He was a 23-year-old loner, with roots half a world away in South Korea, who hated "rich kids" and will now go down in US history as a notorious killer.
Cho Seung-Hui moved to the United States when he was just 8, but 15 years later his name is set to be permanently etched on the tragic roll call of US school and campus killings.
"You caused me to do this," he wrote in the several-page-long note that he left in his dorm room, ABC News reported, before going on a murderous rampage killing at least 30 people.
The note railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus, the Chicago Tribune reported.
But it shed little light on the motives behind his killing spree during which he stalked classrooms, firing on students and professors, before turning his gun on himself. By midday yesterday, 33 people lay dead on the campus.
Authorities were today trying to piece together a crime that sent shockwaves across America and the world.
Cho also died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing unidentified sources.
Police suspect Cho, who was studying English at Virginia Tech, first killed two people at a campus dormitory.
Then, according to media reports, he leisurely returned to his own dorm to write a rambling invective, re-arm and then storm the classroom building.
Cho was among the 2,000 foreigners from more than 110 countries attending the 26,000-student university in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Police said Cho was in his senior year and lived on campus at the Harper Hall dormitory, which houses 249 residents.
Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behaviour, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women, the Chicago Tribune said, citing an unnamed investigative source.
Investigators believe Cho at some point had been taking medication for depression, the daily said.
He was a legal US immigrant whose residence was established in Centreville, Virginia, outside Washington, police said. According to US and South Korean media, Cho moved to America in 1992.
The Tribune said his family runs a dry cleaning business while his sister graduated from the elite Princeton University.
Cho "was very quiet, always by himself," neighbour Abdul Shash was quoted as saying in the Tribune. He spent a lot of his free time playing basketball, and would not respond if someone greeted him, Shash said.
Police released little more official information about Cho and university officials had trouble tracking down details about him.
"He was a loner," said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.
The lone gunman is the most common profile for a mass murderer, someone who is "isolated, reclusive and antisocial" said Alan Langlieb, director of workplace psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.
"It's not exactly clear what snaps," he said. "Some of it is premeditated, but a person could wake up that day and decide I'm going to create social havoc."
Whatever Cho's motivations were, the tragedy has reverberated around the world, all the way to South Korea, whose government expressed "indescribable surprise and shock" after Cho was identified.
"We convey deep condolences to the victims and their bereaved families and the (US) people," said Cho Byung-Jae, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American affairs bureau.
"We have established safety measures for ethnic Koreans in the US in case of contingencies and are in close consultations with all of our diplomatic missions and Korean communities in the US to implement the measures."
He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to the possibility of reprisal attacks against Korean communities in the United States.
Police released little more official information about Cho and university officials had trouble tracking down details about him.
"He was a loner," said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations.
The lone gunman is the most common profile for a mass murderer, someone who is "isolated, reclusive and antisocial" said Alan Langlieb, director of workplace psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University.
"It's not exactly clear what snaps," he said. "Some of it is premeditated, but a person could wake up that day and decide I'm going to create social havoc."
Whatever Cho's motivations were, the tragedy has reverberated around the world, all the way to South Korea, whose government expressed "indescribable surprise and shock" after Cho was identified.
"We convey deep condolences to the victims and their bereaved families and the (US) people," said Cho Byung-Jae, head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American affairs bureau.
"We have established safety measures for ethnic Koreans in the US in case of contingencies and are in close consultations with all of our diplomatic missions and Korean communities in the US to implement the measures."
He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to the possibility of reprisal attacks against Korean communities in the United States.
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