A BLOODY SCENE

Chris Eckel, a sophomore from King George, was walking across the drill field when he heard gun shots coming from Norris Hall.

"I saw a girl coming out. She was shot. There was a lot of blood on her. Another guy came out, he'd been shot."

He and his roommate then ran back to their dorm. "It was pretty traumatic. I had never seen so many people covered in blood be fore."

A BIRDS-EYE VIEW

Justin Murphy, a junior from King George, was leaving McBride Hall near Norris, when police swarmed the area. "There were gun shots, so everyone started running," Murphy said.

He made it back to his dorm, where he had a clear view of Norris. With binoculars, he could see wounded being carried out.

"It was kind of surreal after the incident earlier in the year and multiple bomb threats in the last few weeks."

JUMPING TO SAFETY

Sophomore Patrick Bales, a Stafford High graduate, said the first shooting happened just two floors above his dorm room. He said two residents panicked and jumped from a 7th-floor window.

"One person was killed right here in my building," he wrote in an e–mail to his father, Jack Bales. "There are a ton of sirens and cops EVERYWHERE."

"It seems like such a safe place to me," he said in an interview later. "This could never happen here."

HEARING GUNSHOTS

Jenna Coker, a sophomore from Stafford County, was about to cross the drill field near Norris when she saw police cars and heard gunshots. "Everyone started running and yelling," she said.

Workers opened the doors to the gym near by and the students ran inside, she said. "Everyone is in disbelief and shock," she said.

A JOB TO DO

Amie Steele, a junior from Stafford and editor of the student newspaper, was just getting up when a reporter called her about the dorm shooting.

She was assigning reporters to the story when she learned that police had handcuffed a staff photographer and confiscated his camera before releasing him.

The paper's news room is in the student center, which had been closed. But she made it to an off-campus office to supervise coverage. Steele later was interviewed on CNN.

WONDERING WHY

Alicia Beck, a North Stafford High School graduate, spotted three SWAT cars and a news crew flying by then heard a voice on a loudspeaker urging students to take refuge inside and stay away from the windows.

"What possesses somebody to go into a classroom and start shooting people?" she asked.

A CLOSE CALL

Russell Culberson, a freshman from Fredericksburg, lives next door to the dorm where the first shooting occurred. He had an 11 a.m. class that would have been in the same hallway of Norris where the second shooting occurred.

"It was eerie. We just sat in front of the TV and the body count kept piling up. First it was one, then eight, then 17 We just couldn't leave the TV."