Governor declares day of mourning to celebrate lives of Virginia Tech victims

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Silence fell across the Virginia Tech campus at noon Friday and bells tolled in churches nationwide in memory of the 32 victims of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

On the Virginia Tech campus, much of the shock from Monday's killings had given way to grief.

Hundreds of somber students and area residents, most wearing the school's maroon and orange, stood with heads bowed at a memorial on the Drillfield in front of Norris Hall. Along with the bouquets and candles was a yellow sign covered in maroon and orange handprints, bearing the words "Never forgotten."

Churches around the country, from California to the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., planned vigils and prayer services. In Denver, as a cathedral's bells pealed, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and others bowed their heads in memory of the victims at both Virginia Tech and at Littleton's Columbine High School eight years earlier.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine declared Friday a statewide day of mourning for the victims as experts pored over the twisted writings of the shooter, student Cho Seung-Hui, and parents of the victims urged everyone else to focus on healing.

Peter Read, who lost his 19-year-old daughter Mary to the shootings, also urged television stations to stop broadcasting the hate-filled videos of Cho, the 23-year-old English major who carried out the killings, and several networks agreed to scale back.

"We want the world to know and celebrate our children's lives, and we believe that's the central element that brings hope in the midst of great tragedy," Read said. "These kids were the best that their generation has to offer."

As families mourned and began burying the victims, investigators worked on the evidence and looked into the warning signs in Cho's past, including two stalking complaints against him and a psychiatric hospital visit in which he was found to be a danger to himself.

Police filed a search warrant for a laptop and cell phone used by one of the first victims, Emily Hilscher, who was shot in a dormitory.

"The computer would be one way the suspect could have communicated with the victim," the warrant said, but it offered no basis for a belief that Cho might have been in contact with her.

Investigators are "making some really great progress" into determining how and why the shootings happened, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Friday. She said they hope to have something to tell the public next week.