She said the tower shooting is "a deep wound in Austin history and every time it comes up it re-opens a lot of pain." Before he came to campus, he shot and killed his mother and wife.ĭuring her research into the shooting, Neuberger said she learned how "devastating" these actions are for a community. He brought weapons, ammunition and canned food to the Tower's observation deck and fired on people below for over 96 minutes. Whitman, 25, was a former sharpshooter in the Marines and was a student at UT when he planned his rampage. I think a lot of people become familiar with it as a result of that and because Charles Whitman symbolizes people’s idea of a mass shooter.” "I was a little girl growing up in New York and I remember watching something about it on the news that night," said Joan Neuberger, a history professor at UT-Austin who studied the shooting ahead of the 50th anniversary last year. And now, with yet another tragedy, the same questions are being asked. What would drive a person to such murderous lengths? Could anything prevent it? Why here? People asked how such a thing could happen. Watch Video: Why AR-15-style rifles are so common in mass shootingsĪUSTIN - When Charles Whitman climbed the stairs to the top of the tower on the University of Texas at Austin campus and took aim at people walking to classes, it was the first event of its time in modern history.įourteen people were killed and 30 others were injured.
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