Jennifer Donovan of Bethany, Conn., hugs her daughter, Rebecca, an engineering student, at a memorial at Virginia Tech. Robert F. Bukaty | Associated Press

His voice cracking and his eyes glistening, the man who has become the public face of the school — a silver-haired administrator named Larry Hincker — said yesterday the time had come for the university to move forward after four days of pain.

"We cannot let this horror define Virginia Tech," he said, just hours after helping fellow officials parry blistering questions from reporters about how the school dealt with a troubled killer-to-be.

"We are going to do whatever we can to try to get this place back on its feet again, while we remember what took place and do what we can (to) prevent anything like that happening again in the United States," he said.

Hincker's emotional appeal came on a day when Virginia's police superintendent criticized NBC News and other media for airing and publishing graphic, profane and disturbing vi

deos and photographs of Cho. Col. Steven Flaherty said the publicity only drew ill-deserved attention to a gunman that the families of the victims want to forget.

"We're rather disappointed in the editorial decision to broadcast these disturbing images," Flaherty said. He told the victims' families, "I'm sorry that you all were exposed to these images."

At a news conference hours earlier, school officials acknowledged that no one from the university had monitored Cho upon his release from a mental facility 16 months ago. They said the courts were responsible for ensuring that Cho followed up with required counseling after he was deemed a danger to himself and possibly others.

Court and psychiatric authorities are not required to notify school officials when a student is released from a mental facility, they said. And after Cho's release in December 2005, Virginia Tech officials said, the school received no complaints that he was violent or dangerous.

The fact that Cho had been detained for 24 hours of observation at a psychiatric hospital and then turned loose has angered many. The university has spent the past two days trying to explain why he was released in the first place, and why the courts, the healthcare system and the university all failed to track him afterward.

An 'imminent danger'

On Monday morning, Cho, 23, a senior majoring in English, killed 32 fellow students and teachers in a pair of shootings at the campus, then shot himself to death.

"He had broken no law that we know of," said Dr. Christopher Flynn, director of the Cook Counseling Center on campus. "The mental health professionals were there to assess his safety, not particularly the safety of others. So there is no necessity perhaps that they would notify everybody."

Cho, a South Korean immigrant, was clearly disturbed. He seldom socialized at school, rarely spoke and horrified his creative writing class with bizarre plays featuring violent episodes. The videos he recorded before his death show an angry, seething and delusional young man.

In December 2005, Cho was detained by campus police acting on complaints from two female students that he was stalking them. He was held at Carilion Saint Albans, a private mental health facility in nearby Christiansburg, Va.

At that time, Cho was judged to be an "imminent danger to self or others as a result of mental illness."

But his insight and judgment were deemed normal. He was released with a recommendation that he seek professional counseling, which he apparently never did.

School officials said yesterday that because Cho was released, it meant that a mental-health professional had decided that he was no longer a threat to himself or others.

"When they are released into the community, there is no necessary notification of the university," Flynn said. "The university is not part of the mental health system or the judiciary system, and we would not be the providers of mandatory counseling in this instance."

He added: "The judgments that are made at the psychiatric facility are not our judgments." And he said that mental health anti-discrimination laws required the university to allow Cho to return to class once it was determined that he was no longer a danger.

"The events we're talking about occurred 16 months ago," Flynn said. "We had not had any reports from women, from other students, about his behavior."

A campus police officer picked up Cho and escorted him for treatment after the stalking complaints; university police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his office notified the university administration that day.

"It was not a criminal matter," Flinchum said. "We had taken it as far as we could take it. ... After that, I do not know what happened to the case."

Sullen demeanor

Ed Spencer, associate vice president for student affairs, said Cho's roommate and suitemates also did not complain to university officials about "any violence or danger or whatever" regarding Cho.

Since the shootings, however, they have told eerie stories about his sullen demeanor and erratic behavior.

Some of the suitemates have said they complained to the school about Cho's scribblings on dormitory walls, to which Spencer replied: "There's a big difference between writing on a wall, being strange, different, weird and quiet — and being dangerous."

Just three weeks before the shooting, Virginia enacted a bill directing state public universities and colleges to do more to identify and assist students inclined toward suicide. Under the law, schools cannot expel students for engaging in suicidal thoughts or behavior.

Flaherty said videos and other items Cho mailed to NBC between the two shootings were of marginal value to the investigation.

"We already had most all of this information," he said. "The package simply confirmed what we already knew in many, many cases."

But he criticized NBC and other media outlets for sensationalizing the videos and photos of Cho.

Also yesterday, police obtained two search warrants for a Dell laptop computer and a Verizon cell phone belonging to freshman Emily Jane Hilscher, who was killed in the first shooting at the West Ambler Johnston dormitory. Authorities are attempting to see if Cho, with his history of stalking women by e-mail and phone calls, contacted her prior to the shooting.

Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine appointed a panel to review the police and university response to the deaths. He said retired Virginia state police superintendent Col. Gerald Massengill will chair the commission, which also includes former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.￷

IN HAWAI'I, DAY OF MOURNING

Gov. Linda Lingle and Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona have declared today a statewide day of mourning for the 32 victims of the shooting rampage this week at Virginia Tech.

"The people of Hawai'i join their fellow citizens in their grief," the governor and lieutenant governor wrote in a proclamation. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives or suffered deep physical or emotional wounds.

"Moving forward, we are united with the Virginia Tech community as it begins the process of recovery."