Perhaps they needed to suspend the account immediately to cover themselves legally? Besides most things at Google are automated. It's likely that a human didn't actually press the button that suspended the accounts.
Please do keep in mind: They digitally killed people here in something that looks like pure and petty spite from Google. Some of these people might have relied on their gmail account for their livelihood. (Think remote freelancers, etc.)
You can also look at it like this: The punishment is wildly out of proportion to the crime.