Two Lebanese-Americans Among Dead In US Campus Massacre

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Among the many victims of Monday's abhorrent massacre were two members of our Arab-American Community. KABOBfest mourns the loss of all the victims.

From Lebanon's The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Reema Samaha, a Lebanese-American student, was among 32 people killed Monday during the worst mass shooting in American history. Samaha, 19, a freshman at Virginia Tech University from Centreville, Virginia, was attending French class when the shooter, identified as 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui, began a second fatal shooting spree through the building, two hours after killing two in a dormitory across campus.

"She was pretty much my second half," Samaha's sister, Randa, told NBC news on Tuesday. "We did everything together. We had all the same friends. I looked up to her and she looked up to me."

Randa, a junior at the University of Virginia (UVA), said that her sister was as at home at UVA as she was at Virginia Tech.

"She had a home at UVA. Everyone there loved her and everyone here loved her too. She could go anywhere and feel at home ... She fell in love with the community."

An avid dancer, Reema had performed the debke with Lebanese and Palestinian students at Virginia Tech's International Fair a day before her deah. On Saturday night, she had performed with the Contemporary Dance Ensemble.

Her brother, Omar, who graduated from Virginia Tech last year, had the chance to watch her final performances. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/

"I was really proud of her," he told NBC, adding that he was too shocked to be angry. "What happened happened. Nothing is going to bring her back."

The Arab student community in Blacksburg congregated at the Inn at Virginia Tech, a hotel usually booked for football games that has become the meeting point for family and friends searching for news about loved ones. Of the students mourning with the Samahas was Rami Haija, a doctoral student at Virginia Tech, who submitted an email to The Daily Star.

"In the few minutes that I stood in that Inn conference room with Reema's family I embraced her father and he began to sob with his head buried in my chest ... with her mother on the other side of the conference table asking God "why?" Haija wrote.

The massacre immediately generated an outpouring of Internet grieving, including a Facebook.com group especially dedicated to Samaha, where friends and strangers have been posting memories and condolences.

As The Daily Star went to press, news emerged that a second 19-yeard-old Lebanese-American, Ross Abdallah Alameddine, was also killed in the incident. -

--End of Article--

See this remarkable Dateline interview with Reema's father, Joseph.

As for Ross Abdallah Alameddine, the following was written about him in a AP profile of some of the victims:

Alameddine, 20, of Saugus, Mass., was a sophomore who had just declared English as his major.

Friends created a memorial page on Facebook.com that described Alameddine as "an intelligent, funny, easygoing guy."

"You're such an amazing kid, Ross," wrote Zach Allen, who along with Alameddine attended Austin Preparatory School in Reading, Mass. "You always made me smile, and you always knew the right thing to do or say to cheer anyone up."

Alameddine was killed in the classroom building, according to Robert Palumbo, a family friend who answered the phone at the Alameddine residence Tuesday.

Alameddine's mother, Lynnette Alameddine said she was outraged by how victims' relatives were notified of the shooting.

"It happened in the morning and I did not hear (about her son's death) until a quarter to 11 at night," she said. "That was outrageous. Two kids died, and then they shoot a whole bunch of them, including my son."