WASHINGTON: Virginia Tech was too slow to inform staff and students about a shooting incident in April that rapidly spiraled into the bloodiest campus massacre in US history, an investigation concluded on Wednesday.
The probe by the US state of Virginia said lives might have been saved if not for crucial errors by university police and officials following the early morning shooting of two students on April 16 by mentally disturbed gunman Seung-Hui Cho.
Within hours of the first deadly shootings in the West Ambler Johnston residence hall, 23-year-old Cho went on to massacre 30 students and faculty inside another building before turning his gun on himself.
"It might be argued that the total toll would have been less if the university had canceled classes and announced it was closed for business immediately after the first shooting, or if the earlier alert message had been stronger and clearer," the report said.
Particularly, the report pointed to 'senior university administrators, who failed to issue an all-campus notification about the West Ambler Johnston killings until almost two hours had elapsed.'
In addition, the Virginia Tech police department 'erred in not requesting a campus-wide notification that two persons had been killed and that all students and staff should be cautious and alert."
Campus police initially pursued the boyfriend of the female student who was killed, believing the incident to be domestic in nature after an acquaintance said the boyfriend was fond of guns.
Meanwhile, Cho mailed a package containing video clips, photos and a handwritten manifesto to NBC News, then made his way to Norris Hall where he chained shut the doors to the building before shooting dead 30 people inside.
The first shooting incident occurred at about 7:15 am, the second began at 9:40 am. A campus email was not sent out to students and staff until 9:26 am urging caution due to a 'shooting on campus.'
Some family members of those killed have demanded to know why the university did not issue a campus-wide lockdown after the first shootings.
"Warning the students, faculty and staff might have made a difference. So the earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving," the report said.
