Police 'sorry' killer's videos were broadcast

US police said tonight they were "sorry" hate-filled videos recorded by campus killer Cho Seung-Hui have been broadcast.

Virginia Police Superintendent Steve Flaherty said he was disappointed US channel NBC chose to show the disturbing footage.

He said officers studied the ranting speeches recorded by the 23-year-old South Korean murderer but they "simply confirmed what we already knew".

Although NBC News delayed broadcasting clips for several hours while FBI officers examined the footage, it has since been criticised for airing them.

Family members of victims cancelled plans to appear on NBC's flagship Today news show as a result, host Meredith Vieira said.

Mr Flaherty told a press conference in Blacksburg that police hoped the videos might help them understand why the massacre took place.

But he said there was little of meaningful value in the package of videos, photographs and documents.

"We are trying to determine what happened and as much as possible, why, why this terrible tragedy occurred," he said.

Asked if he was worried about a copycat killing, Mr Flaherty said: "I'm worried about absolutely nothing.

"A lot of folks that saw images that really were very disturbing, and do the type of things that those of us in my walk of life usually have to contend with and deal with ... I just think that a lot of folks are not used to seeing that type of image."

Virginia Tech University said all the students among the 32 people murdered on Monday will be awarded posthumous degrees.

Classes will resume on Monday as police continue to pore over "mounds" of evidence that has been collected.

Forensic examination of the crime scenes is almost over, police said. It was also revealed that officers have not yet spoken to Cho's parents.

More than 72 hours after the first shots were fired, attention has focused on a series of videos recorded by Cho and posted as a package during a break in the killing.

It was opened at NBC headquarters in New York yesterday, two days after Cho killed 32 people and then himself in the bloodiest shooting rampage in modern US history.

A postmark revealed it was sent at a Blacksburg post office at about 9am on Monday, around an hour and 45 minutes after the first shots were fired.

Police said most, if not all, of the footage appeared to have been shot before the shooting began.

They had previously been unable to explain what Cho was doing in the two hours between the first two deaths at a dormitory and the second classroom massacre.

The images, some featuring Cho brandishing weapons including guns, a knife and a hammer, have been broadcast around the world.

Professor Paul Harrill, of Virginia Tech University, said Cho may have been re-enacting scenes from a gory South Korean film.

The images of Cho, who moved to the US from South Korea as a child, bear a startling resemblance to images from Oldboy, an award-winning film.

Dressed in a black T-shirt, Cho is pictured swinging a hammer above his shoulder, and holding a handgun to his temple.

The hammer is the signature weapon of the main character of the film and Cho is photographed wielding it in the same distinctive style.

In the video package, Cho spoke in a rambling and sometimes incoherent monologue, his sentences filled with expletives and violent imagery.

The killer compared himself to Jesus Christ and said he died to inspire generations of "weak and defenceless people".

Cho, who studied English, appeared to be reading from a "manifesto" as he labelled fellow students "brats" and "snobs".

He said: "You have vandalised my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing.

"Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people."

NBC News president Steve Capus, to whom the package was addressed, said that in one clip Cho talks about the massacre, saying "this didn't have to happen".

He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" - a reference to the teenagers responsible for the Columbine High School massacre in 1999.

Yesterday it emerged Cho was held in a mental health unit after two women students complained about his behaviour in 2005.

Teachers and fellow students described a loner who barely spoke to others and who wrote "disturbing" violent fiction in creative writing classes.

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