WASHINGTON—Some family members of the victims killed at Virginia Tech university canceled interviews with NBC Thursday because the television network aired video and photographs of the killer it received in the mail.
Police handling the investigation into the shooting also expressed disappointment at the airing of the images and rants by Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people and then himself in the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
"We had planned to speak to some family members of victims this morning but they canceled their appearances because they were very upset with NBC for airing the images," said NBC "Today" morning program co-host Meredith Vieira.
Cho, a student from South Korea mailed photographs of himself posing with the guns he bought and video railing against rich kids and debauchery. The package to NBC News was mailed after he killed his first two victims Monday morning but before he cut down 30 more people in classrooms.
While NBC acknowledged that the material from Cho were likely devastating to the victims' families and that its news division was split over whether to air the material, NBC News President Steve Capus defended the decision to do so, arguing it only showed a small amount of the images they received.
"This is I think as close as we will ever come to being inside of the mind of a killer, and I thought that it needed to be released," he said on MSNBC. "Pretty much every single news organization all around the world has made the same decision, that it was appropriate to release this information."
NBC said it contacted authorities as soon as it received the package on Wednesday.
Steve Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, said at a news conference Thursday investigators appreciated NBC's cooperation.
However, he added, "We're rather disappointed in the editorial decision to broadcast these disturbing images."
Flaherty said the package had turned out to yield little that investigators did not already know.
NBC is owned by General Electric Co.
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