By Joel Greenberg
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published April 20, 2007, 5:16 PM CDT

The morning after the shooting at Virginia Tech, the wife of Professor Liviu Librescu e-mailed his students, asking them to tell her what happened in class during the minutes before her husband was killed. Here are excerpts of their replies, forwarded to the Tribune by Librescu's son, Joe:

"When the shootings started [nearby], everyone in the room just seemed to be dumbstruck by what was going on. One student tried going out the front door but as soon as he opened it, it sounded as if the gunshots started coming towards us. Dr. Librescu shut the door and stood guard after the student ran back into the classroom. Almost immediately students started jumping out of the window in sheer fear of what might happen."

"I was huddled in the back of the room when I saw people going out the window and, almost instinctually, I followed them. I feel guilty to say that I was one of the last ones out before the shooter entered the room. If your husband was not at the door, I don't know what would have happened to me or the other students…. I wish that I had acted differently or helped Dr. Librescu with the door. Maybe together we could have stopped the shooter from entering or harming anybody. I am so sorry. I will always remember him and will be praying for him for a very long time. My heart goes out to you."—Josh Wargo

"I cannot even begin to tell you how sorry I am for what happened yesterday. I know that he died trying to block the door so we can all jump out the window. We tried to get him to the back of the classroom with us, but he insisted on staying by the door. That is all I know about his last minutes. He was a great and caring man, and I feel honored to have known him for this past year."—Andrey Andreyev

"At approximately 9:45 AM we heard the first gunshots coming from the neighboring classroom. Quickly afterwards, Dr. Librescu shut the door to our class. Most of the students immediately got out of their seats and paced around the front of the classroom."

"I was sitting near a window in the back of the class. We heard people screaming after many quick, intermittent gunshots. At this point I opened the window and removed the screen and shouted out that there was a bush to jump on. I was the first person out of the second story window. … I made it safely to the ground. Once I saw several other students coming out the window, myself and about 6-8 of the students sprinted to a neighboring building...."I kept replaying the events in my head and I wish so badly that we did something so that the entire class could be safe. I feel horrible because there was little chance Dr. Librescu would jump out the window....I will greatly miss him and remember him forever."—Jesse Wells

"I'm grateful for knowing your husband. I've always admired his huge heart that he had for everyone. . . . He was more of a friend, always asking me how I am doing and so on. He would take time after class just for a short nice talk about how I am with life in general."

"I'm so thankful for him, he saved my life."—Christina Krohn