T&T's Cleopatra Borel-Brown safe after shooting on university campus
Kwame Laurence klaurence@trinidadexpress.com
Tuesday, April 17th 2007
Fortunately, Cleopatra Borel-Brown arrived at the Virginia Tech University campus after yesterday's shooting rampage that left at least 33 people dead.
The Trinidad and Tobago athlete is employed as an assistant for the Virginia Tech track and field team. Her office is located across the street from the dormitory where two people were killed in what turned out to be the first of two shootings.
Borel-Brown, a finalist in the women's shot put at the 2004 Athens Olympics, told the Express, yesterday that she was oblivious to the massacre until she arrived at the campus for a training session, early yesterday.
"I went from my house to the track, reaching there about 30 minutes after the second shooting. I met a number of police officers with large weapons, and their cars were parked in the middle of the road. They signalled to me to go back. They were not giving any explanations, but since they had large guns I went. At the time, they apparently were not sure if two gunmen were involved."
When Borel-Brown found out the reason for the heavy police presence at the Virginia Tech campus, she made a number of phone calls.
"I tried to contact the kids on the team, and other individuals. So far, everyone I know is okay."
She added, "The kids affected didn't do anything to deserve this. I'm shocked and really saddened for the parents. It reminds me that you can't take anything for granted, you can't take any day for granted. I'm going to try to focus and do my best."
There are also about 10 Trinidadians attending the university.
One of them, who serves on the Executive of the Caribbean Students Organisation (CSO) at the university, and who requested anonymity, said, "We have been in communication with each other and to my knowledge, I am unaware of anyone from the Caribbean who has been affected.
"People are naturally quite shocked about the incident. This school is located in the mountains in a very small town in Virginia, so you would hardly hear any big stories coming from here."
Officials at the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were unaware of the shootings when contacted yesterday to determine whether any Trinidadian students were involved.
At the US Embassy in Port of Spain, officials were unable to say if any Trinidadian citizens were involved, as the identities of the casualties had not yet been released.
