Professor Gave Life to Save Students

(NEWSER) - At least 32 students are dead after a gunman opened fire on a Virginia Tech dormitory and classroom building this morning. The shooter is dead; two dozen other students were wounded in the attack. “This place is in a state of panic,” one student told CNN; others report watching classmates jump from dormitory windows to escape the attack. More»

School waited too long to send out warnings, says jury

(NEWSER) - Virginia Tech was found legally negligent by a jury today in a lawsuit stemming from the 2007 school shooting that killed 33 people. The issue at stake was whether the university improperly delayed sending out warnings after the first two murders were discovered in a dorm, reports AP . Campus police waited two and a half hours before sending out an all-school warning that a "shooting incident" had occurred," notes the Richmond Times-Dispatch . More»

More details emerge on campus shootings

(NEWSER) - Deriek W. Crouse, the police officer killed yesterday during a traffic stop on the Virginia Tech campus, was a 39-year-old Army veteran and father of five. He and the suspected shooter, who was apparently found dead nearby, were shot with the same handgun, police confirmed today. The suspect is believed to have committed suicide as police closed in, the Washington Post reports. "We have recovered clothing items that would lead us to believe that" the second body found is that of the shooter, an investigator tells the New York Times . More»

AG Cuccinelli calls Dept. of Education's findings 'absolutely appalling'

(NEWSER) - Just shy of one month after it was slapped with $55,000 in federal fines for waiting too long to notify that campus during the 2007 shooting rampage, Virginia Tech has filed an appeal. State AG Kenneth Cuccinelli yesterday called the Department of Education's findings "absolutely appalling," and explained an appeal was necessary to ensure the school was treated fairly. Virginia Tech has complained that it is being held to tougher standards than were actually in place the morning Seung-Hui Cho began shooting. More»

Quicker action could've saved lives, suit said

(NEWSER) - A Virginia judge yesterday approved an $11 million settlement with 42 families of those killed or injured in last year's Virginia Tech shootings, the Washington Post reports. The families sued after a panel concluded that lives might have been saved if the university contacted students immediately after the first shootings. Instead, 2.5 hours passed before an email warning was sent, just 10 minutes before the second rampage, which claimed 32 lives. More»