Waleed Mohamed Shaalan was a 32-year-old Egyptian doctoral student in civil engineering at Virginia Tech who had arrived on campus in August 2006. He had left behind his wife and one-year-old son in Egypt and was planning for them to join him the following summer. Without family in the United States, he became an active member of the local Muslim community and a mentor and friend to his roommates, who regarded him as an older brother.

On the morning of April 16, 2007, Waleed was in an advanced hydrology engineering class in Norris Hall when a gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, entered and began shooting. Waleed was wounded in the initial barrage. As a fellow student pretended to be dead, Waleed moved to distract the shooter; the move drew the gunman’s attention and Waleed was shot again and killed. His action allowed the other student to survive. The shooter later died by suicide after killing 32 people and wounding many others.

Does anyone have memories of Waleed or knew him through Virginia Tech’s engineering program or the local Muslim community?