Victims' kin still seek answers at Virginia Tech

The families of victims of last year's Virginia Tech massacre came with questions — and President Charles W. Steger arrived with extra security.

Family members say they didn't get many answers at last weekend's meetings with Tech officials. Nor was there an apology from Steger for the deaths of 32 students and faculty members on April 16, 2007. At the suggestion from the retired judge moderating the session, some got handshakes from him.

Several family members were taken aback by the presence of a half-dozen or more Tech police around the Owens Hall banquet room where they met.

The weekend briefings confirmed that Tech leaders were told much later than the officials previously reported that a person of interest in the first two killings was off campus, a mistake a state investigation said explained the delay in issuing any warning.

Families said that change in the timeline, along with other unresolved issues, makes it hard for them to trust the promises the state has made in a settlement. And they said they're upset with a refusal by Virginia State Police to release its files, and with obstacles preventing the state's promised payments for medical care for the injured.

They are also concerned about the pace of physical changes at Tech. While security modifications for doors in dorms and academic building are in place, about half the campus' doors are still to be changed, including the doors in the room where injured victims and their families met Tech officials on Oct. 18. The doors were changed for the meeting the next day with family members of the deceased, family members report.

But their big concern remains why it took so long to warn the campus after Seung- Hui Cho killed his first two victims at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory at 7:15 a.m., 2 1/2 hours before he chained shut the doors of Norris Hall and killed 30 more.

"University leadership heard of the shootings about 8 a.m. Policy Group [a crisis team of top officials] assembled about 8:30. The university issued its warning within an hour of assembling and within 1.5 hours of first hearing of the shootings in AJ," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said Friday.

But what the families learned at last weekend's briefings, according to interviews, included:

A senior Tech official was told at 7:30 a.m. — 10 minutes before the university police chief and 40 minutes before Steger — that a student had been killed at West Ambler Johnston.

Confirmation that top officials were not told about a person of interest in the West Ambler Johnston shootings being supposedly off campus until much later than last year's state investigation panel reported.

Police cannot say exactly when they issued a "be on the lookout" alert for that person, who was later cleared of any suspicion in the shootings.

Policy Group members did not discuss closing the campus. That apparently contradicts what Tech officials told a state investigation panel when one member testified the group members questioned themselves about whether to close the campus.

Two members of the group told their children of the West Ambler Johnston shooting well before any campuswide notice went out.

Policy Group members said they had no clear recollection of conversations because they were moving in and out of their meeting room, making cell-phone calls during that first hour. They said they were trying to verify reports about the two students who were fatally shot — accounts that came from the university police chief.

"They gathered, called family, took notes. They did not inform the students of Virginia Tech of the danger that they knew about that morning," said Mike Herbstritt, whose 27-year-old son, Jeremy, a graduate student in engineering, was shot dead.

"Our children, who were killed, were not given any warning. This policy group took away from our children their right to be informed of the danger. A conscious decision was made to do nothing," Herbstritt said.

Andy Goddard, whose son Colin was shot four times and survived, said he was stunned by what Policy Group members said they did.

"They were trying to confirm what their own chief of police was telling them? The only thing they could have learned was that things were worse. There was one student dead and another dying and an active shooter. It wasn't going to get any better."

Steger told the families the Policy Group session "was as much an assembly place as a meeting," Tech spokesman Hincker said in a e-mail when asked about the families' characterization of the Policy Group statements.

"People were getting information from a number of sources. Calls were coming in on cells and to office phones. Sometimes people got called to another phone. People were coming and going," Hincker said.

"Steger said that he was waiting for more information and his paramount concern was what instructions we could pass on to the university community. Ultimately, there was no more information to be had, and we shipped the notice," he said.

That notice, time-stamped at 9:26 a.m., said there had been a shooting. It did not say a student was already dead

or that a gunman was at large. It wasn't until 9:50, about 10 minutes after Cho started shooting students and teachers in Norris Hall, that Tech officials warned about a gunman.

