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July 9, 2008 7:50:00 AM CDT

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Virginia Tech Families, State Reach $11M Deal

Posted Apr 10, 08 1:09 PM CDT in Crime & Courts,  US    Most Covered

(Newser) – Victims’ families in the Virginia Tech shootings have settled with the state for $11 million in a deal to prevent future lawsuits, lawyers said today. The lawyers, who represented 21 families, are mum on details pending finalization, reports the Roanoke Times. At least 20 families had earlier warned they might sue over the tragedy last April 16, when student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 and wounded more at the school before killing himself.

The deal comes with the first anniversary of the massacre approaching, and "To be candid, the families are more focused on more personal things at the moment," said one lawyer. An earlier deal had proposed $100,000 for the families of each of those killed, with an $800,000 fund for those wounded; an additional $1.75 million was set aside for the victims, and a meeting with the governor was planned.

Sources Roanoke Times, Associated Press

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Items of remembrance and condolence are seen at a makeshift memorial for the Virginia Tech shooting victims on the Drillfield of the Virginia Tech campus in this June 14, 2007 file photo.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Virginia Tech students look over the permanent memorial for the slain students and faculty at the school in Blacksburg, Va., in this Aug. 21, 2007, file photo.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber,file)
Mark Maslow, Virginia Tech alum, class of 2004, wheels pansies past the April 16 Memorial at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University on Thursday, April 3, 2008 in Blacksburg, Va.   (AP Photo/The News & Advance, Chet White)
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