Students expressed disgust and disbelief at the video and photos sent to a television network by the gunman who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech university.
Photos showed student Cho Seung-Hui posing with his guns, and he ranted against rich kids and debauchery in the video.
The package received by NBC News yesterday carried a postmark showing Cho mailed his rambling manifesto after he killed his first two victims on Monday morning but before he killed 30 more people in classrooms.
"That's crazy. He kills two people and then goes to the post office, and then he's ready for round two? It's creepy," said graduate student Nick Jeremiah.
The images and long monologue painted a different picture of Cho (23), who has been described by teachers and other students as silent and withdrawn.
"He just goes on and on - that's got to be more than he's spoken, ever," Jeremiah said. "I thought, 'well, he does talk.'"
Devin Cornwall (19) said the gunman's hatred for rich children made no sense. "To me, that doesn't personify any Tech student I know. I always think of us as a blue-collar place," he said.
In the video Cho portrays himself as a defender of the weak and voiced admiration for the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
"You have vandalised my heart, raped my soul and tortured my conscience," said Cho, speaking directly to the camera and occasionally looking down to read his message.
"You thought it was a pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people."
Cho had previously been accused of stalking female students and was taken to a psychiatric hospital in 2005 due to worries he was suicidal.
A Virginia court order issued at the time declared him "mentally ill" and said he presented "an imminent danger to self or others," ABC News reported.