As we mentioned yesterday, a female student was killed at a cafe on the Virginia Tech campus on Wednesday night.
Chinese grad student Haiyan Zhu was, thankfully detained by police before he could harm anyone else. He’s been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail.
Now, more of the tragic details from the fatal stabbing have been released.
It turns out Zhu decapitated the student, a Chinese woman from Vermont getting her graduate degree at Virginia Tech.
The student was 22 year old Xin Yang from Beijing.
University officials stated that the students emergency contact records suggest that Yang and Zhu, who’s from Ningbo, China, knew each other.
Yang had arrived at Virginia Tech recently in early January to begin her studies in accounting. As for Zhu, he was a PhD graduate student in agriculture and applied economics.
Virginia Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski confirmed Yang had been decapitated and added, “There were seven witnesses in the cafe. There had been no argument, no shouting. This is horrible and tragic. Especially when we know that Virginia Tech has got its share of hardship and horror.”
He’s referring to the Virginia Tech Massacre back in 2007 when Cho Seung-Hui, a 23 year VT student from South Korea, shot 32 of his classmates and teachers before killing himself.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said ├óΓé¼┼ôThe tragic attack on campus this week has no doubt revived terrible memories for countless members of the Hokie family.”
Even without guns, as we’ve seen, violence can still rear its ugly head.