Virginia Tech witness/Ohio State University security

Apr 16, 6:18 PM EDT

Ohio students escape shooting spree in dorm

One Ohio student was sleeping in her dorm at Virginia Tech when Monday's shooting spree started on the floor above. Another was leaving the dorm for class. Both were a little rattled, but unharmed.

Freshman Ashlee Goodwin, of Granville, was awakened when a friend called her to tell her about the shooting.

"I was going to get up early this morning and go for a jog, and thank goodness I was lazy," Goodwin told The (Newark) Advocate.

Goodwin said she was shaken by the shooting.

"That freaked me out; I slept through a gunshot," she said.

Goodwin said that, following the shooting, she and fellow dorm residents were told to stay in their rooms unless they needed to use the bathroom.

"All today, I'm afraid to walk down the hall," Goodwin said.

Freshman Courtney Campbell, also of Granville, left the dorm for an 8 a.m. class. She said she didn't hear anything unusual, but did see what she now believes were some paramedics. However, she said things seemed pretty normal as she walked to class.

A gunman opened fire in the dorm about 7:15 a.m. and two hours later in a classroom across campus, killing 32 people and himself.

"It makes me a little bit uneasy, but it doesn't make me paranoid," Campbell said in a telephone interview from West Ambler Johnston Hall.

After Campbell arrived at her class, she and some fellow students drove to nearby Christiansburg to pick up some school supplies. That's when she began hearing reports of the shootings.

Campbell returned to her dorm in the afternoon and talked with fellow students there, who were being flooded with calls from family and friends.

"We're all just sitting in the room. The phone calls just keep coming in. It's going haywire," she said. "My roommate - she's a little bit upset. She knows a few people who were injured."

Student Travis Nebel, whose parents live in the Columbus suburb of Powell and whose father once taught at Virginia Tech, said he was off-campus when the second series of shootings occurred.

"This has really shaken me up, and I'm sure everyone else," Nebel said. "It seems almost surreal, watching it on TV. ... It's like your brain doesn't pick it up, or maybe I don't want to pick it up yet."

Campbell said she has never felt unsafe on the campus.

"It's unfair that their (Virginia Tech's name) would be tainted with this," she said. "The students here are all wonderful."

Campbell said she knows a few students who have gone home.

"I'm planning on staying here," she said. "If school is canceled later in the week, I'll go home with my roommate."

Nebel's father, Ray Nebel, found to his immense relief Monday that his two sons who attend the school where not victims of the shooting rampage on campus.

He said he immediately called 19-year-old Travis his youngest son, a freshman who shares an apartment with his older brother, Ryan, 23.

"They were both there and were OK," said Nebel.

He said the school was a big part of the community of about 30,000 or so.
"It's a very close campus and very much a college town," he said. "It just goes to show that if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. It seems to have been a random act of violence and nothing associated with the school itself."

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Campus Security Examined After Shootings

Apr 16 2007 6:33PM

COLUMBUS, Ohio The shock of what happened 300 miles away from Columbus on Monday resonates on college campuses that work every day to secure their students.

Students on the Ohio State campus said what happened in Virginia could just as easily happen in Columbus. Students told 10TV the university is all-access, and maybe too open.

"I could absolutely see how somebody could bring a couple of guns into class and nobody even notice," said Ohio State engineering student Stefan Kalbi.

Ohio State dormitories are restricted access and an ID is needed to get any further than the front door. However, OSU police agreed that it is an open university and little can be done to prevent an attack.

"So our planning is just to respond to an incident such as this with the ultimate goal to reduce loss of life," said OSU police Assistant Chief Rick Amweg.

The university's critical incident plan and comprehensive emergency management plan are secret for security reasons, but spelled out in detail for police and emergency responders.

The OSU Police Critical Response Team routinely trains with Columbus SWAT officers so officers are ready to execute what OSU calls 'quick action deployment plans'.

Those plans do little to comfort students like Kalbli, who decided to stay home from class.

"It kind of rattles you, Kalbi said. You're not in a bubble. Anything could happen."

Ohio State police said the campus has the advantage of being located in an urban setting, where Columbus police, the Ohio Highway patrol, and the Franklin County Sheriff's office are just a phone call away.

Stay with 10TV News and 10TV.com for continuing coverage

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