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Gunman opens fire on Ill. campus; up to 5 dead
Another lamer who couldn't just kill himself.
Shooter kills self after targeting students in lecture hall
NBC News and MSNBC
updated 14 minutes ago
DEKALB, Ill. - A man armed with two handguns and a shotgun opened fire Thursday in a packed lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, killing up to four people and wounding at least 17 others before killing himself, authorities said.
A spokeswoman for Kishiwaukee Community Hospital told NBC News that one person besides the gunman was confirmed to have died. She said six other victims were in critical condition.
The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times reported that university police Chief Don Grady confirmed there were five fatalities, including the gunman.
University Police Chief Donald Grady said police had identified the gunman, who he said was not a student at NIU but may have been a student at another school.
Grady would not name the gunman, who shot and killed himself on the stage in Cole Hall, which doubles as an auditorium.
Grady said police knew of no motive for the shooting, which occurred about 4 p.m. ET at the campus in DeKalb, a city of 40,000 nestled in a rural area about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. Its enrollment is more than 25,000.
Paul Sundstrom of Rockford, Ill., one of 150 to 200 students in the geography class when the shooting took place, told NBC affiliate WMAQ that the gunman was a thin white man wearing a black “beanie” and a black trench coat.
The man entered the room from the back, behind the professor, and began shooting without saying a word, Sundstrom said. Firing in the general direction of the students, he emptied his clip of ammunition and calmly reloaded before resuming firing.
“He just walked in and just started shooting at people randomly,” Sundstrom said. “I crawled out to the main aisle, then just got up and ran and turned around and saw him shooting.”
Sundstrom added: “I just don’t know why anybody would want to do anything like this.”
Threat closed school in December
NIU was shut down for a day in December after graffiti were scrawled on a restroom wall warning of a shooting on campus. A spokesman said the warning, which was discovered Dec. 10, made reference to massacre of 33 people last year at Virginia Tech University, but he said it could not be immediately determined whether the threat was related to Thursday’s shootings.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time that an unknown person posted the graffiti in the Grant Towers D complex residence hall. It included a racial slur and the notation, “What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter.”
In keeping with a new security system put in place after the Virginia Tech shootings, the university issued an alert at 4:20 p.m. ET Thursday telling students to avoid Kings Common and buildings in the area. The university was locked down, and all classes were canceled through Friday.
Cell phone service in the area was overloaded. The university urged all students to send text messages to their parents to reassure them that they were safe and to aid in accounting for everyone.
Witnesses describe scene of chaos
David Shaffer got a call from his stepdaughter, Lisa Mikolajewski, a senior, minutes after the shooting. She told her father she had not seen the shooting but was calling to let her parents, who live in Phoenix, know she was safe.
Shaffer passed along a Facebook message from his stepdaughter, who said she and her boyfriend were safe.
Mikolajewski wrote that her boyfriend “saw the shooter after he had been shot."
“Christine (my roommate) was forced into lock down which is why I couldn't find her. But she sent me a facebook message letting me know that she is safe and at a close friend’s house. So at least as far as I know my friends are safe. I hope it stays that way. No one can get a phone call out. So it’s pretty much chaos.”
Daley Hamilton of DeKalb, who was in Dusable Hall, next to Cole Hall, said he went down to the second floor and discovered a student lying on the ground.
“An administrator told us that the man had been shot,” Hamilton told msnbc.com. “She said he had been shot twice, once in the back and once in the leg. She said he had been dragged over from Cole Hall.
“He was breathing, and everyone was trying to stay calm. They told us not to leave, but I wanted to get home. I left Dusable and walked straight to my apartment.”
T.J. Johnson told msnbc.com that Molly’s, an off-campus bar and eatery, filled with people fleeing the shooting.
“In the last hour and 15 minutes I have seen ambulances from towns up to 30 minutes away rushing towards campus,” he said. “My phone has been on overload because of phone calls, text messages and voice mails, so it has been hard to contact family and friends.
“Everyone has gathered here at Molly’s to keep a close watch on what happens outside of our doors through various news stations and radio. We can only hope for the best for those who have been injured and their families.”
