Oakland shooting: mugshot of gunman released

He had previously lived in Springfield, Virginia, less than 20 miles from
Centreville, the home town of Seung-Hui Cho, the South Korean who killed 32
people in the Virginia Tech school massacre on April 16, 2007.

In March last year Goh attended a memorial service in Centreville for his
brother, US Army Sergeant Su Wan Ko, 31, who died in a road accident. He
also has a surviving brother in the town, which has a large Korean
population. It was unclear whether Goh and Cho ever knew each other.

Grace Eunhae Kim (lt) and Lydia Sim have been named as victims

Before moving to California, Goh had run up tax debts of more than $23,000 in
Virginia and was evicted from an apartment. His brother’s death was said to
have affected him badly and his mother Oak Chul Kim died in Seoul last year.

Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said: “The suspect was upset with the
administration at the school. He was also upset that students in the past,
when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of
that nature.

“They disrespected him, laughed at him. They made fun of his lack of
English speaking skills. It made him feel isolated compared to the other
students. He was having, we believe, some behavioural problems at the
school. This was a very chaotic, calculated and determined gentleman that
came there with a very specific intent to kill people.”

The official Goh was looking for was not at the college on Monday when Goh
arrived so he went into a class and began “systematically and randomly
shooting victims,” police said.

About 35 people were at the school and the death toll could have been much
higher had he been able to get into another classroom.

Student Dechen Yangdon, 27, was inside the second classroom with eight other
students. She locked the door and turned out the lights when she heard shots
fired at the front desk.

She said: “I heard our receptionist screaming ‘Jesus Christ, Jesus
Christ, he’s got a gun.’ After that, she just kept calling ‘Help, help,
help!’ But we were locked inside. We couldn’t help her.”

Mrs Yangdon said Goh attempted to kick in the door and fired four shots
through a glass pane before giving up. She and her classmates then cowered
under desks for 10 minutes before a SWAT team arrived.

Initially they refused to open the door. She said: “We weren’t sure if it
was really the police or the guy who just shot people.”

Paul Singh, 20, said his sister Dawinder Kaur, 19, a nursing student, was shot
in the arm. Mr Singh said: “He grabbed a lady and brought her in and
said, ‘Everybody get against the board.’ My sister called me, running,
saying, ‘I’ve been shot.’ She was crying, she was bleeding.”

One former student said Goh had “seemed kind of weird and that he wasn’t
all there, and people would pick on him.”

Witnesses said that, as well as shooting people at close range in the head and
chest, Goh also sprayed the room with bullets, firing up to 30 times with a
.45 caliber handgun.

Six of the dead were women and the victims were included students from Korea,
Nigeria and Nepal. They ranged in age from 21 to 40. Among the dead were
Lydia Sim, 21, and Kathleen Pingman, 24.

The man who died was Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38. Goh took his car and drove
five miles before walking into a grocery store and admitting he had killed
people. He also phoned his father who called police. A police spokesman said
Goh was “not particularly remorseful.”

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