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It started with a picture on Facebook and has now created a firestorm of outrage.
Two Penn State students, dressed as Virginia Tech shooting victims, at a Halloween party have enraged people from the Virginia Tech community, as well as the entire country.
10 On Your Side has seen all of the controversial pictures. They are of two Penn State students and are extremely graphic. Both are wearing Virginia Tech t-shirts and elaborate make-up. Both have bullet holes in their bodies.
Our decision not to show you the pictures is a result of our desire to be sensitive to a community that is still grieving. We also want to show respect to the shooting victims, their families, and their friends. Showing these pictures would serve no purpose.
We talked with one of the students who wore the costume. He said the outfits were worn to a small party and meant to be private.
"It's not that it was funny, it's that we are notorious and infamous in the state college, so we have to do things that push the envelope just for shock value," he said.
Penn State officials were quick to respond to the costumes.
"We are appalled that these individuals would display this level of insensitivity, indifference, and lack of common decency and sense by dressing up in this manner," the school said.
"The fact that one of these individuals is actually from Virginia, makes it even more difficult to understand. Just because something is within the bounds of the Constitution and free speech, does not mean it should be undertaken. We certainly condemn these ugly and senseless actions. Most Penn Staters are as offended by this as anyone from Virginia Tech would be-- and rightfully so. These two people do not represent 90,000 Penn State students. They represent themselves."
After seeing the pictures, a Virginia Tech student created a Facebook group called, "People Against This Costume." Some of the upset members have left threatening messages to the Penn State students.
"This is a group of college students who now think it's trendy to be upset about their friends being killed," one of the two Penn State students who wore the costume said. "I don't know what they teach people in Virginia Tech, but at Penn State we don't learn to threaten people with murder to teach them that murdering is wrong."
He goes on to defend the pictures.
"The thing is, everybody's making a big stink about Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech was 32 deaths out of the 26 thousand that happen in America everyday," he said. "That's the problem with college students. They all live in an ivory tower of privilege. They don't understand, when it all boils down to it, it's someone wearing a costume."
Reaction from Tech students and Blacksburg residents was disgust.
"That somebody would have the nerve to mock [the victims]. They were really good people," said local business owner, Carol Gwin.
Gwin knew three of the victims in the shootings and considered them cherished friends.
