State had no duty to protect VA Tech students

State Supreme Court – 'Who knew?'

Richmond – Most people missed it amid the sensational headlines of late October, but the Commonwealth of Virginia neatly excused itself of all culpability in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Seung-Hui Cho began his rampage by slipping into a dormitory where he killed 4 students with a handgun; then he hid from police for three hours before finishing the assault that left a total of 32 students dead after attacking an additional 28 in an instructional hall across campus. The State Supreme Court ruled, “the commonwealth did not have a duty to protect students against third party criminal acts.”

The unhappy Korean student knew little English and was suffering in his studies as a result, but he was cunning enough to chain the exit doors shut to prevent his prey from escaping before he began his final assault after three hours of terror as police tried in vain to apprehend him.

The unfortunate students trapped inside could have escaped had they been alerted to the initial shootings at the dormitory, according to an argument offered by attorneys who represented the parents of the students who later lost their lives in Norris Hall.

Instead, they continued their studies, trapped inside classrooms from which there was no easy escape while an enraged gunman stalked the corridors, firing at will.

The justices of the court wrote, “Based on the limited information available to the commonwealth at the time prior to the shootings in Norris Hall, it cannot be said that it was known or reasonably foreseeable that students in Norris Hall would fall victim to criminal harm...”