Virginia Tech University found negligent in 2007 campus shootings

A jury on Wednesday found Virginia Tech negligent for delaying warnings in response to the first two shootings in a 2007 campus massacre that left 33 dead.

Jurors returned the verdict in a wrongful death civil suit filed by the parents of two students killed on April 16, 2007, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, The Associated Press reported.

The jury deliberated for just 3 ½ hours before awarding $4 million to each family, although the state immediately filed a motion to reduce the award, according to the AP. State law requires the award to be capped at $100,000.

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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 ended his killing spree, then killed himself, the AP reported.

Attorneys for the state have countered that there was no way to anticipate the man who committed those first two shootings in a dormitory would carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, MSNBC reported.

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Police initially concluded that the first shootings were isolated, according to MSNBC.

After the jury read its verdict, Peterson’s mother, Celeste, began weeping the courtroom, the Roanoke Times reported.

The families have said they weren't filing the lawsuit for the money, but to hold school officials accountable, according to MSNBC.