An image that NBC News say they received from Cho Seung-Hui, the shooter in the Virginia Tech shootings, is seen as it is aired on the NBC Nightly News, yesterday. The gunman who went on a deadly rampageat Virginia Tech university this week paused between shootings to mail a rambling account of grievances, photos and videos to NBC, the network said. - Reuters

BLACKSBURG, Va. (Reuters):

The gunman who went on a deadly rampage at Virginia Tech university this week paused between campus shootings to mail a rambling manifesto of grievances to NBC, the U.S. network said yesterday.

Fronting its MSNBC news website was a photo of the grim-faced shooter brandishing the two handguns he used on Monday in the bloodiest shooting spree in modern U.S. history. The network said it had turned over the material to the FBI.

NBC News President Steve Capus was quoted as saying the package, received earlier on Wednesday, contained material that was "disturbing, very disturbing - very angry, profanity-laced."

Vague references

He said it did not include any images of the shootings themselves but did include "vague references," including "things like 'this didn't have to happen.'"

"This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation," said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police. But he gave no details on the material except to say it included writings, photos and a video.

The new details added to an already chilling portrait of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student from South Korea, resident in the United States since 1992, who massacred 32 people and then took his own life on the sprawling rural campus in southwestern Virginia.

In a bizarre new twist, NBC said the package appeared to have been sent some time between Cho's killing of two people in a dormitory and his attack two hours later on a classroom building where he cut down 30 more people.

NBC officials would not disclose the contents of the material pending the FBI's review, except to say it was "disturbing."

The dispatch of the package to NBC was confirmed by Flaherty, who told reporters: "Earlier today NBC News in New York received correspondence that we believe was from Cho."

The disclosure followed word from university police that Cho had been accused of stalking female students and was taken to a psychiatric hospital in 2005 because of worries he was suicidal.

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