Bond denied for foreign student held on weapons charge
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — A judge has ordered a former Virginia Tech student arrested on a weapons charge to remain jailed while he awaits trial.
The Roanoke Times reports the judge said at a bail hearing Thursday that he was concerned 19-year-old Yunsong Zhao would be deported to China if he were freed on bond. Immigration authorities have lodged a detainer on Zhao because his student visa is no longer valid due to his expulsion.
Zhao’s arrest created alarm on the Blacksburg campus, the site of a mass shooting in 2007.
The school says authorities did not view Zhao as a threat.
Authorities say Zhao illegally attached a 30-round magazine to a rifle. Zhao’s lawyer says that’s untrue and Zhao actually had a legal, 20-round magazine.
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Information from: The Roanoke Times, http://www.roanoke.com
February 3, 2018 @ 7:05 am
Be it 20 or 30 rounds, why does a student at age 19 or age 100 need a weapon as stated above on campus being checked in or out…Considering the morbid hell that many of us went through in 2007 one would think there should not be any checking in and out of guns on any campus nation wide…Also, did this young man use guns in his country before he came here and if not then what sparked his interest to use them here for when one has a sudden interest in something that could kill many it does make many question his motives and his mind thought patterns…I think the judge was very correct in not allowing a bond, for not a one of us have answers as to why this young man needed a gun of this caliber at any given point and even more so on a campus that has went through hell and back already and does not ever need to go through that again as well as no campus should ever have to endure such…