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Va. Tech Officials Defends Actions During Killings

Topics: From the Wires,

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) — A Virginia Tech official defends the delay in alerting students to the shootings of two students to begin the unprecedented 2007 massacre, saying officials did the best they could.

Robert M. Byers is the executive director of government relations at Virginia Tech. He testified Wednesday at the civil trial brought by the parents of two students among the 32 left dead by the April 16, 2007, attack by a lone gunman.

Virginia Tech police thought the first two victims in a dorm died in a domestic violence incident and said they didn’t think the rest of the campus was at risk.

Byers said university leaders where heeding the advice of campus police in delaying an announcement, because they wanted to avoid panic and notify the two victims’ parents.

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