(CNN) -- A gunman who killed at least 30 people at one of two shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech Monday was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," said a woman who survived by pretending to lie dead on a classroom floor.
"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan who was in one of the Norris Hall classrooms where the second shooting incident took place.
Sheehan described the gunman -- who later shot and killed himself according to police -- as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
"He seemed very thorough about it -- getting almost everyone down -- I pretended to be dead," she said. (Student survives by playing dead )
"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.
The gunman left for about 30 seconds, but returned because "I guess he heard us still talking."
"We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, because the door would not lock," Sheehan said.
The man tried three more times to force his way in then began firing through the door, she said.
Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher's office. Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area.(Watch a student's recording of police responding to loud bangs )
"They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot," Otey said. "I guess they were afraid, like us -- like the shooter was going to be among one of us." (Watch students react to shooting )
Some students leaped from windows to escape.
"We heard some loud banging, and we weren't sure if it was construction or not. We heard people screaming, so everybody in the class huddled in the back," said Josh Wargo, a student who was in Norris Hall. "We were going to go out the front door, and someone opened the door, and it sound like the shots were being fired down the hallway. We all jumped out of the window."
The shooter attacked more than one classroom at Norris Hall, according to police and the death total there makes it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
"It was kind of scary," said Matt Waldron. "These two kids I guess had panicked and jumped out of the top-story window and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground."
Laura Lisbeth, a 19-year-old sophomore, told CNN.com on Monday evening that while she was at Holtzman Alumni Center she saw one of her friends who had been shot in the arm.
Lisbeth said she was shaken by the day's events.
"I'm terrified," she said. "It's gonna be so hard to walk back into class and trust that nothing bad will happen."
Madison Van Duyne said she and her classmates in a media writing class were on "lockdown" in their classroom. They were huddled in the middle of the classroom, writing stories about the shootings and posting them online.
Two hours between incidents
Two people were killed in a separate incident at a dormitory on the campus about two hours earlier, around 7:15 a.m. University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the two incidents are related.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter for the dormitory incident. (Watch the police chief explain where bodies were found )
One dormitory victim identified
Courtney Dalton, an 18-year-old student who worked at West End Dining Hall, said her friend Ryan Clark was one of the two dormitory victims.
She said Clark, a resident assistant at West Johnston Ambler Hall, had once worked at the cafeteria serving pizza.
"He was a happy person; this is really sad," she said, sobbing.
"All I can do is pray for his family now," she told CNN.com.
'Person of interest'
At the time of the later shootings at Norris Hall, police were investigating a "person of interest" in the dormitory shootings, Flinchum said. But the man -- a non-student who knew one of the victims -- had not been arrested, and it is unclear if he has any link to the other gunman, he said.
Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that they had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a 22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene.
University President Charles Steger told reporters Monday night that police found the front doors of Norris chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped. (Watch gunfire on the campus )
Officials thought first incident was isolated
Asked why the campus, which has more than 26,000 students, was not shut down after the first shooting, Flinchum responded that police determined "it was an isolated event to that building and the decision was made not to cancel classes at that time." (Officials thought shooter had fled)
Sharon Honaker with Carilion New River Medical Center in Christiansburg said one of the four gunshot victims being treated there was in critical condition.
Scott Hill, a spokesman for Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, said 17 wounded students were taken there.
West Ambler Johnston Hall is a dormitory that houses 895 students and is located near the drill field and stadium. (Campus map)
Amie Steele, editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, said one of her reporters at the dormitory where the first shootings occured reported "mass chaos."
The reporter said there were "lots of students running around, going crazy, and the police officers were trying to settle everyone down and keep everything under control," according to Steele. (Watch police, ambulances hustle to the scene )
The university is updating students through e-mails, and an Internet webcam is broadcasting live pictures of the campus.
Last August, the first day of class was cut short by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.
After Monday's shootings, students were instructed to stay indoors and away from windows, according to a university statement. (Watch a student describe living through a "college Columbine" )
The university has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Classes also have been canceled Tuesday. In Washington, the House and Senate observed moments of silence for the victims and President Bush said the nation was "shocked and saddened" by news of the tragedy.
"Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones," he said. "We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today."
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.
The deadliest school shootings came in 1966 and 1999. In the former, Charles Joseph Whitman, a 25-year-old ex-Marine, killed 13 people on the University of Texas campus. He was killed by police.
In 1999, 17-year-old Dylan Klebold and 18-year-old Eric Harris -- armed with guns and pipe bombs -- killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
CNN's Ashley Fantz and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.
"He just stepped within five feet of the door and just started firing," said Erin Sheehan who was in one of the Norris Hall classrooms where the second shooting incident took place.
Sheehan described the gunman -- who later shot and killed himself according to police -- as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
"He seemed very thorough about it -- getting almost everyone down -- I pretended to be dead," she said. (Student survives by playing dead )
"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot.
The gunman left for about 30 seconds, but returned because "I guess he heard us still talking."
"We forced ourselves against the door so he couldn't come in again, because the door would not lock," Sheehan said.
