BLACKSBURG, Va., May 1 (UPI) -- The gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre was court-ordered to undergo on-campus psychiatric treatment long before the attack, ABC News reported Tuesday.
ABC reported that it's unclear whether Cho Seung-hui went for treatment at Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Services in December 2005 because there are no requirements for follow-up reporting.
"It's not a small crack that this young man slipped through. It's a very large crack," social worker Randy Neff told ABC.
ABC learned of the court order from Cho's county-appointed lawyer at the time, Terry Teel.
Police took Cho into custody on Dec. 13, 2005, after a mental health evaluation found him to be "an imminent danger to himself or others as a result of mental illness."
A physician who examined him the next day said that Cho appeared depressed but denied being suicidal. His assessment led a Montgomery County, Va., court to order Cho to get outpatient psychiatric care, ABC reported.
With Cho the gunman in an assault that left 32 people and himself dead, authorities are wondering how he should have been handled.
"Obviously somewhere along the line our treatment of the mentally ill failed," Chief Ray Lavinder of the Roanoke (Va.) Police Department, told ABC.
