Julia Pryde, left, and Erin Peterson. In total, 32 people died as a result of the shootings. Photograph: AP
A jury has found Virginia Tech negligent in
a 2007 massacre in which 32 people were killed and recommended payouts of $4m (£2.5m) each to two families because the university was too slow in issuing a warning that a gunman was on the loose.
The families of students Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson brought the wrongful death lawsuit against the state university. The pair were killed before their fellow student Seung-Hui Cho turned his gun on himself.
Jurors in Christiansburg, Virginia, determined that university officials should have been quicker to issue a campus warning after two students were killed by gunfire in a residence hall on the morning of 16 April 2007.
Soon after the university notified the campus that a shooting had occurred, the student gunman continued his more than two-hour rampage in a classroom building elsewhere on the campus.
Jurors awarded $4m each to the families of Pryde and Peterson.
Virginia law requires awards against the state be capped at $100,000 each and government lawyers had immediately requested that the amounts be reduced to the legal limit, said Virginia attorney general spokesman Brian Gottstein.
By law, juries were not told of the cap until after their decision, Gottstein said.
According to memorial pages on the Virginia Tech website, Pryde, of Middletown, New Jersey, had been studying biological systems engineering, while Peterson, of Chantilly, Virginia, had been majoring in international studies.
Virginia Tech expressed disappointment with the verdict, having argued that exhaustive investigations failed to produce any evidence that university officials were negligent.
University spokesman Mark Owczarski said Virginia Tech stood by its view that the administration and law enforcement "did their absolute best" with the information available at the time of the shootings.
The university would discuss the matter further with the state attorney general, review the case and explore all other available options, he said. Virginia Tech did not believe the evidence presented at trial about the initial residence hall murders proved there had been an increased danger to the campus that day. "The heinous crimes committed by Seung-Hui Cho were an unprecedented act of violence that no one could have foreseen," he said. "Virginia Tech has always and will continue to put the safety and well being of its students first."
The attorney general's office said the trial evidence established that three law enforcement agencies had unanimously deemed the mass shooting unforeseeable. "Only with hindsight can one conclude that Cho's unprecedented acts were foreseeable."
Last year, the US department of education ruled the school should pay a $55,000 fine for failing to issue a timely warning. Virginia Tech has appealed the fine.
a 2007 massacre in which 32 people were killed and recommended payouts of $4m (£2.5m) each to two families because the university was too slow in issuing a warning that a gunman was on the loose.
The families of students Julia Pryde and Erin Peterson brought the wrongful death lawsuit against the state university. The pair were killed before their fellow student Seung-Hui Cho turned his gun on himself.
Jurors in Christiansburg, Virginia, determined that university officials should have been quicker to issue a campus warning after two students were killed by gunfire in a residence hall on the morning of 16 April 2007.
Soon after the university notified the campus that a shooting had occurred, the student gunman continued his more than two-hour rampage in a classroom building elsewhere on the campus.
Jurors awarded $4m each to the families of Pryde and Peterson.
Virginia law requires awards against the state be capped at $100,000 each and government lawyers had immediately requested that the amounts be reduced to the legal limit, said Virginia attorney general spokesman Brian Gottstein.
By law, juries were not told of the cap until after their decision, Gottstein said.
According to memorial pages on the Virginia Tech website, Pryde, of Middletown, New Jersey, had been studying biological systems engineering, while Peterson, of Chantilly, Virginia, had been majoring in international studies.
Virginia Tech expressed disappointment with the verdict, having argued that exhaustive investigations failed to produce any evidence that university officials were negligent.
University spokesman Mark Owczarski said Virginia Tech stood by its view that the administration and law enforcement "did their absolute best" with the information available at the time of the shootings.
The university would discuss the matter further with the state attorney general, review the case and explore all other available options, he said. Virginia Tech did not believe the evidence presented at trial about the initial residence hall murders proved there had been an increased danger to the campus that day. "The heinous crimes committed by Seung-Hui Cho were an unprecedented act of violence that no one could have foreseen," he said. "Virginia Tech has always and will continue to put the safety and well being of its students first."
The attorney general's office said the trial evidence established that three law enforcement agencies had unanimously deemed the mass shooting unforeseeable. "Only with hindsight can one conclude that Cho's unprecedented acts were foreseeable."
Last year, the US department of education ruled the school should pay a $55,000 fine for failing to issue a timely warning. Virginia Tech has appealed the fine.
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