Virginia Tech graduate student Frank Arcuri had just finished a 90-minute defense of his master's thesis and left the building next door to the site of Monday's massacre minutes before a gunman opened fire.
The 24-year-old Union College alumnus from Utica was walking to his grad assistant office on Main Street shortly after 9:30 a.m., a five-minute walk away from the bloody siege inside Norris Hall, at roughly the same time the carnage was taking place.
Arcuri did not hear any gunshots and had no idea what was happening until he saw a stream of police cars and ambulances racing down Main Street past his office.
"I'm just numb. It hasn't really sunk in yet," said Arcuri, who spoke by phone Tuesday afternoon from his office. With the names of the victims still being released, he had just learned that he knew a professor and a graduate student who were among the 32 killed by a gunman who turned the gun on himself, bringing the death toll to 33.
"It's a very somber atmosphere on campus," Arcuri said.
Earlier Tuesday, he walked across campus with a few other grad students, stopping at makeshift memorials, sharing stories and impromptu displays of grief and mourning with fellow Hokies.
"It's quiet, gloomy and eerie," he said.
The aftermath of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history carried grim echoes of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which occurred when Arcuri was a freshman at Union College. That cataclysmic event set him on his career path.
"I had the same feeling yesterday as on 9/11," he said. "It just didn't seem real. It was all chaos and confusion."
Similarly, Monday's deadly violence managed to bring out the best in people. "'This has brought everyone together like on 9/11. Every shop window has signs of support. People stop to talk and ask how you're doing. Nobody's walking alone today," he said.
Another sad reminder of 9/11 was a profusion of Internet message boards seeking information about students not yet accounted for.
"It really hit me when you see those message boards and there's no response, there are more messages left and still no response," he said.
Arcuri will graduate in May from Virginia Tech with a master's degree in civil engineering. His concentration is in construction management.
In August, he'll start work for Fluor Corp. at ground zero, rebuilding the World Trade Center destroyed in the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers.
"I came to Virginia Tech to do construction management to get on a project that mattered and to make a difference," he said. "There's no bigger project in the world than rebuilding ground zero."
Arcuri grew up in Utica. His mom, Wanda, works for the Utica school district and his dad, Frank, is a retired city firefighter. He followed his sister, Michelle, to Schenectady. A 2003 Union graduate, she works for the state and lives in Albany.
Arcuri graduated magna cum laude in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Union. A 6-foot-1 right-hander, he was a starting pitcher on the Union baseball team. He plans to return to Schenectady this weekend with other baseball player alumni to watch the Dutchmen play RPI two games, Saturday and Sunday.
Arcuri spent Monday and Tuesday answering dozens of worried e-mail messages and cellphone calls from family, friends, Union alumni and his girlfriend, Alicia Gifford, a 2006 Union grad who is an actuary in Stamford, Conn.
"It's hard being 600 miles away from family when something like this happens," he said. "I've wondered why the gunman chose that building and realize it could have been me."
Arcuri chose Virginia Tech for grad school not only because of its top-ranked civil engineering program, but because the locale reminded him of upstate New York.
"It seemed secluded and safe, up in the mountains," he said. "You never know what might happen."
For Arcuri, Monday began with a sense of elation. His master's defense went well and a professor told him to "prepare for a celebration."
The day ended in mourning.
"It's going to be really hard and uncomfortable here for the next three weeks, dealing with this and waiting for graduation to come," he said.