CHRISTIANSBURG, Va., March 7 (UPI) -- Virginia Tech officials did not want a panic on campus after two students were shot and killed in a dorm, an official testified Wednesday.
The gunman, Seung Hui-Cho, went on to kill 30 more students and faculty in a classroom building before taking his own life.
Kim O'Rourke, chief of staff to Virginia Tech President Charles Steger, was the day's final witness in a lawsuit over the 2007 massacre, The Roanoke Times reported.
She said she sent an e-mail to the university's regents telling them a student had been killed and another, who later died, was wounded, and saying the information should not become public.
Students were told there had been a "shooting incident."
O'Rourke said officials wanted to notify the victims' families and were concerned about the police investigation. She said officials also wanted to avoid a repeat of a panic on the first day of the school year when news spread on campus of an escaped convict in the area.
The lawsuit was filed by the parents of two female students who were killed.
