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Feb 15, 2008 10:09 am US/Central
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6 Dead In N. Illinois University Massacre
Gunman Killed Five, Then Himself On Stage In Front Of Panicked Students
DE KALB, Ill (CBS) ―
A gunman opened fire on a geology class at Northern Illinois University Thursday afternoon, killing five people before taking his own life on stage as panicked students ran and ducked for cover.
NIU President John Peters said a total of 22 people were shot, including the gunman. Four people, including the gunman, died at the scene; two others died later at area hospitals.
Earlier, the DeKalb County coroner's office had said seven people had died, but Friday morning, coroner Dennis Miller said that was incorrect.
The gunman was identified Friday as 27-year-old former student Steven Kazmierczak, according to Florida authorities and a source familiar with the investigation.
Polk County, Fla., sheriff's officials said they were asked to notify the suspect's father -- Robert Kazmierczak of Lakeland, Fla. -- of his son's death.
"His son, Steven, was the shooting suspect at Northern Illinois University and ... he was deceased," said Carrie Rodgers, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.
The five victims have been identified. They are: Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Dan Parmenter, 20 of Elmhurst; Gayle Dubowski 20 of Carol Stream; and Julianna Gehant, 32, of downstate Meridian, according to the DeKalb County coroner's office.
All of the gunman's victims were students.
Officials said the gunman opened fire in a lecture hall shortly after 3 p.m. and the campus was immediately placed on lockdown. Police were on the scene within a few minutes, but the gunman had already killed himself by the time they arrived.
The shooting happened at a geology lecture class in Cole Hall. Officials said the gunman emerged from behind a screen at the front of the lecture hall and opened fire with a shotgun.
Police said the gunman, armed with a shotgun and three handguns, shot the teacher, a graduate student instructor, and several students before killing himself onstage in front of the class.
Witnesses described the shooting as "a very brief rapid-fire assault that ended with the gunman taking his own life," Peters said.
Sheila Cosgrove was taking notes in the fifth row when the gunman opened fire.
"He just walked out and just stood there on the stage and I guess he shot the teacher first, but I didn't see him shoot the teacher, I just saw him shooting at the crowd of students," Cosgrove said.
Ducking behind seats, she started to crawl away, finally reaching the rear door. "I just heard shots, boom, boom, boom, and then I just kept going, I kept going. I saw blood dripping on the aisle and I just got up towards when I got to the end of the chairs because I couldn't crawl anymore. I was right by the door. I stood up and looked behind me and he was still shooting; he was shooting towards the other side of the aisle and I kind of felt his glare kind of looking at me and I just turned around really fast and kept going."
Peters said the gunman was a former NIU student but was not currently enrolled at the school and was apparently taking classes at another state college. The gunman was a graduate student studying sociology at NIU in the spring of 2007.
NIU Police Chief Don Grady said the gunman acted alone, but that officials have not yet established a motive for the shooting. Officials said a preliminary investigation revealed the gunman had no criminal record and there was no record of him having any previoius contact with police.
Shortly before 10:30 p.m., police announced they had located the gunman's car and were searching it for evidence. Authorities had also contacted the gunman's family and would be questioning them to try and determine a possible motive for the massacre.
One of those wounded was graduate student-instructor Joseph Peterson, who was teaching the class. His injuries were not considered life-threatening.
A viewer who e-mailed CBS 2 said that her brother was in the lecture hall where the shooting happened. "He says that the gunman was a white male dressed in all black. He kicked the door in and opened fire. My brother dove under the desk, and popped his head up to see the gunman was reloading. He grabbed his girlfriend's hand and ran to the library where they been in lockdown since."
Katie Wagner, a student who was inside the classroom, told CBS 2 that there were 70 students inside room 101 at Cole Hall when the shooting happened. She said the gunman entered from a side door near the front of the lecture hall and started to fire shots.
She described the gunman as white, tall, skinny and wearing a black tee shirt - and maybe something red.
She said she went to the ground immediately and just started staring at the floor.
Most of the victims were rushed to Kishwaukee Hospital near the campus. From there, the more seriously injured were taken to hospitals with better equipped trauma units.
Since then, relatives from all over have been pouring into Kishwaukee Hospital be with their loved ones.
One of the shooting victims was about to undergo surgery at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove.
Meantime, at Kishwaukee, some parents were still arriving to see their injured children.
Eighteen of the 22 people shot at NIU were rushed to Kishwaukee. The community medical center was flooded with the kinds of traumas it does not normally see.
Medical technician Ann Rasmussen said, "I have kids and I was trying to keep my composure and stay strong because it's really scary."
