Chinese student at Virginia Tech arrested for allegedly having an assault rifle
The student also tried to buy 5,000 rounds of ammunition, purchased an old police car, and researched bulletproof vests
A Chinese student at Virginia Tech was arrested on Monday for allegedly illegally possessing an assault rifle.
19-year-old Zhao Yunsong was a freshmen at the university in Blacksburg, Virginia. Last month, police were alerted that Zhao had purchased an AR-15 rifle and a 30 round magazine, according to local news reports.
While neither of these illegal is on its own in the US, putting them together would give Zhao an assault weapon — which student visa holders are not allowed to possess.
On January 26th, Zhao took his rifle out of the university gun locker and went to a nearby shooting range. He was tailed there by a dective who said that he watched Zhao fire a .223 caliber weapon with a 30 round magazine, however, this allegation is under dispute, the local Roanoke Times reports:
Defense attorney Jason Wolfrey of Christiansburg said that Zhao never used his rifle with the 30-round magazine. Zhao did own two 30-round magazines, but he traded them for a sling for his firearm, Wolfrey said.
When Zhao checked out his gun from the student gun lockers at the Virginia Tech Police Department and went to a firing range in the national forest with a friend, he had a legal 20-round magazine, Wolfrey said.
Wolfrey offered pictures of the gun with a 20-round magazine, saying this was what Zhao had used. A video from the firing range that shows the smaller magazine may eventually be offered as evidence as well, Wolfrey said.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Erin Little replied that the Blacksburg police detective who watched the student at the firing range was positive that he had seen a 30-round magazine on the rifle.
Meanwhile, police have not found a 30-round magazine among Zhao’s possessions and have not confiscated anything from Zhao’s dorm room or vehicles, notes his defense attorney Wolfrey, who argues that: “What he’s accused of comes down to whether he had a 30-round magazine or a 20-round magazine.”
According to the arrest warrant, Zhao was also attempting to purchase 5,000 rounds of ammo, was researching bulletproof vests, and had already bought a former law-enforcement vehicle, which still bears some police markings, and was planning to outfit it with a special push bar.
Because of the charge against him, Zhao has already been expelled from Virginia Tech where he studied for only six months. On Thursday, a Montgomery County judge refused to grant bond for Zhao, worrying that if he got out of jail he would deported and not face trail in the commonwealth on the gun charge — with his student visa being revoked by Virginia Tech.
While Zhao was arrested amid social media rumors that someone was stockpiling weapons near the university campus, police said that Zhao’s arrest was unrelated to these rumors, but instead followed weeks of investigation. The university also highlighted that: “At no time during this investigation did police believe there was any threat to our community, nor is there one now.”
Local news station WDBJ7 quotes a fellow Virgina Tech freshman from Brazil as saying he was surprised about the charges against Zhao.
“He seemed like a normal guy, you know what I mean? Just someone trying to make friends and trying to blend in like everyone else,” the student said.
“I was just shocked because he doesn’t seem like the guy that would do it, not at all. So coming from a different country, you really see how people can be different inside than they are outside.”
At the bond hearing, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Erin Little had asked the judge to keep Zhao behind bars, charging that in his phone calls from jail he had said that: “he thinks it’s wonderful he’s famous in China and he looks forward to a victorious return to China.”
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 1st.
Back in 2007, a Virginia Tech student went on a shooting rampage that killed 32 people, the second-deadliest school shooting in US history. In the immediate aftermath of that tragic event, some media outlets reported falsely that the shooter was a Chinese student.
