Kostayne Link, sophomore
Updated: 1:30 p.m.

Kostayne Link, an interdisciplinary studies major from Roanoke, was headed to a class in Norris Hall this morning when police officers told her and the students around her to start running -- fast. She headed for the nearest building, Newman Library, and said that she spent about two-and-a-half hours there, until officials evacuated students and staff. Link spoke with Roanoke.com's Hunter Wilson by phone. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

"I had just gotten out of a test, and I was walking out to my next class, and ... probably 15 cop cars passed us with their lights on, sirens. Two ambulances passed us and a big black SWAT team passed us, and they went up... toward the grass to Norris, and that's right where our classes were, and so we were just walking up there and everyone was just kind of standing around, and we didn't know [what to do]. We didn't want to walk toward the police and we didn't want to move -- we didn't want to go anywhere else, and so we kinda stood around, and everyone was just kind of looking around, and then two cops who were standing outside of McBryde [Hall] told everyone to start running, and we heard a couple gunshots and we started running, and we ran to the library, where we stayed for, like, two-and-a-half hours. ...

"Everyone was sprinting away. There were literally, like, 300, 400 students just running away from the site. They just told us all to get going, and we started running. ...

"There were staff members, librarians and such [inside theh library], and they were telling us to get in, that they were going to put the campus on lockdown, that we needed to get in and stay in as soon as we could, so we just ran into the library, and ... other people ran into [places] like the bookstore and other buildings and such, but the library was the closest one to us. There were probably, like, 10 staff members there, but I didn't see a policeman the whole time I was in the library, so it was actually kind of scary. ...

"I was on the first floor, and there are five floors. There were a good -- hundred people there. And a lot of people were just sitting around me. You know, it's a big campus, so you might not even know anybody, but I actually had two friends in there with me, and we were just talking about what had happened and how crazy it was. ... A lot of our friends live in [West Ambler Johnston Hall] and we heard that a girl got shot and killed in the stairwell, and that it was, like, 7:15 [a.m.]. A lot of people go to class at 7:45 [a.m.], so everyone was just talking about how they couldn't believe that they let students out at 7:45 to go to their 8 a.m. classes, because someone had just gotten shot and killed 30 minutes before. ... Everyone's kind of shocked and upset, you know. It's a very intense scene, actually. Everyone's talking about it, no one can get it off their minds, everyone wants to leave campus as soon as possible -- get home."

-- Hunter Wilson

Allyn Hughes, freshman
Updated: 12:49 p.m.

Allyn Hughes, 18, didn't hear the gunshots on Virginia Tech's campus this morning. A freshman architecture student from Roanoke, Hughes lives in Ambler Johnston West, the residence hall where the first shooting happened. She spoke with Roanoke.com's Hunter Wilson by phone from her brother Jake's off-campus apartment in Shenandoah Townhomes in Blacksburg. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

"I woke up and there were police outside in the hall, and I went to the bathroom and I asked the janitor what was going on, and she didn't know -- but she heard that two people were taken out on stretchers. Nothing had happened yet when I left to go to my first class, because I have an 8:00 -- they hadn't started locking us down or anything. And so I just walked to class, and my 8:00 is right across from Norris Hall. So there were gunshots outside the building, but my brother came and got me and I'm in his ... apartment now. ...

"When I left the dorm this morning, no one really knew what was going on until I walked outside and there were [about] 20 police cars in the quad. So I knew something was up, but no e-mails had been sent out yet. And when I got to class, people were talking, they were like, 'What happened?,' and no one knew. And then the e-mails started coming. The building that I was in overlooks the parking lot, and everyone was leaving. And that's when we knew that something was seriously happening."

-- Hunter Wilson

Jake Hughes, junior
Updated: 12:41 p.m.

Jake Hughes, 21, is a junior industrial/systems engineering student at Virginia Tech. He was in Johnson Student Center on Tech's campus during the shooting. Roanoke.com's Hunter Wilson talked with Hughes and his sister, Allyn, by phone from Jake Hughes' apartment in Shenandoah Townhomes. Here are some excerpts from that converstion:

"I had class until 9:40, and then I had to go to Johnson Student Center... and I was just sitting there, and then we heard gunfire, then a bunch of people ran in there, and they eventually evacuated us. ...

"I heard something loud outside, and I just didn't really think about anything at first. And then a bunch of people ran in and were like, 'We can't leave; there's gunshots out there,' and then we looked outside and there were probably like, 15 cops outside with their guns drawn. ...

"On the second and third floors, [Johnson Student Center is] basically a completely glass building, so they moved us all downstairs, and we were originally told that we had to stay down there, and then [about] three cops came in with [what looked like] assault rifles and told us that we had to leave and run towards the parking lot."

-- Hunter Wilson

Kimberly McKay, senior and Rebecca Slutzky, senior
Updated: 12:10 p.m.

It was a normal start to the day for Virginia Tech senior Kimberly McKay before she entered the elevator in Newman Library and heard that the building was on lockdown.

More than two dozen students are now stranded on the fourth floor of the library.

McKay, a double major in political science and history, has been stuck for more than an hour, keeping in touch with friends through instant messaging and cellphones.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” she said. “We’re just waiting to hear from the university.”

Isolated with no televisions, students are staying calm, according to McKay, working on papers and other assignments at a busy part of the semester.

“I just feel so bad for the victims and their families,” she said. “It is almost unreal.”

Rebecca Slutzky, a senior from Charlottesville, lives off campus at Rutherford Townhomes. She has heard numerous sirens and is concerned for the safety of her friends in nearby campus buildings.

“I’m a little freaked out,” she said. “I really don’t know what’s happened to Blacksburg ? this really is a safe area.”

Slutzky is also concerned about the negative publicity that shootings earlier this year and bomb threats are giving the university.

“I’m worried people wont come here because they think it’s dangerous, when really Tech is a safe place to be.”

Slutzky, like McKay, is keeping track of friends via cell phone and instant messaging.

-- Annie Johnson

Reports compiled by Hunter Wilson, Annie Johnson and Meg Martin