Illinois College Applied Lessons From Massacre At Virginia Tech

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Northern Illinois University Shooting

A 27-year-old former student opened fire in a Northern Illinois University classroom Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008, killing six students and wounding 16. The student, identified by the university's police chief as Stephen P. Kazmierczak, dressed in black, fired at random and then killed himself, according to officials.

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The gunman's father, Robert, did not shed any light on his son's actions. Emerging briefly from his single-story house in Lakeland, Fla., he told reporters: "Please leave me alone. I have no statement to make and no comment. . . . It's a very hard time for me. I'm a diabetic, and I don't want to go into a relapse." He then broke down in tears and went back inside.

According to Northern Illinois University records, Kazmierczak formerly served as vice president of the school's Academic Criminal Justice Association, a group dedicated to promoting knowledge of the criminal justice system, especially corrections and juvenile justice.

Kazmierczak chose mental health as his specialization in the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois, where he enrolled in a master's program last summer after leaving NIU. Two assistant professors there said they were not aware that he had any mental health issues and noticed nothing out of the ordinary about his behavior during their last casual interactions with him, in December and January.

Authorities identified the dead students, all Illinois residents, as Gayle Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Julianna Gehant, 32, of Mendota; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; and Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester.

The class instructor, a graduate student, was wounded but is expected to recover, officials said.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) said local, state and federal authorities will conduct a thorough investigation. "If there is a way where this tragedy could have been anticipated or stopped beforehand, we will find it," he said.

Preliminary assessments from students, safety experts and officials at other schools indicate that Northern Illinois University acted promptly and correctly during the incident.

University officials, using e-mail, the school's Web site and voice messages, immediately warned the campus community to stay put.

Students overwhelmingly said they were impressed with the school's response and did not think that school authorities could have done anything more to prevent the attack.

"Their response time was amazing. People might say they are just university cops, but they were great," said Jeff Myers, 20, a communications and military science major from Indianapolis. "They had this whole campus on lockdown in seven minutes."

The situation was much different after the Virginia Tech incident, when the university was sharply criticized for not notifying the campus community that two students had been found dead in a dormitory until hours later. In that time, Cho chained the doors at Norris Hall and went from classroom to classroom, shooting.

Although Virginia Tech is about 700 miles from the DeKalb campus, that the two are now permanently connected was clear by just a glance at online condolences. One Facebook message board bore the title "Hokies for NIU Huskies," and Virginia Tech voices topped the list on another titled "Once a Huskie, Always a Huskie. We're in This Together."

"From a Hokie who knows all too well the horrors you went through today, you are all in my thoughts and prayers," one student wrote. "Stay strong and lean on your fellow Huskies for support. It's what got us through here at Tech."

Vargas reported from Washington. Staff writers William Branigin and Josh White and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report from Washington.