Va. Tech President Defends Response To 2007 Shootings

Virginia Tech’s president Friday defended the university’s actions during a 2007 campus attack that left 33 people dead in the worst shooting spree in modern US history.

Charles Steger took the stand Friday in a wrongful death trial commenced by parents of two of the shooting victims.

The parents claim Virginia Tech officials might have prevented the deaths of their children and others if they had issued an earlier warning after the first lethal shootings committed by gunman Seung-Hui Cho.

Cho murdered two students in a dormitory on the morning of April 16, 2007, before perpetrating the worst of his rampage hours later. The massacre only ended after Cho committed suicide.

Steger testified Friday that he was informed about the dormitory murders shortly after 8:00am, after classes had already started for the day and nearly an hour after the shootings occurred, WTKR-TV reported.

He said he was told by Virginia Tech’s police chief the shootings were “domestic” and did not pose a threat to students.-[source]