Blacksburg

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The man who authorities say killed a Virginia Tech police officer was described as a typical college student in many ways, making it difficult to understand why he would commit an armed robbery and then, apparently at random, target the patrolman before killing himself.

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The Virginia Tech police officer who was shot dead in his parked cruiser was a trained firearms and defense instructor with a specialty in crisis intervention. His death leaves investigators puzzling over how and why a gunman walked up to the patrol car during a traffic stop, killed the officer and wound up dead himself in a nearby parking lot.

After the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, colleges and universities around the United States improved their emergency notification systems and worked to speed up the reaction time of campus police to a potential shooter on campus, according to Christopher Blake, associate director of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.