsylvania. It can happen anywhere.”

An epidemic?

Bethany Harris, a KU staff research assistant in biology, agrees.

“It seems to be almost like a U.S. epidemic,” she said. “We just had the Amish school shootings. … It kind of seems like we have come to expect a few a year, and that seems ridiculous to me.”

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway issued a statement regarding the shootings.

“Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the Virginia Tech University family today,” he said. “The horrific tragedy that occurred this morning is so immense it is difficult to comprehend.”

If anyone would like to share their thoughts or condolences, KU Student Union Activities will have a banner to sign from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today on Wescoe Beach. The banner will be mailed to Virginia Tech. Ribbons also will be available to commemorate the lives that were lost.

Sharing in grief

The community can share thoughts and sympathies for those affected by the deadliest shooting rampage in modern-day U.S. history.

¢ 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, Wescoe Beach, Kansas University campus: A table will be set up by KU Student Union Activities for community members to sign a banner that will be mailed to Virginia Tech.

¢ 8 p.m. today, Canterbury House, 1116 La.: Episcopal Diocese of Kansas will put on a prayer vigil on behalf of those killed in the shooting and their families.