The man tried three more times to force his way in then began firing through the door, she said.
Student Tiffany Otey was taking a test inside Norris Hall when the shooting began. She and about 20 other people took refuge behind a locked door in a teacher's office. Police officers with bulletproof vests and machine guns were in the area.(Watch a student's recording of police responding to loud bangs )
"They were telling us to put our hands above our head and if we didn't cooperate and put our hands above our heads they would shoot," Otey said. "I guess they were afraid, like us -- like the shooter was going to be among one of us." (Watch students react to shooting )
Some students leaped from windows to escape.
"We heard some loud banging, and we weren't sure if it was construction or not. We heard people screaming, so everybody in the class huddled in the back," said Josh Wargo, a student who was in Norris Hall. "We were going to go out the front door, and someone opened the door, and it sound like the shots were being fired down the hallway. We all jumped out of the window."
The shooter attacked more than one classroom at Norris Hall, according to police and the death total there makes it the deadliest shooting in U.S. history.
"It was kind of scary," said Matt Waldron. "These two kids I guess had panicked and jumped out of the top-story window and the one kid broke his ankle and the other girl was not in good shape just lying on the ground."
Laura Lisbeth, a 19-year-old sophomore, told CNN.com on Monday evening that while she was at Holtzman Alumni Center she saw one of her friends who had been shot in the arm.
Lisbeth said she was shaken by the day's events.
"I'm terrified," she said. "It's gonna be so hard to walk back into class and trust that nothing bad will happen."
Madison Van Duyne said she and her classmates in a media writing class were on "lockdown" in their classroom. They were huddled in the middle of the classroom, writing stories about the shootings and posting them online.
Two hours between incidents
Two people were killed in a separate incident at a dormitory on the campus about two hours earlier, around 7:15 a.m. University police Chief Wendell Flinchum said police were still investigating whether the two incidents are related.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter for the dormitory incident. (Watch the police chief explain where bodies were found )
One dormitory victim identified
Courtney Dalton, an 18-year-old student who worked at West End Dining Hall, said her friend Ryan Clark was one of the two dormitory victims.
She said Clark, a resident assistant at West Johnston Ambler Hall, had once worked at the cafeteria serving pizza.
"He was a happy person; this is really sad," she said, sobbing.
"All I can do is pray for his family now," she told CNN.com.
'Person of interest'
At the time of the later shootings at Norris Hall, police were investigating a "person of interest" in the dormitory shootings, Flinchum said. But the man -- a non-student who knew one of the victims -- had not been arrested, and it is unclear if he has any link to the other gunman, he said.
Flinchum said at a Monday night news conference that they had a preliminary identification of the shooter at Norris Hall but were not releasing it.
A law enforcement source close to the investigation told CNN a 22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene.
University President Charles Steger told reporters Monday night that police found the front doors of Norris chained shut and that by the time they got to the second floor, the gunfire stopped. (Watch gunfire on the campus )
Officials thought first incident was isolated
Asked why the campus, which has more than 26,000 students, was not shut down after the first shooting, Flinchum responded that police determined "it was an isolated event to that building and the decision was made not to cancel classes at that time." (Officials thought shooter had fled)
Sharon Honaker with Carilion New River Medical Center in Christiansburg said one of the four gunshot victims being treated there was in critical condition.
Scott Hill, a spokesman for Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, said 17 wounded students were taken there.
West Ambler Johnston Hall is a dormitory that houses 895 students and is located near the drill field and stadium. (Campus map)
Amie Steele, editor-in-chief of the campus newspaper, said one of her reporters at the dormitory where the first shootings occured reported "mass chaos."
The reporter said there were "lots of students running around, going crazy, and the police officers were trying to settle everyone down and keep everything under control," according to Steele. (Watch police, ambulances hustle to the scene )
The university is updating students through e-mails, and an Internet webcam is broadcasting live pictures of the campus.
Last August, the first day of class was cut short by a manhunt for an escaped prisoner accused of killing a Blacksburg hospital security guard and a sheriff's deputy.
After Monday's shootings, students were instructed to stay indoors and away from windows, according to a university statement. (Watch a student describe living through a "college Columbine" )
The university has scheduled a convocation for 2 p.m. ET Tuesday. Classes also have been canceled Tuesday. In Washington, the House and Senate observed moments of silence for the victims and President Bush said the nation was "shocked and saddened" by news of the tragedy.
"Today, our nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones," he said. "We hold the victims in our hearts, we lift them up in our prayers and we ask a loving God to comfort those who are suffering today."
Before Monday, the deadliest mass shooting occurred in 1991, when George Hennard drove a pickup truck into a Killeen, Texas, cafeteria and fatally shot 23 people, before shooting and killing himself.
The deadliest school shootings came in 1966 and 1999. In the former, Charles Joseph Whitman, a 25-year-old ex-Marine, killed 13 people on the University of Texas campus. He was killed by police.
In 1999, 17-year-old Dylan Klebold and 18-year-old Eric Harris -- armed with guns and pipe bombs -- killed 12 students and a teacher before killing themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.
CNN's Ashley Fantz and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.
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