Virginia Governor Names 6 Experts to Panel That Will Review Tragedy and Responses

By LAUREN SMITH

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Six members of an independent panel that will review the Virginia Tech tragedy were announced Thursday by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, along with an initial timeline for the process and for releasing the panel's findings.

The review panel's chairman will be W. Gerald Massengill, retired superintendent of the Virginia State Police, who led the state's law-enforcement response to the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon and the 2002 serial sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area.

Also on the panel will be seven other experts. Along with Mr. Massengill, the five already chosen are:

• Gordon Davies, a former director for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and a former president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

• Roger L. Depue, a retired administrator of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime.

• Marcus L. Martin, an expert in emergency medicine and an assistant dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia.

• Tom Ridge, a former governor of Pennsylvania and a former U.S. secretary of homeland security.

• Aradhana A. (Bela) Sood, who is chair of the division of child psychiatry and medical director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Virginia Treatment Center for Children.

Governor Kaine said at a news conference that panel members had been chosen for their expertise in specific areas important to the investigation. His staff is still seeking two more panel members: a retired judge with knowledge of mental-illness law in Virginia, and someone who has worked in the field of services to crime victims.

Mr. Kaine said the team would have "the expertise necessary to marshal this job without being so large as to be unwieldy."

The panel will conduct its review in three separate stages, Mr. Kaine said. First, it will study every piece of information available about Cho Seung-Hui, who has been identified as the gunman in the shootings. Panel members will ask about his interaction with the mental-health system, as well as about how he acquired weapons and how he learned to use them.

In the second stage, panel members will review the circumstances surrounding the shootings, minute by minute. Finally, they plan to investigate the response by the university, law-enforcement agencies, emergency medical personnel, the medical examiner's office, and others.

Panel members will make themselves available to meet with legislators and members of the public. Governor Kaine said the panel would begin its work as soon as possible, and he anticipates that a preliminary review could be completed by fall.