This video frame grab image taken from a video aired by NBC News on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 shows Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui. The video was part of a package allegedly mailed to the network on Monday, April 16 between Cho's first and second shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. [AP/NBC]

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC News containing pictures of him brandishing weapons and video of him delivering a diatribe about getting even with rich people.

Special coverage: US School Shooting Related Video: 33 dead in US campus shooting Related readings:  US reports on 'Chinese killer' slammed The Foreign Ministry yesterday criticized some US media for "irresponsible reports" claiming that the killer in the Virginia Tech shootings was Chinese.  Family of shooter struggled in S.Korea  Va. Tech gunman was from S.Korea   China strongly condemns Virginia shooting  Gunman kills 32 in US campus shooting  Bush: Shootings affect all students Shooting story spreads quickly on TV

"This may be a very new, critical component of this investigation. We're in the process right now of attempting to analyze and evaluate its worth," said Col. Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia State Police. He gave no details on the material, which NBC said it received in Wednesday morning's mail.

NBC said that a time stamp on the package indicated the material was mailed in the two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire in a high-rise dormitory and the second fusillade, at a classroom building. Thirty-three people died in the rampage, including the gunman, 23-year-old student Cho Seung-Hui, who committed suicide.

The package included a manifesto that "rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even," according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case.

MSNBC said the package included a CD-ROM on which Cho read his manifesto.

Late Wednesday, MSNBC showed a photo from the package of Cho glaring at the camera, his arms outstretched with a gun in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves and a backwards, black baseball cap. "NBC Nightly News" planned to show some of the material Wednesday night.

NBC News President Steve Capus said the network promptly turned the material over to the

FBI in New York.

Chinese President sends condolence: President Hu Jintao yesterday extended his condolences to US President George W. Bush over Monday's mass shooting at a university in the state of Virginia. In a message to Bush, Hu said he was shocked to learn about the tragedy. "At this sorrowful moment, on behalf of the Chinese government and the people, I would like to express deep sympathy and sincere consolation to your excellency, the US government and people," Hu said in the message made public by the Foreign Ministry. Hu also offered condolences to families of the victims and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

The material is "hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very disturbing very angry, profanity-laced," he said on the MSNBC Web site. Among the materials are digital video files showing Cho talking directly to the camera about his hatred of the wealthy, Capus said.

It does not include any images of the shootings, but contains "vague references," including "things like, `This didn't have to happen,'" Capus said.

The package bore a Postal Service stamp showing that it had been received at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire, according to MSNBC.

If the package was indeed mailed between the first attack and the second, that would help explain where Cho was and what he did during that two-hour window.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, authorities disclosed that more than a year before the massacre, Cho was accused of stalking two women and was taken to a psychiatric hospital on a magistrate's orders because of fears he might be suicidal. He was later released with orders to undergo outpatient treatment.

The disclosure added to the rapidly growing list of warning signs that appeared well before the student opened fire. Among other things, Cho's twisted, violence-filled writings and sullen, vacant-eyed demeanor had disturbed professors and students so much that he was removed from one English class and was repeatedly urged to get counseling.

In November and December 2005, two women complained to campus police that they had received calls and computer messages from Cho, but they considered the messages "annoying," not threatening, and neither pressed charges, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said.

Neither woman was among the victims in the massacre, police said.

1

2