NIU Shootings

NIU Gunman Identified As 'Revered' Former Student

Stephen Kazmierczak Described As Quiet, Motivated

URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (CBS) ― Northern Illinois University massacre gunman Steven Kazmierczak was described by the university's police chief Friday as "revered" by faculty and fellow students, and not one who would have been suspected to be violent.

Kazmierczak, 27, most recently attended graduate school at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, but had previously attended NIU, according to NIU police Chief Donald Grady.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports on the new details that have emerged about a man who caused so much heartache.

Word of a U. of I. connection started to spread around the Urbana-Champaign campus early Friday morning. The shock and surprise perhaps best described by Kazmierczak's faculty adviser and supervisor.

"He was energetic, motivated, responsible," said Prof. Jan Carter Black. "I enjoyed having him as a student in my class. I saw nothing troubling about his behavior in any way."

Kazmierczak was enrolled in a master's program in social work. His specialty was mental illness. What no one here seemed to know was that he himself had problems.

Kazmierczak had been on medication, but he had stopped taking it and had "become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks," Grady said.

He would not specify the condition that required the medication. Kazmierczak also spent a year at a Chicago-area psychiatric facility after graduating high school.

While most friends and acquaintances were shocked when they heard about Kazmierczak, but not all.

"He had a troubled past from what he told me and that he was at Northern because of scholarships," said classmate Hardeep Rooprai. "He wanted to basically better himself. He was trying to be a better person."

She said he's confided to her about a difficult family life and time spent in group homes.
Kazmierczak's father, who moved from Elk Grove Village to Lakeland, Fla., several years ago, wasn't up to talking about it.

"Please leave me alone. ... This is a very hard time for me," he said as he threw his arms up and wept. He declined further comment about his son and then went back inside his house, saying he was diabetic.

Kazmierczak's neighbors, at an apartment complex in Champaign said he and his girlfriend mostly kept to themselves.

Neighbor Martha Shinall last saw Kazmierczak on Wednesday.

She said he seemed "very calm, very quiet."

"When they're very quiet and they don't say much of anything, you'd probably have to sit with them to see if they had any troubled thoughts," Shinall added. "But he's very nice."

A spokesperson for the apartment manager spoke with Kazmierczak's girlfriend, who police told her, seemed to have no advance warning.

"She just let us know that she's safe and sound and with family," said apartment complex spokesperson Lisa Meid.

Investigators in Champaign came to what we can only describe as a backyard-shed gunshop where just last week, Kazmierczak reportedly bought two of the four weapons he used Thursday, including a 12 gauge shotgun. He had a current state firearms license, and no contact with police which would have prevented him from buying weapons.

There is also evidence of recent mail order purchases of a holster and magazines from the same Internet dealer who sold a pistol to the Virginia tech killer, raising at least some suspicion about a possible copycat crime.

Kazmierczak graduated from NIU with a degree in sociology in 2007, and had been a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honor Society. Grady said Kazmierczak had given a stellar impression to many he encountered.

"He was an outstanding student. He was an awarded student," Grady said. "He was someone who was revered by the faculty and staff and students alike."

The NIU Web site shows that Kazmierczak had been vice president of the university's Academic Criminal Justice Association.

He also worked on an academic article with NIU professor Jim Thomas about self-injury in correction al facilities. In the abstract of the February 2006 article, he was described as "beginning graduate work at Northern Illinois University. In addition to his interests in corrections, political violence, and peace and social justice, he is co-authoring a manuscript on the role of religion in the formation of early prisons in the United States with Jim Thomas and Josh Stone. He is also develops content for online education and is an executive board officer of the NIU student chapter of the American Correctional Association."

In applying for treasurer of the NIU American Correctional Association, he wrote: "Since attending NIU, I've worked very hard as a student, and I know that I would be able to forth the same effort as an officer of the ACA. I feel that I'm committed to social justice, and if elected as treasurer I promise to serve the NIU chapter of the ACA to the best of my ability."

"Many people go through life with mental health problems that they function with and learn to live with and don't present themselves as having those problems," said U. of I. professor Chris Larrison.

The bottom line: no one on this campus or in this community seemed to have a clue as to the murderous rage which resided deep inside what appeared to be a serious, quick, but laid-back young man.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine contributed to this report.

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