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Williams, 20, a graduate of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North who is a junior accounting major at VT, was out of ill-fated Norris Hall because he had finished his auditing exam quickly.
"My class started at 9:05 on the third floor of Norris. It was one of those deals that when you finished the test you could leave. I'm the kind of test taker who believes you either know the material or you don't," said Williams.
"The killing started just a short time after I left," he said.
The former WWP-N golf star and scholar is among dozens of New Jerseyans enrolled at the school in southwestern Virginia.
Other locals known to be safe at VT are former Lawrence High School soccer star Brittany Hatrack; former Truman High School soccer star Craig Brutus; Dave Griffiths of Millstone; and VT junior Eric Schroeder of Moorestown, who is just home following a stint with the National Guard in Kosovo.
Hatrack, 19, a 2004 Lawrence High graduate, was driving to the Blacksburg campus before she received the first of two campus alerts on her cell phone.
"Brittany didn't have a class until about 9:30,'' said her father, Lenny Hatrack. "She got the university's message about the first shooting, which kept her off campus before the other shootings occurred."
"She called me at work about 10 o'clock. Up until then I didn't know anything about the shootings. I was thankful when I finally understood the extent of the killings."
Hatrack said his gratitude diminished with each new report about the Virginia Tech bloodbath.
"The feeling got worse and worse. I spoke with Brittany three times yesterday morning and with each call my heart ached. By the end of the third call there was this incredible amount of hurt, anger and sorrow," Lenny Hatrack said.
Initially, Williams said the feeling on the Virginia Tech campus was one of minimal concern regarding reports of a shooting at the West Ambler Johnston coed dormitory.
"At that point I wasn't that worried. I don't think many students on campus were seriously upset because we just figured that the one shooting in West A.J. was just a random act of violence," Williams said.
Officials eventually determined that two students were killed in the Johnston housing unit, which Williams explained is across campus from Norris Hall on the sprawling 2,600 acre institution.
Williams said he finished the test then drove to the bank to deposit checks.
On his way back to his Pi Kappa Alpha frat house, Williams sighted his first police cruiser.
"The cop car was flying, doing about 65 or 70 miles an hour in a 35-mile-per-hour zone. I kind of followed him. Police were setting up a road block on West Campus Drive by then," Williams said.
Williams drove to his frat house where he learned about the Virginia Tech tragedy.
"First you're dealing with one murder before the number kept rising higher. And then it's 21 and 31 or whatever the final number is going to be," Williams said.
"Think about it. A gunman killed 31 innocent students here. It's crazy. It's nuts. They canceled classes (yesterday) and (today) but I know students who are going home for the week."
Williams' mother, Donna, expressed relief and sadness.
"I'm extremely glad that Andrew is not a casualty but I feel so sad for the 30 or so families. I can't imagine being one of them. I can't imagine having to make that drive to Blacksburg to (collect) a dead son or daughter," Williams said.
"This entire situation takes your breath away because it's so surreal. When children go away to college you worry about them drinking too much or making bad decisions. You don't worry about a gunman taking their lives."
Ron Sebastiani, a Hamilton resident and former athletic trainer/guidance counselor at Steinert High School, expressed torment even though his daughter, Lauren, graduated from Virginia Tech in 2002.
"When Lauren attended Virginia Tech we met a lot of people who became our friends. We attend football games on a regular basis and maintain allegiances with Virginia Tech and alumni. So, this hits home," said Sebastiani, whose daughter met her husband, Connor Hoffman, on the Vicksburg campus.
"It's a shame that this happened at Virginia Tech. But it could have happened anywhere. That's the problem with this, fear from this incident will resonate through Rutgers, College of New Jersey and every other college campus," he predicted.
Donnie Marsh, a former Virginia Tech assistant and associate men's basketball coach whose history includes a five-year stint at Trenton State College now the College of New Jersey, called "tragic'' yesterday the massacre on the Hokies' campus.
"I was in Blacksburg for three years (1997-2000) but I never thought of it as an unsafe campus. I think most believe Virginia Tech is pretty immune from this type of tragedy. This shows that unfortunate events can happen anywhere," said Donnie Marsh.
The former TSC coach (1989-93) said the tragedy delivered a lesson about life.
"This is a lot of trauma for the Virginia Tech campus. There are numerous people there that will do their very best to help in the healing from this incident," Marsh said.
Marsh, now an assistant at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said the Virginia Tech killings serve as a reminder.
"It's one more reason to count your blessings. A reason to hug and love those people close to you because one never knows what lies ahead," Marsh said.
Lenny Hatrack agreed.
"My wife (Brenda) and I can't wait until Brittany is home. We look forward to the time when we can put our arms around Brittany and just hold her," he said.
Eric Schroeder, a 22-year-old VT junior currently on National Guard duty, spent the weekend visiting friends right off campus and took off for home in Moorestown at 7 a.m. - 15 minutes before the first shooting.
Despite yesterday's mass murder, the bomb scare last week and a fatal shooting on campus the first day of school last year, Schroeder said he'll return to VT to get his degree in industrial and systems engineering.
Just finished a 7-month stint with the Army in Kosovo, Schroeder said he decided to spend the weekend at VT visiting friends, staying one night on campus and another in town.
Schroeder said he got up early yesterday morning and left campus at precisely 7 to drive to Moorestown and a visit with his parents.
Reached by cell phone while on the road, Schroeder expressed shock when told that the media at that time was reporting 22 dead.
"Are you kidding me?" he responded. He had heard about a shooting on campus, but not that it had been that serious an incident.
"I have no guess (as to who did this)," Schroeder said later on, returning safely home from his trip off campus. "I think it's the most cowardly thing that could be done."
Another local at VT, former Levittowner Craig Brutus, is a freshman soccer star whose uncle told The Trentonian he was safe.
Claude Brutus, of Levittown, said the nephew was no where near the shooting scenes when the gunman struck.
Craig Brutus, who graduated from the Bucks County Technical High School last year, was a star soccer player at Levittown's Truman High School.
He's the son of Marc Brutus, an ex professional soccer player who moved to Virginia to open a soccer school after the son won a scholarship to VT.
Claude Brutus said his brother raced to the campus and took his son home after he heard about the shootings. The uncle said the Craig Brutus was too shaken to speak to him about the massacre.
Griffiths was locked in a dark lab across from Norris where the shootings took place.
"At the time of the occurrence I was in the basement of Randolph Hall in the lab that I work for, the AEther Lab," he said. "Once we were informed of what was happening was essentially locked the doors to the lab and waited until we were told to leave."
He said there are no windows in the lab and it, "being engrossed in cement blocks, allows for virtually no sound propagation from outside."
"Luckily for me, all of the individuals that I know around campus are safe," Griffiths said, "but my heart goes out to those who are not so fortunate."
(Trentonian staff writers Scott Frost, Paul Mickle and Artemis Coughlan contributed to this report.)
