A gunman who killed at least 32 people in Monday's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," said a survivor.

Erin Sheehan, a student who survived by pretending to be dead during the shooting, described the the gunman as a young man wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.

"He was very silent," said Sheehan, one of only four students in her 25-student German class who were not shot. "He seemed very thorough about it."

Sheehan fell to the ground and pretended to be dead after the gunman's first entrance.

Meanwhile, the police said they had a preliminary identification of the shooter but will not release it at the moment.

Media reports said a 22-caliber handgun and a 9 mm handgun were recovered at the scene.

Derek O'Dell, another student who was shot in the arm in the incident, described the gunman as a young man with Asian descent.

"And he didn't say anything, which I found very unusual. He just started shooting people and it was truly tragic," he told CBS News.

According to CBS News, police have been working on identifying the suspect and say they expect to release the name in the coming hours.

When asked if the gunman was a student, police say "something like that," indicating that perhaps he was a teaching assistant, reports

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech police Chief Wendell Flinchum did not rule out a separate shooter, according to CNN News.

He said police are investigating a "person of interest" in the incident, a man who knew one of the victims.

But it is unclear the man has any link to the other gunman.

The death toll of 33, including the gunman who eventually killed himself, makes the incident the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Source: Xinhua