But Edward F.D. Spencer, associate vice president for student affairs, told families he learned that a student had been murdered at the dorm at 7:30 a.m. A housekeeper at the dorm called a housekeeper at the administration building, and she told Spencer. Spencer in turn informed Zenobia Hikes, vice president for student affairs, before walking to the dorm to investigate.

That moves up the time that top university officials knew of the shootings at West Ambler Johnston by a half hour. The state investigation panel reported that Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum advised the executive vice president's office at 7:57 a.m.

This month, police in briefings to families disclosed that Steger called Flinchum at 8:10 a.m. Flinchum informed families that he told Steger at that time that a student was dead and another was injured, that bloody footprints led away from the scene and that there was no weapon — which signaled the gunman had left the scene. Last weekend, however, Flinchum told families he couldn't remember exactly what he said to Steger.

Families also learned about inconsistencies in accounts over when Tech learned of a supposed person of interest in the first two shootings. At the police briefings this month, officials disclosed that the interview that led them to that person came 46 minutes later than the state panel reported.

Last weekend, Steger said he first heard of a person of interest at 8:40 a.m., family members said. Last year's state panel reported Flinchum began briefing officials at 8:10, including telling them of a possible suspect probably off campus. At police briefings this month, Flinchum disclosed that the interview that led police to that suspect started at 8:16 a.m., 46 minutes later than the panel reported.

Hincker has said the university's reporting on the timeline was generally accurate. He cited a presentation Flinchum prepared for the state panel saying that between 8:16 and 9:24 a.m., a witness told police about a person of interest and that he was found by officers.

The "be on the lookout" alert for that person of interest was issued sometime between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m., Hincker said, adding that he believed, as several family members reported, that it was sent about 8:40.

Parents asked about a written university policy that apparently would have allowed police to issue a warning about a gunman that morning. Tech and the state panel have said the police did not have that power. The response was "dead silence," said Michael Pohle, whose 24-year-old son Mike, an engineering graduate student, died in Norris Hall.

Victims and families believe the state panel's timelines and earlier statements by Tech officials left a false impression that delaying a warning was understandable because school leaders were assured early that a possible gunman was off campus.

They now say they wonder if the state was withholding key information — including police records that would show what actions were taken — while negotiating the settlement that was approved this summer. The accord provides health care for the injured, a public archive and payments of up to $100,000 for the injured and families of the deceased.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the agency, following policy, will never release any of its investigation files.

Meanwhile, payments for medical and mental health expenses of victims and families that the state promised in June it would make have been delayed for months.

The Virginia Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund was assigned the task but remains unauthorized to make payments. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine plans to have legislation introduced in next year's General Assembly session to make the payments possible.

"We picked them because they are experts in dealing with crime victims," said Gordon Hickey, Kaine's spokesman. Of the legal obstacles to the payments, he said, "that was always known — that's an old story. The governor is committed to fulfilling the settlement for the families."

Families members say their remaining unanswered questions are troubling, especially because Steger told them over the weekend that he felt he acted correctly and would not do anything differently.

And while Steger did say he has to walk past the memorial to the 32 dead every day and said the deaths were sorrowful, he did not apologize, families said.

"When my daughter asked if Mr. Steger or the policy group would apologize for his lack of action, there was dead silence," said Herbstritt, whose son was fatally shot.

At the end of Sunday's eight-hour meeting, Steger left by a side door, avoiding the families.

Like the police presence, it was upsetting, family members said.

In addition to two uniformed police officers in the banquet room's foyer and two to three officers outside the building, families reported seeing plainclothes officers at other entrances to the hall. Hincker said he was only aware of the two officers in the foyer and the officers outside, saying they were there to reserve the parking lot for the families. The Tech police force has about 50 officers.

"It is shocking to me that President Steger and VT attendees would want or take extra security precautions when meeting with the families," said Joseph Samaha, whose 18-year-old daughter Reema died in Norris Hall. "We are seeking truth and accountability, not vengeance. They continue to make themselves to be the victims."

For Goddard, it was as if Tech officials felt they needed to be protected from the families.

"I think it was kind of an unnecessary show of force," he said "For many of us, it was kind of unsettling, to demonstrate what kind of capacity you have of policing, and thinking of — well, I don't need to go there."