Panel chair: Tech response scrutinized

Authorities at Virginia Tech will not escape scrutiny for their actions in the hours between two shooting sprees that left 33 people dead, the chairman of a governor-appointed review panel said Tuesday.

W. Gerald Massengill said there were obvious faults in the response after the first two victims of student gunman Seung-Hui Cho were found dead April 16 in West Ambler Johnston dormitory.

"Those first and second hours have been a focus of attention for all of us, and that includes the flaws," the retired Virginia State Police superintendent told The Associated Press. "There's been a lot of attention paid on this panel to the decisions made during that time."

The report will be unflinching in assigning fault for failures and misjudgments, Massengill said. He would not discuss any specific points in the working draft of the report, a copy of which was delivered to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last weekend.

Some relatives of the slain and injured have questioned why the university was not more prompt and forceful in warning students after the early morning dormitory slayings that two students had been fatally shot and that the shooter was not in custody.

Virginia Tech had not been locked down by the time Cho chained doors in Norris Hall and began the carnage in its classrooms, where 25 students and five faculty members were slain before Cho killed himself.

The school is scheduled Wednesday to release the findings and recommendations of its internal review, the first official report on the shootings.

Massengill said that while he has praised police actions, he has never approved of all the police and administration decisions.

"Some families have interpreted my praise for the actions in Norris Hall as approval of the entire response, but there are things that could have _ and should have _ been done differently," Massengill said.

His report, which the 8-member panel is scheduled to finish Friday, will be given to survivors of the attack and relatives of the dead before it is made public late next week, officials said Tuesday.

Much of the report will focus on the role of mental health services and the failure to intercept Cho _ a loner so troubled that he repeatedly alarmed students and faculty and was brought to the attention of college administrators and police before a court ordered a psychiatric evaluation for him, Massengill said.