CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. — A jury has found Virginia Tech negligent for delaying a campus warning of the first shootings in a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead.
Jurors returned the verdict today in a wrongful death civil suit brought by the parents of two students who were killed on April 16, 2007, in the most deadly mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Jurors deliberated for 3 ½ hours before awarding $4 million to each family, and the state immediately filed a motion to reduce the award. State law requires the award to be capped at $100,000.
The families of Erin Peterson and Julia Pryde said the two might be alive today if Virginia Tech police and administrators warned the campus of two shootings in a dorm 2 ½ hours before Seung-Hui Cho (sung wee joh) ended his killing spree, then killed himself.
Virginia Tech officials said they believed the first shootings were isolated.
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