A panel investigating the April 16 massacre at Virginia Tech questioned the university’s president today about campus officials’ response to two deadly shootings that preceded killings later that day that left 31 more people dead, the Associated Press reported.

W. Gerald Massengill, chairman of a state panel investigating the incident, asked the president, Charles W. Steger, whether the university should have sent an e-mail message to everyone on the campus after the first shootings that said, “We’ve had a shooting and the shooter has not been apprehended.”

The university did send out a message that morning saying that there had been a shooting in a dormitory and that the police were investigating. Mr. Steger told the panel that the university had not sent a more-urgent message because police officers initially thought the shootings were the result of a domestic dispute. He also said that university officials were worried about causing a panic.

The panel also heard testimony from law-enforcement officials and toured Norris Hall and West Ambler Johnston Hall, the dormitory. Mr. Massengill said the scene was “almost undescribable,” according to the AP. —Elyse Ashburn