Ross Truett Ashley, the gunman from the most recent Virginia Tech shootings, was very normal, according to friends who cannot recall any warning signs that Ashley was on the brink of such a meltdown. Ashley stole a car at gunpoint from his landlord's office, shot Officer Deriek W. Crouse during a routine traffic stop, and then shot himself in a parking lot. .
The campus locked down on December 8th as memories from the 2007 rampage that left 33 people dead flooded back. Crouse had a car stopped when Ashley approached his car and shot him before fleeing. A sheriff's deputy saw a suspicious man in a parking lot just 30 minute after the first shooting, and then he found the man dead in the parking lot just a few minutes later. Ashley was found with a backpack full of clothes that matched those worn by the shooter caught on Crouse's patrol car's camera. Ashley switched clothes before arriving at the second parking lot. The campus remained on lockdown for much of the day because police did not know if the second body was that of the shooter's (Rothacker).
According to Nic Robinson, a 21-year-old history major at Radford University who was also a friend of Ashley's said, "Ross wasn't that kind of person. He was friendly, nice. Obviously, he had his bad days, but it was the same as anyone else having those days" (USA Today).
Friends wonder whether his recent breakup with his girlfriend this past summer set him over the edge. His girlfriend says she never saw him too upset about the breakup but that there were family issues that Ashley tried to keep under wraps. "We all have our family problems, so the way that he was saying it just made it kind of seem like,.