Undated photo released April 2007 by the Virginia State Police shows Cho Seung-Hui, the 23-year-old student from South Korea who carried out the deadliest school shooting in US history at Virginia Tech University

More than two years after 23 people were killed in the worst campus shooting in US history, Virginia Tech University released the mental health records of the troubled student gunman.

Cho’s psychiatric records had been missing from the university counseling center for years, but were recently found in the personal files of Robert Miller, the former center director.

Miller, who said he inadvertently removed the material when he moved to a different job in 2006, handed the documents to authorities. Cho’s family agreed to let the university publish the records.

The information pertains to two telephone interviews Cho had with the university’s counseling center before spending the night at a psychiatric hospital, and a visit to the counseling center after his release, all in November and December 2005. He did not return for further counseling, as was recommended.

Cho was briefly hospitalized after he told a roommate that he had blades in his room, and was thinking of killing himself after a female student reported him to campus police for harassment.

Cho, however, told the university counselors that it was all a misunderstanding.

“The patient denies suicidal ideation, however he is non-verbal and did not discuss feelings,” read the counseling center report.

According to the report, Cho, who was in his third year studying English with the goal of becoming a creative writer, denied using alcohol or tobacco, denied having any hobbies, and aside from occasional visits to the gym he “otherwise does not discuss what he does for fun.”

Cho was “very resistant to discussing how he feels and if he has any symptoms of depression or mood changes,” the report read.

In a written questionnaire, Cho acknowledges that he had been depressed for the previous two years over his “social interactions,” and that he “does not have any relationships.”

He also said that he “always” has panic and anxiety episodes “when having to talk to people.”

Counselors prescribed some anti-anxiety medicine and urged him to return.

Source: AFP