Va. Tech Shooter Denied Homicidal Thoughts

By the Associated Press

Posted Aug 19, 2009 2:45 PM CDT

(AP) – Recently discovered records show the Virginia Tech gunman denied homicidal thoughts to a school counselor nearly a year and half before the worst mass shootings in modern US history. Seung-Hui Cho denied the thoughts in a session with counselor Sherry Lynch Conrad on Dec. 14, 2005. On April 16, 2007, Cho killed 32 students and faculty members on campus and took his own life.

Cho met with Conrad after he was detained in a mental hospital overnight because he had expressed thoughts of suicide. "He denies suicidal and/or homicidal thoughts. Said the comment he made was a joke. Says he has no reason to harm self and would never do it," Conrad wrote. The counselor wrote that she gave Cho emergency contact numbers and encouraged him to return, but he didn't make an appointment.

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Law enforcement officers take cover behind a tree during the investigation of a shooting at the Virginia Tech campus. (AP Photo)

Cho Seung-Hui. (AP Photo)

Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui. (AP Photo)

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My mother, father and I all agree that it is the correct thing to do to release the newly discovered medical records of my brother. - Sun Cho, in a letter authorizing the release

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