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Cambodian Virginia Tech Student Plans to Stay, Despite Shooting


Jimmy Chan, a 21-year-old Cambodian student at Virginia Tech, said this week that despite the recent murders there, he isn't going anywhere.

He was preparing to go to school on April 16, the third-year undergraduate said in a telephone interview from his home in Blacksburg, Virginia, when his sister, who works at the university called him.

Two people had been killed, he said, but he wasn't worried. That might have been normal, he said.

It was the beginning of the worst university killing in US history, but at first, Chan said, it seemed small. As he watched the story unfold on television, shock set it. He didn't think one person could kill so many.

In the end, 31 people were killed, along with the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho.

The school is now in mourning, but Chan said he plans to continue classes. He feels strange at times, he said, being Asian at the University, wearing his favorite black shirt. People said Cho wore black shirts and was withdrawn. But Chan said he tries not to worry about that.

Besides, he said, he likes the campus.

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