Could some one point out to Heather Macdonald

that the cops used profiling at Virginia Tech. It failed abysmally.

When the police arrived at the first shooting scene they asked some questions and then raced to an erroneous conclusion.

Did she have a boyfriend? She did? Well, as Nancy Grace will tell you, when a woman is killed it is usually the husband or boyfriend who did it.

Does he own any guns? He does? And a pick-up truck?? This is textbook (at least the Chief Moose textbook).

Off they go to capture the boyfriend.

All they knew for sure was that they had two people shot on campus. But for two hours their attention was focused off-campus.

The profile did that. Not the facts. Not a prudent regard for the safety of the students.

That is the problem with profiles: Even if they are usually right, they are often wrong. Put too much faith in them and you end up with catastrophic blindspots.

We do not know enough yet to determine if the wild goose chase helped the killer accomplish his mission. Maybe he still would have made it from the post office to the engineering building if the police had concentrated on campus. OTOH, we know the police actions did not help stop him at all.