Parents and NIU students ran inside to learn the conditions of their loved ones, among them Kathy Gajda, whose friend was shot in the arm and leg. Like most students, her friend was suffering from emotional wounds that will take longer to heal than the physical ones.
"I think anybody is in position would be in shock. I mean, it's kind of random. It's Thursday, you wake up, go to class, you know," Gajda said.
Student Don Hopkins said, "I never thought this would happen but it did and you gotta deal with it.
One of the six people killed in the rampage died at Kishwaukee. The hospital received a total of six patients who were later taken to other hospitals. Two of them were taken to St. Anthony Hospital in Rockford, one was taken to Rockford Memorial Hospital, and three were taken to Good Samaritan.
Patrick Korellias, a 22-year-old from Lindenhurst is spending the night at Kishwaukee. For now, doctors do not want to risk removing the buck shot in the base of his skull and his shoulder.
His mother tells CBS 2 it's a miracle he is alive.
So far, Kishwaukee Hospital has discharged eight patients and admitted three for treatment.
Survivors of the shooting spent the afternoon trying to process this horror and Thursday night they were trying to comfort one another. The shock was still raw and emotional scars take time to heal.
Counselors have been entering campus buildings throughout the night and the president of the university has cancelled all classes for Friday as students, faculty and staff members try to make sense of what happened.
Distressed student Lauren Carr was leaving campus Thursday night, heading home to suburban Carol Stream. She's been trying to shake off the traumatic images of that gunman opening fire in her classroom, an admittedly difficult thing to do.
"It's kind of like one of those things where you're just like 'Wait, what's going on?' You just kind of fight for your life and you crawl out and everyone's screaming. It's the worst thing I've seen in my life."
Des Plaines resident John Giovanni is doing the same. "He squared up...boom...we all dropped...I just got up and ran. I had to get out of there," Giovanni said.
The NIU junior was trying to make sense of the random, senseless crime and how it could happen here. "We thought security was pretty tight here. Who knows what's gonna happen next time. I mean I'm going to be in class from now on looking over my shoulder because if he would have come through the back door, I wouldn't be here right now, I would have been dead."
Other than police, the NIU campus was a virtual ghost town Thursday night. Most of its 25,000 students are inside or have gone home. Some were wondering if this shooting is in any way connected to a threat found on a dorm wall last December, warning of violence.
"Last semester, with the threats going on, we thought that they would enforce something beyond what they did and they completely didn't. I'm kinda angry," said NIU sophomore Brianna Tyler.
NIU was closed for one day during final exam week in December after campus police found threats, including racial slurs and references to shootings earlier in the year at Virginia Tech University, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a dormitory. Police determined after an investigation that there was no imminent threat and the campus was reopened.
Officials have insisted there is no reason to believe Thursday's rampage was connected to the threat in December. Connection or not, the day's violence has forever changed college life for many at NIU.
"I kind of want to transfer but it's not like you can get away from it no matter where you go, you know?" Carr said.
The campus alert system was used to notify students of the shooting Thursday afternoon and to warn them to seek cover and stay away from campus until police gave the all-clear. Some students said there was still a lot of confusion in some places about what to do and when it was safe to get around again.
For many NIU students, word of the shooting came from their fellow students instead of school officials. In what is really a sign of the times, students called each other, sent e-mails and text messages minutes after the shootings occurred,
An e-mail from the university went out more than an hour after the shootings, even though the NIU website reported a possible gunman on campus 20 minutes after the shooting began.
Thursday night, technology was playing an important role in the recovery process, as students were logging onto social networking websites like Facebook to share their thoughts about the tragedy.
The NIU Department of Public Safety is asking that any individuals who witnessed the Feb. 14 shooting, or who believe they have any information related to the shooting, call the University Tip Line at (815) 753-TIPS. Police will return calls as soon as possible.
The FBI is processing the crime scene and the investigation is being aided by the Illinois State Police, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, the State Crisis Management Team, the City of DeKalb Police, City of Sycamore Police, DeKalb County Sheriff's Department, the Ben Gordon Center and the DeKalb, Sycamore and Cortland Fire Departments, as well as FEMA.
Officials are scheduled to provide an update on the investigation Friday morning at a 9 a.m. news conference at the campus.
The following hotlines are available for students & parents:
- 815-753-1573
- 815-753-6143
- 815-753-1574
- 815-753-1575
- 815-753-9564
- 815-753-6257
Counseling is also available on campus for students at all residence halls and at the Neptune Dining Hall, Campus Life Building 100 and the Psychological Services Center in the Psychology/Computer Science Building.
CBS 2's Jay Levine, Dana Kozlov and Katie McCall contributed to this report.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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