Last Act of Muslim Victim of Virginia Tech Massacre: Saving a Fellow Student’s Life

Waleed Shaalan, a 32-year-old member of the Blacksburg Muslim community, was among the 33 victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. He left behind Amira, his wife of 3 years, and Khaled, his one-year old son.

A fellow student who was in the room when Shaalan was killed credits him with saving his life.

An excerpt from an Associated Press article:

Randy Dymond, a civil engineering professor, said Shaalan was credited with distracting gunman Cho Seung-Hui to save the life of a fellow student.

Dymond, who attended a service for Shaalan Thursday, said the Egyptian was in the first classroom Cho attacked and was badly wounded. Cho returned to the room twice to search for signs of life.

During one of those incidents, a second student who was uninjured, was playing dead. When Shaalan noticed Cho making a move to shoot the student, the Egyptian made a “protective movement to basically decoy the killer into thinking it was him making any kind of sound instead of the survivor,” Dymond said.

Dymond declined to give the name of the student who survived, but said the student wanted him to tell the story “so that the family of Waleed understands the sacrifice.”

Shaalan’s mother broke down when she heard Dymond’s account.

“He was trying to save someone else?” she said repeatedly.

Dymond said Shaalan’s body was taken to a Blacksburg mosque Thursday afternoon so classmates, teachers and friends could say goodbye before it was sent to Egypt for burial.

Please click here to donate to the fund for Waleed’s family.

Read more:

• Associated Press: Egyptian student killed at Virginia Tech leaves behind wife and 1-year-old son