Virginia Tech victim has local ties

The godson of Mary Ellen Pellegrini of Girard was among the victims of a gunman who killed 32 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., Monday.

Jeremy Herbstritt, 27, of Bellefonte, Pa., was a civil engineering graduate student at Virginia Tech and was in a scond floor classroom of Norris Hall when he was fatally wounded.

Herbstritt, who lived in Alliance for a time as a child, was remembered by family and friends as a fun-loving, helpful and very talkative guy. Family members said he planned to graduate in December and was looking forward to starting his career.