Shooter: "This is where it all ends"

BLACKSBURG, VA (AP/WIS) - NBC is defending its decision to use the video it received from the gunman at Virginia Tech, but it's promising to limit how much it shows in the future.

A statement from the network says it covered the shooting deaths of 32 people and its "unique role" in the story with "extreme sensitivity."

But after the footage was shown, some upset family members of victims canceled interview appearances on the "Today" show.

"Today" host Matt Lauer said this morning that NBC and its MSNBC cable outlet will "severely limit" the use of the pictures.

Police in Virginia also criticized the network for what it showed.

Other networks have also pledged to limit how much the footage is shown, and Fox News says it will no longer air the material because "sometimes you change your mind."

The pictures, videos and a manifesto were mailed to NBC News by the gunman Cho Seung-Hui apparently during the two hours between his fatal attacks on campus.

It is the voice that even students who lived with Cho Seung-Hui rarely heard.

But now the world is getting a disturbing glance at the man blamed for the worst school shooting in US History, through 43 still pictures, a 23 page rambling manifesto and 27 video clips laced with profanity and haunting words.

In a videotape, Cho says, "You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood."

The 23-year-old rails against religion, society and the rich.

He talks about getting even and refers to the killers at Columbine high school and Jesus Christ.

Cho says "you just love to crucify me."

NBC News received the package Wednesday morning and then contacted the authorities.

NBC News President Steve Capus says, "The Virginia State Police made what I thought was a reasonable request, and that is to not go public with this information until they had a chance to review the information and take a look at it, and we worked together on the release of it."

The images and tapes are just one more look into the killer's troubled mind. We now know campus police had been alerted to his odd behavior in 2005 and that Cho was temporarily detained in a mental health facility around the same time.

For those who survived, the images are another painful reminder of all this campus has already seen.

Virginia Tech student Ryann Fowler says, "I'd call them ramblings of somebody that's very sick and that needed help and there's nothing that he's going to say that's going to make it right."

Another Virginia Tech student says Cho Seung-Hui's final manifesto shows someone who had "completely lost his mind."

Senior Adam Kress watched the video of the profanity-filled diatribe at a Blacksburg, Virginia, restaurant. Some students watched in stunned silence, while other people cringed and mothers
turned their children away from the television.

The latest developments may give them new insight into the mind of a killer but only seem to deepen the pain in their hearts.

Virginia's retired state police superintendent says it's too early to judge Virginia Tech officials on their handling of Monday's deadly campus rampage.

W. Gerald Massengill has been named to lead the panel that will conduct the state's investigation into what happened.

He says he has no preconceived notions about the university's decision not to order a campus-wide lockdown after two people were found shot in a dormitory. The shootings in an academic building happened about two hours later.

Massengill says the university's response will be just one focus of his panel's review after police finish their criminal investigation.

His grandfather says Cho Seung Hui was "well-behaved" as a child in South Korea, but his parents were worried about his speech problems.

The 81-year-old man also tells a South Korean newspaper: "How could he have done such a thing if he had any sympathy for his parents?"

Relatives say they've had little contact with Cho's family since they moved to the US in 1992.

Meanwhile, South Koreans mourned the deaths of those killed in the Virginia Tech shootings at a special church service Thursday.

Some people fought back tears and said they fell guilty that a fellow South Korean was responsible for the massacre.

Copyright 2007 Raycom Media. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AP and NBC contributed to this report.