Lessons Learned and Key Recommendations from the Virginia Tech Tragedy

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Lessons Learned and Key Recommendations from the
Virginia Tech Tragedy
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University Setting

• Virginia Tech is a sprawling campus in rural
  Blacksburg, Va.
• Campus population 35,000 students
• 131 buildings
• 5 full-time officers patrolled the campus 9
  additional officers in offices
• The only alert systems in place were rudimentary
  phone trees and email

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First Incident715 AM April 16, 2007

• 647AM Seung-Hui Cho spotted outside West
  Ambler Johnston Hall (WAJ).
• 702AM Emily Hilscher dropped off by boyfriend
  at WAJ.
• 715 Cho entered WAJ Hall dormitory room 4040 and
  shot 19 year old student Emily Hilscher.
• R/A Ryan Clark went to investigate loud noises
  and was also fatally shot.

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West Ambler Hall
715 AM
Harper Hall
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(No Transcript)
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First Incident

• Cho left the building leaving
  bloody foot prints.
• 717 a.m. Chos access card
  swiped at Harper Hall where he
  changes out of his bloody clothes.
• 720 a.m. VTPD receives call that a female
  student may have fallen from her loft bed.
• 724 a.m. VTPD officer arrives at room 4040 to
  find two people shot inside the room.

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First Incident continued

• 730-800 a.m. Based on preliminary interview
  with Hilschers friend, police concluded it was a
  domestic incident and the prime suspect was her
  boyfriend who had left the campus.
• 751 a.m. VTPD notifies Exec. V.P. which
  triggers meeting of university Policy Group
• 825 a.m. VT Policy Group meets to plan how to
  notify students of the homicides
• 926 a.m. Warning message sent via email to
  campus staff, faulty and students about the dorm
  shooting.

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Virginia Tech Campus
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Second Incident-Norris Hall

• While police investigated the double homicide,
  Cho mails a package from the Blacksburg Post
  Office to NBC News.
• 915 a.m. - 930 a.m. Cho seen outside Norris
  Hall. He chains the doors shut on three main
  entrances.
• On one door he places a note warning the door is
  connected to a bomb.

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Norris Hall Note
4/16/07
Written by Cho
Peter Marone, Director Va. Dept of Forensic
Science
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Second Incident

• 940 a.m. - Cho begins shooting in classrooms on
  second floor.
• 945 a.m. First police officers arrive within 3
  minutes of receipt of call. Attempts to enter
  the chained doors failed.
• 950 a.m. Police shoot open an ordinary lock on
  a fourth entrance not chained and go to the
  second floor.
• 951 a.m. Cho shoots himself in the head just
  as police reach the second floor

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Second Incident

• Chos shooting spree lasted about 11 minutes.
• The massacre continued for 9 minutes after the
  first 9-1-1 call.
• He fired 174 rounds, killed 30 people in Norris
  Hall plus himself and wounded 17.
• Police found 17 empty magazines each capable of
  holding 10-15 live cartridges (122 for the Glock
  pistol and 81 for the Walther pistol).

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University Plan and Security

• Key Findings
• The Emergency Plan was deficient
• No threat assessment team
• No provision for an active shooter scenario
• No critical incident command level authority for
  campus police in decision making hierarchy
• Crisis Communication Plan
• Emergency message protocol was cumbersome,
  untimely, and problematic
• An all campus population alert is critical when
  there is imminent danger

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University Setting and Security

• Key Findings
• No active shooter response training or procedures
  for faculty/staff/students
• No classrooms could be locked from inside
• The Emergency Response Plan did not reflect the
  primary role of campus police as law enforcement

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University Setting and Security Emergency
Planning- Lessons Learned

• Check exterior door hardware
  to ensure that they are not
  subject to being chained shut.
• Classrooms and offices should
  be able to be locked from the inside.
• Take bomb threats seriously. Students and staff
  should report them immediately, even if most do
  turn out to be false alarms.

