Report: Warning About Cho Came Too Slow

Aug 30, 07:30 AM

Current Headlines: By CHRISTINA NUCKOLS

By Christina Nuckols

and Matthew Bowers

The Virginian-Pilot

RICHMOND

Virginia Tech police and administrators erred when they waited two hours to notify students and staff about the first casualties in what would become the worst shooting massacre on a college campus in U.S. history, according to a long-awaited report on the attack.

The state posted the 147-page report on the shootings on the Internet late Wednesday night, shortly after f amilies of the victims received telephone briefings on its contents . One participant, on condition of anonymity , allowed T he Virginian- Pilot to listen to the call. Other families agreed to discuss what they heard.

The report concludes that university police "may have erred in prematurely concluding that their initial lead in the double homicide was a good one, or at least in conveying that impression to university officials."

Larry Roberts, a senior legal adviser to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, told family members that the report also criticizes Tech police for not immediately requesting a campus wide notification to students and staff that two people had been killed .

The report also rebukes university officials for not acting on their own to issue a warning, saying administrators violated their own safety policies by not reacting more swiftly . The report found that the university had no plans set for handling emergency notifications.

"After two people were shot dead, police needed to consider the possibility of a murderer loose on campus who did a double slaying for unknown reasons, even though a domestic disturbance was a likely possibility," the report concluded.

Tech student Seung-Hui Cho shot two students to death in a dormitory early in the morning on April 16. Tech officials issued a warning two hours later , only minutes before Cho began shooting in Norris Hall .

The report does not answer central questions about Cho's motivation. It states that neither the panel nor police investigators have been able to determine how he chose the date and place of the attack or whether he deliberately targeted individual students or professors.

Campus police initially believed the gunman was the boyfriend of one of the first victims, and they had reports that he had left campus.

Family members said they want to work with Kaine to pass reforms. However, they were angered earlier Wednesday when he said he does not believe Virginia Tech President Charles Steger or Police Chief Wendell Flinchum should resign because of the report's findings and would not solve the problems highlighted in the report.

Some family members demanded that Kaine ask for Steger's resignation and expressed anger over the governor's plans to attend a weekend football game at Virginia Tech, calling it a "buddy-buddy thing."

"The only person I can tell is being held responsible is Cho," one family member told Roberts during the briefing.

Roberts said Kaine's comments were not intended as a "ringing endorsement" and were a "far cry from congratulating him for his actions."

The report was compiled by an eight-member panel appointed by Kaine in April.

"To me, there were no surprises. No surprises at all," Roger O'Dell said in a telephone interview after his 75-minute conference- call briefing. His son, Derek, was wounded in the attack . "I didn't expect it to name names. And it did not.

O'Dell described the report's theme as, "with what was known at the time, everyone did about ... as well as they could have. There was no sharp criticism."

The report contains 21 findings and 70 recommendations on issues including campus safety and mental health reforms. It also contains a detailed look at Cho's mental health history.

Families were told that Cho was diagnosed at an early age with depression and selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that made it difficult for him to speak in social settings.

After Cho's middle-school teachers observed homi cidal and suicidal symptoms in his writings after the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, he was placed in counseling and for a short time also was prescribed medications.

Cho continued to receive help in high school, but he insisted on enrolling at Virginia Tech even though family members and advisers had warned him that the university was too large to provide him with individualized assistance. He told university officials that he had never received mental health treatment, Roberts said.

Roberts said Cho did go to an appointment at the university counseling center in 2005 after a court ordered him to receive out patient treatment. However, Roberts said, the treatment was not completed and Cho's records are missing from the counseling center.

Roberts said the report criticizes university and state-funded mental health agencies for not responding after Cho exhibited disturbing behavior, blaming the failure on inadequate funding, over zealous compliance with privacy laws and "passivity."

The report also found the state's chief medical examiner lacking in appropriate communication with families of the shooting victims. And the document said university efforts to help the families after the tragedy fell short because of a "lack of leadership" and poor coordination.

Kaine said some recommendations could be implemented immediately, while others will require approval by the General Assembly when it meets in January.

Christina Nuckols , (804) 697-1562, christina.nuckols@pilotonline.com

Matthew Bowers, (757) 222-3893, matthew.bowers@pilotonline.com

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