Suspect in Va. college shooting said to be angry about grade

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Police: Va. Student's Rifle Jammed

A community college student was upset about his grades when he walked into a classroom and fired two shots at his professor before his new rifle jammed, police said Wednesday.

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The gunman walked forward silently as the teacher yelled for everyone to run and call 911, witnesses said. About five feet from his teacher, he fired another shot, Gilbert said.

The teacher declined to comment. The Washington Post generally does not name crime victims.

"I just ran. I never once looked back. I didn't stop. I just ran," Gilbert said.

"He didn't say anything at all the entire time," Guevara said. "I just knew I had to get out of there."

Next door, students in a public speaking class heard the gunshots. Tyler Miller, 21, said he immediately moved to barricade the door with a filing cabinet.

"I was just in protective mode. I wanted to make sure nothing happened to anyone," he said.

Moments later, the doorknob turned, and someone banged on it, other witnesses said. No one saw who it was.

"You could see someone try to push to get in," said Christal Edwards, the public speaking teacher. "We don't know if he was trying to get in to harm us or trying to get in to hide."

Hamilton apparently was having trouble in the math class, police said. It is designed to hone basic skills and does not affect a grade average, said Colgan, who has been an adjunct professor at the campus.

"A lot of people are having a problem in that class. It's just, like, the class," Gilbert said.

Investigators searched the Hamiltons' four-bedroom home on Baneberry Circle and the car that Hamilton drove to campus, Colgan said. Officers were reviewing computer files, Colgan said, but had not found any indication that Hamilton had threatened the teacher earlier or shared his plans.

Sam Hill, provost of the Woodbridge campus, said officials had not had disciplinary problems with Hamilton.

Hamilton, who is listed in court records as 5-foot-5 and 115 pounds, graduated this year from Hylton High School in Woodbridge, where he ran track, three of his Hylton classmates said. He was "a pretty good student" and "very quiet" but otherwise unremarkable, said Gregory Alvarez, 21, at student at the community college.

Hamilton's track coach, Michael Thornton, said that Hamilton specialized in the two-mile and "was always respectful. A nice kid, very quiet." Hamilton sat out one track season, Thornton said, to "focus on some issues in his classwork," but he never lost sports eligibility. "When I heard he was accused in this, I couldn't believe it," Thornton said.

Colgan credited the college and police for being prepared for a shooting. After the attack, a campus officer alerted the county, and 911 calls went out from phones that had been installed in classrooms. Text alerts were sent to students and staff members, and flashing messages saying that the campus was on lockdown appeared in red on computers and TV screens on campus.

"If the gun hadn't jammed, we could have been looking at something much worse," Colgan said. "But preparedness would have helped then, too. If you can say something good came out of Virginia Tech," where a student killed 32 students and himself in 2007, "preparedness was it."

Staff writers Tom Jackman, Jonathan Mummolo, Josh White and Clarence Williams and staff researchers Lucy Shackelford and Meg Smith contributed to this report.