Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, a 34-year-old male Ph.D. student from Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, was killed on April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Virginia. He was pursuing a degree in Civil Engineering at Virginia Tech.
On that tragic day, Lumbantoruan was in his Advanced Hydrology class when a gunman opened fire. He, along with Professor G.V. Loganathan and eight other students in the classroom, were among the 32 victims who lost their lives in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at the time. The incident, which took place in two separate attacks on the university campus, also resulted in numerous injuries.
The perpetrator of the massacre was identified as Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old student at Virginia Tech. Armed with two pistols, Cho carried out the rampage before taking his own life. The motive behind the killings was not clearly established. Following the devastating event, Lumbantoruan's body was returned to his home country of Indonesia, where he was laid to rest in the Menteng Pulo public cemetery in South Jakarta.
