WASHINGTON -- As the nation deals with the tragedy at Virginia Tech, a U.S. Senate committee held a hearing prompted by other recent high-profile shootings. Washington Sen. Patty Murray chaired the discussion focused on domestic violence in the workplace.

Tuesday’s Senate hearing was called after shootings earlier this month at the University of Washington and at the CNN Center in Atlanta. In both cases a woman was killed by a former boyfriend. It’s still unclear what motivated the Virginia Tech gunman to go on a deadly rampage, but police initially believed he may have acted after an argument with a girlfriend.

During her opening statement, Murray said, “We need to do everything we can here in Congress to save lives and prevent violence from reaching into our schools, homes and workplaces.”

Murray said her thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost loved ones at Virginia Tech and their loss “hangs over everything we’re doing in the Senate today and will for a very long time.”

In an interview with KIRO 7, Murray also said, “This just jars everybody and brings the issue of violence close to everybody’s heart and our need to really understand what happened, and to try to make sure we have all the precautions in place in every workplace and every campus to make sure we’re doing everything we can to prevent things like this from happening again.”