NBC News and MSNBC
updated 14 minutes ago
DEKALB, Ill. - A man armed with two handguns and a shotgun opened fire Thursday in a packed lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, killing up to four people and wounding at least 17 others before killing himself, authorities said.
A spokeswoman for Kishiwaukee Community Hospital told NBC News that one person besides the gunman was confirmed to have died. She said six other victims were in critical condition.
The Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times reported that university police Chief Don Grady confirmed there were five fatalities, including the gunman.
University Police Chief Donald Grady said police had identified the gunman, who he said was not a student at NIU but may have been a student at another school.
Grady would not name the gunman, who shot and killed himself on the stage in Cole Hall, which doubles as an auditorium.
Grady said police knew of no motive for the shooting, which occurred about 4 p.m. ET at the campus in DeKalb, a city of 40,000 nestled in a rural area about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. Its enrollment is more than 25,000.
Paul Sundstrom of Rockford, Ill., one of 150 to 200 students in the geography class when the shooting took place, told NBC affiliate WMAQ that the gunman was a thin white man wearing a black “beanie” and a black trench coat.
The man entered the room from the back, behind the professor, and began shooting without saying a word, Sundstrom said. Firing in the general direction of the students, he emptied his clip of ammunition and calmly reloaded before resuming firing.
“He just walked in and just started shooting at people randomly,” Sundstrom said. “I crawled out to the main aisle, then just got up and ran and turned around and saw him shooting.”
Sundstrom added: “I just don’t know why anybody would want to do anything like this.”
Threat closed school in December
NIU was shut down for a day in December after graffiti were scrawled on a restroom wall warning of a shooting on campus. A spokesman said the warning, which was discovered Dec. 10, made reference to massacre of 33 people last year at Virginia Tech University, but he said it could not be immediately determined whether the threat was related to Thursday’s shootings.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time that an unknown person posted the graffiti in the Grant Towers D complex residence hall. It included a racial slur and the notation, “What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter.”
In keeping with a new security system put in place after the Virginia Tech shootings, the university issued an alert at 4:20 p.m. ET Thursday telling students to avoid Kings Common and buildings in the area. The university was locked down, and all classes were canceled through Friday.
Cell phone service in the area was overloaded. The university urged all students to send text messages to their parents to reassure them that they were safe and to aid in accounting for everyone.
Witnesses describe scene of chaos
David Shaffer got a call from his stepdaughter, Lisa Mikolajewski, a senior, minutes after the shooting. She told her father she had not seen the shooting but was calling to let her parents, who live in Phoenix, know she was safe.
Shaffer passed along a Facebook message from his stepdaughter, who said she and her boyfriend were safe.
Mikolajewski wrote that her boyfriend “saw the shooter after he had been shot."
“Christine (my roommate) was forced into lock down which is why I couldn't find her. But she sent me a facebook message letting me know that she is safe and at a close friend’s house. So at least as far as I know my friends are safe. I hope it stays that way. No one can get a phone call out. So it’s pretty much chaos.”
Daley Hamilton of DeKalb, who was in Dusable Hall, next to Cole Hall, said he went down to the second floor and discovered a student lying on the ground.
“An administrator told us that the man had been shot,” Hamilton told msnbc.com. “She said he had been shot twice, once in the back and once in the leg. She said he had been dragged over from Cole Hall.
“He was breathing, and everyone was trying to stay calm. They told us not to leave, but I wanted to get home. I left Dusable and walked straight to my apartment.”
T.J. Johnson told msnbc.com that Molly’s, an off-campus bar and eatery, filled with people fleeing the shooting.
“In the last hour and 15 minutes I have seen ambulances from towns up to 30 minutes away rushing towards campus,” he said. “My phone has been on overload because of phone calls, text messages and voice mails, so it has been hard to contact family and friends.
“Everyone has gathered here at Molly’s to keep a close watch on what happens outside of our doors through various news stations and radio. We can only hope for the best for those who have been injured and their families.”
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