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University Setting and Security Emergency
Planning Recommendations

• Universities should do a risk analysis (threat
  assessment) and then choose a level of security
  appropriate for their campus.
• Institutions of higher learning should have a
  threat assessment team that includes
  representatives from
• law enforcement
• human resources
• student and academic affairs
• legal counsel and
• mental health services.

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University Setting and Security Emergency
Planning Recommendations

• Students, faculty, and staff should be trained
  annually about responding to various emergencies
  and about the notification systems that will be
  used.
• Universities and colleges must comply with the
  Clery Act, which requires timely public warnings
  of imminent danger.

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University Setting and Security Campus Alerting
Recommendations

• Campus emergency communications systems must have
  multiple means of sharing information.
• In an emergency, immediate messages must be sent
  to the campus community that provide clear
  information on the nature of the emergency and
  actions to be taken.
• Campus police as well as administration officials
  should have the authority and capability to send
  an emergency message.

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University Setting and Security Police Role
Training Recommendations

• The head of campus police should be a member of a
  threat assessment team as well as the emergency
  response team for the university.
• Campus police must report directly to the senior
  operations officer responsible for emergency
  decision making.
• The mission statement of campus police should
  give primacy to their law enforcement and crime
  prevention role.

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Law Enforcement Lessons Learned

• Campus police everywhere should train
  with local law enforcement agencies on
  response to active shooters and
  other emergencies.
• Police should escort survivors out of buildings,
  where circumstances and manpower permit.

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Campus Mental Health Services Recommendations

• Universities should promote the sharing of
  student information internally, and with the
  students family, when significant circumstances
  pertaining to health and safety arise.
• Incidents of aberrant, dangerous, or threatening
  behavior must be documented and reported
  immediately to a colleges threat assessment
  group, and must be acted upon in a prompt and
  effective manner to protect the safety of the
  campus community.

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Campus Mental Health ServicesRecommendations

• Colleges and Universities must have a system that
  links troubled students to
• appropriate medical and counseling services
• either on or off campus and
• balance individuals rights with rights of all
  others for safety.

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Campus Mental Health Services Recommendations

• Policies and procedures should be implemented to
  require professors and staff encountering
  aberrant, dangerous, or threatening behavior from
  a student to report them to the Dean.
• Reporting requirements must be clearly
  established and reviewed during annual training.

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Campus Emergency Management Lessons Learned

• A Unified Command Post should have been
  established.
• A Unified Command Post should have been staffed
  by those having statutory authority.
• In this incident, law enforcement would have been
  the lead agency.
• The Unified Command should communicate directly
  with EOC and policymaking group.

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Campus Emergency Management Lessons Learned

• Failure to open an Emergency Operations Center
  (EOC) led to communications and coordination
  issues during the incident.
• The EOC is usually located at a pre-designated
  site that can be quickly activated having 2 main
  goals
• Support emergency responders
• Ensure continuity of operations
  within campus community

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Campus Emergency Management Lessons Learned

• The EOC should NOT function as
  the incident commander.
• The policy making group should
  function within the EOC.
• A Joint Information Center should be established
  within the EOC to coordinate all public
  information.

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Campus Emergency Management Response
Recommendations

• A unified command post should be
  established and operated based on the
  NIMS Incident Command System
  model.
• An Emergency Operations Center must be activated
  during a mass casualty incident.

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Campus Emergency Management Recovery
Recommendations

• Recovery plans should include a section on victim
  services that addresses the significant impact of
  homicide and other disaster-related deaths on
• - survivors and
• - the role of victim service providers.
• When a family assistance center is created after
  a mass casualty event, victim advocates should be
  called in immediately.

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Campus Emergency Management Recovery
Recommendations

• Both short- and long-term counseling should be
  made available to first responders, students,
  staff, faculty members, and university leaders.
• Universities and colleges should work with their
  local government partners to improve plans for
  mutual aid in all areas of crisis response,
  including that of victim services.

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Source Mass Shooting at Virginia Tech April
16, 2007 Report of the Virginia Tech Review
Panel Presented by Ron Ellis, Director School
Campus Security Training Program Illinois
Terrorism Task Force rellis_at_isbe.net