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Attacks
Cho used two firearms during the attacks: a .22-caliber Walther P22 semi-automatic handgun and a 9 mm semi-automatic Glock 19 handgun. The shootings occurred in separate incidents, with the first at West Ambler Johnston Hall and the second at Norris Hall.

West Ambler Johnston shootings
Cho was seen near the entrance to West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed residence hall that houses 894 students, at about 7 a.m. EDT. The hall was normally only accessible to its residents via magnetic key card before 10 a.m. However, Cho's student mailbox was in the lobby of the building, so he had pass card access after 7:30 a.m. It is unclear how Cho gained early entrance to the building.

Cho shot his first victims around 7:15 a.m. in West Ambler Johnston Hall. A freshman, Emily J. Hilscher, aged 19, of Woodville, Rappahannock County, Virginia, and a male resident assistant, Ryan C. Clark, a senior, aged 22, of Martinez, Columbia County, Georgia, were shot and killed in the room Hilscher shared with another student. Cho left the scene and went back to his dorm room. While police and emergency medical services units were responding to the shootings in the dorm next door, Cho changed out of his bloodstained clothes, logged on to his computer to delete his e-mail, and then removed the hard drive. About an hour after the attack, Cho was believed to be seen near the campus Duck Pond. Authorities suspected Cho threw his hard drive and cell phone into the water, but it was searched and the devices were never found.

Almost two hours after the first killings, Cho appeared at the nearby post office and mailed a package of writings and video recordings to NBC News; the package was postmarked 9:01 a.m. He then walked to the site of the second set of murders. In a backpack, he carried several chains, locks, a hammer, a knife, two guns, nineteen 10- and 15-round magazines, and almost 400 rounds of ammunition.

Norris Hall shootings
About two hours after the initial shootings, Cho entered Norris Hall, which houses the Engineering Science and Mechanics program among others, and chained the three main entrance doors shut. He placed a note on at least one of the chained doors, claiming that attempts to open the door would cause a bomb to explode. Shortly before the shooting began, a faculty member found the note and took it to the building's third floor to notify the school's administration. At the same time, however, Cho had gone to the second floor and began shooting students and faculty; the bomb threat was never called in.

Before Cho began shooting, several student eyewitnesses said he poked his head into a few classrooms. Erin Sheehan, an eyewitness and survivor who had been in room 207, told reporters that the shooter "peeked in twice" earlier in the lesson and that "it was strange that someone at this point in the semester would be lost, looking for a class". Cho's first attack after entering Norris occurred in an advanced hydrology engineering class taught by Professor G. V. Loganathan in room 206. Cho first shot and killed the professor, then continued shooting, killing nine of the 13 students in the room and injuring two others; only two survived unharmed. Next, Cho went across the hall to room 207, in which instructor Christopher James Bishop was teaching German. Cho killed Bishop and then commenced shooting students, killing four and wounding six others. Cho then moved on to Norris 211 and 204, reloading and shooting students and professors in classrooms and in the hallway, returning to most classrooms more than once. By the end of this second attack, which continued for nine minutes after the first 9-1-1 call was received and about 10 to 12 minutes in total, Cho had fired at least 174 rounds, killing 30 people and wounding 17 more. Sydney J. Vail, the director of the trauma center at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, said that Cho's choice of 9 mm hollow point ammunition had worsened the injuries.

Police took nearly five minutes to gain entry to the barricaded building. When they could not break the chains, an officer shot out a deadbolt lock leading into a laboratory; they then moved to a nearby stairwell. As police reached the second floor, they heard Cho fire his final shot. Police found Cho dead in Jocelyne Couture-Nowak's classroom, room 211, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. During the investigation, State Police Superintendent William Flaherty told a state panel that police found 203 live rounds in Norris Hall. "He was well-prepared to continue on," Flaherty testified.

Virginia Tech student Jamal Albarghouti used his mobile phone to capture video footage of a part of the attack from the exterior of Norris Hall; this was later broadcast on many news outlets.

Student Nikolas Macko described to BBC News his experience at the center of the shootings. He had been attending a computer science class in room 205, taught by graduate student Haiyan Cheng, who substituted for the professor that day. They heard gunshots in the hallway. At least three people in the classroom, including Zach Petkewicz, barricaded the door using a table. At one point, Macko said, the shooter attempted to open the classroom door and then shot twice into the room; one shot hit a podium and the other went out the window. The shooter reloaded and fired into the door, but the bullet did not penetrate into the room. Macko stated there were "many, many shots" fired.

In the aftermath, high winds related to the April 2007 Nor'easter prevented emergency medical services from using helicopters for evacuation of the injured. Victims injured in the shooting were treated at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg, Carilion New River Valley Medical Center in Radford, Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, and Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem.

Resistance
Several people tried to help others during the attack, including:
 * Professor Liviu Librescu held the door of his classroom, room 204, shut while Cho attempted to enter it. Librescu was able to prevent the shooter from entering the classroom until most of his students escaped through the windows, but he died after being shot multiple times through the door. One student in his classroom was killed.
 * Jocelyne Couture-Nowak tried to save the students in her French classroom, room 211, after looking Cho in the eye in the hallway. Colin Goddard, one of seven survivors in the French class, told his family that Couture-Nowak ordered her students to the back of the class for their safety and made a fatal attempt to barricade the door.
 * Student Henry Lee was also killed while trying to help Professor Couture-Nowak barricade the door.
 * In room 206, the movements of a wounded Waleed Shaalan distracted Cho from a nearby student after the shooter had returned to the room, according to a student eyewitness. Shaalan was shot a second time and died.
 * Also in room 206, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan may have protected fellow student Guillermo Colman by diving on top of him; Colman's various accounts make it unclear whether this act was intentional or the involuntary result of being shot. Multiple gunshots killed Lumbantoruan, but Colman was protected by Lumbantoruan's body.
 * Student Zach Petkewicz barricaded the door of room 205 with a large table after substitute professor Haiyan Cheng and an unidentified female student in the same class saw Cho heading toward them. Cho shot several times through the door but failed to force his way in. No one in that classroom was wounded or killed.
 * Katelyn Carney, Derek O'Dell, Trey Perkins, and Erin Sheehan barricaded the door of room 207, the German class, after the first attack and tended to the wounded. Cho returned minutes later but O'Dell, Perkins, and Carney prevented him from re-entering the room. O'Dell and Carney were injured.
 * Hearing the commotion on the floor below, Professor Kevin Granata brought 20 students from a nearby classroom into an office, where the door could be locked, on the third floor of Norris Hall. He then went downstairs to investigate and was shot by Cho. Granata died from his injuries. None of the students locked in Granata's office were injured.

Victims
During the two attacks, Cho killed 5 faculty members and 27 students before committing suicide. The Virginia Tech review panel reported that Cho's gunshots wounded 17 other people; 6 more were injured when they jumped from second-story windows to escape.