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Re: 5 shot dead, including gunman, at Northern Illinois University
(CNN) -- A gunman dressed in black walked from behind a curtain at the front of a large lecture hall Thursday at Northern Illinois University and shot 22 people, four fatally, then killed himself, authorities said.
Four of the wounded were in critical condition, eight in stable condition; and six in fair to good condition, a hospital Web site said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Cole Hall as 15 minutes remained in a geology class on ocean sciences that had started at 2 p.m., University President John Peters said.
"It started and it stopped very quickly," said Police Chief Donald Grady. The gunman, whose identity has not been revealed publicly, was not a student at the NIU campus in DeKalb, west of Chicago, but "may have been a student somewhere else."
Police do not have an apparent motive now, Grady said.
Kevin McEnery said he was in the classroom when a man dressed in a black shirt, dark pants and black hat burst in carrying a shotgun.
"He just kicked the door open, just started shooting," said McEnery, who was in the class at the time. "All I really heard was just people screaming, yelling get out. ... close to 30 shots were fired." Video Watch McEnery describe the chaos at the scene »
There are about 162 registered students in the class, which met in a large lecture hall.
"Witnesses say someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in the front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun," Peters said.
Grady shot from a stage at the front of the classroom, Grady said.
At 3:03, NIU police responded and, four minutes later, the campus was ordered into "a lockdown situation," he said.
At 3:20, an all-campus alert went out via the campus Web site, e-mail, voice mail, the campus crisis hotline, the news media and various alarm systems, he said.
"The message basically was: There's a gunman on campus, stay where you are, make yourself as safe as possible," he said.
Rosie Moroni, a student at the school, told CNN she was outside Cole Hall near the King Commons at 2:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. ET) when she heard shots coming from the classroom she had intended to enter.
The shot was followed by "a lot of people screaming," then people ran out the doors yelling, "He's got a gun, call 9-1-1," she said.
"It was complete chaos ... it's very scary here right now."
By 4 p.m. police had swept the area "and determined there was only one gunman" and that he was dead.
Grady said the gunman used three guns during his rampage -- a shotgun, a Glock and a small-caliber handgun -- and was still on the stage when he turned one of the guns on himself. The small-caliber handgun has not been recovered, he said. He said the shooter started with a shotgun, then switched to a pistol.
It appears that he acted alone, said Grady.
"As much as we do, it's unlikely that anyone would ever have the ability to stop an incident like this from beginning."
Classes were canceled for the rest of the day and Friday.
Seven counseling areas were set up throughout the campus and hotlines were established.
Most of the wounded were shot in the head, said Theresa Comitas, spokeswoman for Kishwaukee Community Hospital, about 10 minutes from the school.
Suzanne Mullis, hospital supervisor at Kishwaukee, said two of those in critical condition were flown to Saint Anthony's Hospital in Rockford, Illinois.
The 113-year-old school is 65 miles west of downtown Chicago and has an enrollment of more than 25,000. The campus covers 755 acres.
A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives told CNN that some of its agents were already on the scene to assist.
He said ATF agents could help trace the weapon or weapons used.
An FBI spokesman said several of that agency's agents were en route to the scene to assist.
- Gunslinger
- Rep: 88
Re: 5 shot dead, including gunman, at Northern Illinois University
I hate to see this happen again. My community hasn't even gotten over the Virginia Tech shootings yet.
- Gunslinger
- Rep: 88
Re: 5 shot dead, including gunman, at Northern Illinois University
It's up to 7 dead now.
I don't think the cash crunch has anything to do with it. We are all sick of the high gas prices, elevated food costs, less disposable income and so forth but let's face it...we aren't really hurting as bad as we would like everyone to think. We all have our creature comforts, electronic gadgets, and etc. Don't get me wrong we definitely have to fix the economy before the problem grows but I'm just saying that we aren't exactly "doing without" either. People attending Universities generally come from middle-class homes anyway. I doubt the guy was that bad off.
The problem is that people with mental illnesses are slipping through the cracks of our public school system. There has to be more attention to these needs at this level if we are going to try and control this problem.
The other problem is the media. When the VT students occured there were times that the media was acting like he was the true victim moreso than the innocent lives he took. I don't know how many times they read his "farewell note" but it was disgusting. He basically had his dream come true by having his words immortalized for every other future sicko to draw from, just as he had looked to the Columbine shootings before. The media worked it as much as possible in order to get ratings regardless of potential results. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this shooter was "inspired" by the treatment the media gave the VT shooter.
- DoubleTalkingJive
- Rep: 74
Re: 5 shot dead, including gunman, at Northern Illinois University
It's painfully obvious that metal dectectors are going to have to be installed in every school and college and besides that especially on college campus', armed guards are going to need to walk around these schools because this is happening almost every year and not only in colleges and schools, look at the mall shooting last year as well.. Something needs to be done, aside from banning all guns because that isn't gonna happen here, they need to take these other precautions because too many people are snapping and deciding to shot as many people as they can.
