Reid Hall alums cover Va. Tech tragedy

At least two dozen Washington and Lee journalism alumni were involved in coverage of the tragic shooting deaths of 33 people at Virginia Tech April 16, and their aftermath.

The journalists involved in the coverage include six who were on site during or shortly after a rampage by Cho Seung-Hui  in which Cho shot 27 other students, five faculty members and himself to death. Twenty-five other people were wounded. Greg Esposito ’00, who covers Virginia Tech for The Roanoke Times, was on campus when most of the shootings occurred.

Journalists who reported from Tech soon after the tragedy include Marc Santora ’97 of The New York Times, Sreya Banerjee ’06 of Reuters, Richard Lesko ’00 of WTVR Channel 6, the CBS affiliate in Richmond, and Joe Dashiell '80 and Ira Quillen '81of WDBJ Channel 7 in Roanoke.    

At least four more journalism alumni worked on the story from three newsrooms in Roanoke. They are: Juliet Bickford ’00 and Ryan Hale ’06, WSLS Channel 10; David Seidel ’97, WDBJ Channel 7; and Kathy Lu ’97,  The Roanoke Times.

In addition, two journalism graduates now affiliated with media at Virginia Tech  provided information to visiting journalists. They are Paul Lancaster ’74 and Ricky Lovegrove ’77.

Other journalism alumni involved in the coverage work for Bloomberg News, CNBC, CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Fox News, The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and network television and radio affiliates in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C