In the days and weeks leading up to the massacre of 32 students and faculty members, Cho changed his personality from passive to active. On the morning of the shootings, which the agents say were motivated by a vendetta against society, he tried to further erase his identity by deleting his Hotmail account from his computer. In addition, he removed the hard drive, and investigators have not been able to find it, the agents say.

When police found Cho’s body inside a Norris Hall classroom, the words “Ax Ishmael” were scrawled in red on his left arm, and notes and tapes he left also referenced them.

Investigators think “Ax Ishmael” is based on the biblical figure Ishmael, the son of Hagar, a maidservant to Sarah, and the prophet Abraham. Ishmael lived as an outcast, and his brother Isaac was favoured. Writings that Cho left in his dorm room, sent to the Virginia Tech English Department and mailed to NBC reveal twisted references to religion as part of his identity.

This working theory is part of the preliminary findings of an enormous law enforcement investigation. Over the past two months, state police and federal agents have documented and tracked more than 700 leads and conducted thousands of interviews. They do not think Cho targeted anyone individually. Police have also looked for Cho’s hard drive, including a search of the Virginia Tech duck pond, where someone saw Cho early on the morning of the shootings.

Nearly 400 state troopers and investigators, with agents from the ATF and FBI, have worked on the case.

Dubbed Operation Prevail, the investigation has explored every aspect of Cho’s life, including mental health issues and his school records. Authorities have tracked down his credit card purchases of guns and ammunition and any possible connections to his victims. Armed with subpoenas, they painstakingly examined all of the computer accounts of Cho and his victims.

ATF agents have assembled a sketch of Cho that they say fits the “Collector of Injustice” profile. “It is always someone else’s fault, and the world is out to get them,” Bart McEntire, the resident agent in charge of the ATF’s Roanoke office, said in describing people who fit the profile. Eventually, the person’s compilation of wrongs becomes overloaded, and he lashes out violently to right them and get even with those who he believes have caused him misfortune and ridicule.

Cho, 23, of Centreville, Virginia, whose family was religious and had sought help for him from a Woodbridge church, repeatedly made religious references. He said that he had been “crucified” and that, as with Jesus, his actions would set people free. He called himself a “martyr” who would “sacrifice” his life. He wrote that he would go down in history as the “Jesus Christ of the Weak and Defenceless”. He thought his actions would inspire others to fight back and get even.

Among the writings, Cho included three pictures of himself, which investigators think show how his self-image progressed. In the first picture, he is smiling. In the next, his arms are outstretched like Jesus’s on the cross. And in the third, his arms are crossed as if he is lying dead in a coffin, agents said.

As part of his physical transformation, investigators have said, he methodically bought weapons and clothes for his killing spree. They have documented his purchases in detail, from the cargo pants he wore in Norris Hall to the hundreds of rounds of ammunition he carried and his visits to a nearby firing range. When he was ready, he wrote: “I am Ax Ishmael.”

Police have not discovered why he uses the word “Ax”, but his writings suggest he identified with Ishmael. According to some religious scholars, Ishmael held his brothers in contempt, despised the rituals of society and considered himself to be free of social control.
Sari Horwitz(The Washington Post)