Va. Tech could have saved lives

(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-30 14:52

But the report also noted that the university police may have erred in prematurely concluding that the first two shootings were the result of a domestic dispute.

"They did not take sufficient action to deal with what might happen if the initial lead proved erroneous," it said.

Before the report was released to the public, injured students and deceased students' families received private briefings on the report's contents.

Some of the families of those killed and injured have demanded frank answers about how Cho was able to commit the shooting despite behavior that had alarmed fellow students, faculty and police.

Holly Sherman, whose daughter Leslie was killed, said the report's findings were what she expected, including "a number of critical errors in judgment" during Cho's schooling.

"At Virginia Tech, he exhibited seriously deviant behavior that went unchecked, and the faculty did not take adequate steps to put him in check," she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Sherman said the panel found what the families have long known - that the delay in notifying students of the first shootings was too long. She said praise of the EMS and police were "hardly a balance for the errors."

"I think we need to remember that if it weren't for mistakes, the EMS and police would not have had to act, and you can't compare the two types of acts to achieve a balance," she said.

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