Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho murdered 32 students and faculty and then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, on April 16, 2007. Memorials sprang up all over town and on campus for the 32 victims. Curiously, several had an extra memorial added to remember Cho who some feel was a victim of the system. Does a murder of innocent people deserve to be memorialized with his victims?

Most Virginia Tech students and family members of Cho’s victims were strongly against Cho being memorialized with or nearby his victims. Some, however, advocated for remembering Cho. Their justification being that his family and friends may have been just as aggrieved as those of his victims.

Most local memorials, including the now-official April 16 memorial located on the Drillfield, only recognized the 32 victims. Officials involved with the project were clear that their intention was to only have 32 people included in the memorial.

“The world was cheated — cheated out of the accomplishments that were sure to come from these extraordinary lives,” Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said.

“I won’t be able to walk my daughter down the aisle at her wedding. I won’t be able to bounce her children on my knee,” said Bryan Cloyd, whose daughter Austin was killed by Cho.

“Our memorial was always for the victims. Cho was never classified as a victim of the shooting,” said Tom Tillar, vice president of the alumni association and the chair of the memorial’s committee. “It would be a stretch to say he was a victim of his own shooting.”

“The memorial is for Cho’s 32 victims,” said Larry Hincker, university spokesman. Hincker added there were no plans to reach out to Cho’s family for any April 16 memorial.

The Blacksburg Baptist Church, however, included a small sign for Cho’s family along with the 32 flag memorial that it had displayed in memory of the Virginia Tech massacre. “Cho’s family could not help the choices that he made. We felt it was important to be compassionate to Cho’s family,” said Thomas McDearis, senior pastor at Blacksburg Baptist Church.

When 32 stones were placed in an arc around the Drillfield in the days following the shootings, an additional stone representing Cho was repeatedly added and removed. “If we are truly the tight-knit community that we represent ourselves as, we should have care and concern for ALL individuals in our community. You don’t get to pick who’s in your family … just as I don’t believe you can not choose the members of our Virginia Tech family … no matter what he did,” wrote Katelynn Johnson, in a letter to the Collegiate Times. As a student at that time she admitted having placed an extra stone at the makeshift in memory of Cho’s death. 

Although this is a very debatable issue, CemeterySpot has taken the position that it would not be appropriate to honor a murderer along with his or her victims. We grieve for Cho’s family and wish them comfort and respite through the loss of their son. We do not believe that a public memorial near or with his victims is appropriate. Suppose someone was to say that we should remember the terrorists involved in 9-11 because they were victims of radical ideological brainwashing so they should be included in a memorial along with their innocent victims. Suppose we were to say that serial killers were victims of society or some type of abusive manipulation and deserved to be remembered as victims along with the innocent people they killed. Let’s call this what it really is. These people were murderers. They took innocent lives. The broke all rules of decency and robbed their victims, family, friends and the world of joyous years with their victims. We make no apologies for our sentiment and believe that the perpetrators of murder deserve a decent final arrangement but they do not deserve their 15 minutes of fame for carrying out atrocities.