Gunman's video shocks families

By Andrea Hopkins

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - A videotaped diatribe by the Virginia Tech gunman shocked victims' families and mesmerized television viewers, but police said on Thursday it yielded little for their investigation of the campus massacre.

Still grieving, students at the university expressed disgust at self-made photos and a disturbing video the killer mailed to NBC News on Monday when he paused during the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.

Police handling the investigation criticized the airing from Wednesday evening of the images and rants by Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people and then himself at the sprawling campus in southwestern Virginia.

State police chief Steve Flaherty said victims' families and the Virginia Tech community had been badly struck not only by tragedy but by the intense media attention surrounding it.

Cho's video manifesto brandishing guns and ranting at times incoherently drew wall-to-wall U.S. news coverage.

"The world has endured a view of life that few of us would or should ever have to endure," Flaherty told a news conference. "I'm sorry you all were exposed to these images."

Campus authorities have also faced questions after it emerged that they had become aware of Cho's troubled mental state 17 months before he went on his killing spree.

University officials insisted they had no responsibility for monitoring Cho's psychiatric care after he was said to have been suicidal in 2005 and was sent to a mental health center.