Five students, gunman killed in NIU shooting
More than a dozen injured; gunman commits suicide
DEKALB -- A former student dressed in black opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday afternoon, killing five students with a shotgun and two handguns before killing himself.
NIU Police Chief Donald Grady confirmed in a 7:30 p.m. press conference that six people have died – four females and two males, including the gunman. Four died at the scene, Grady said, and two died later at hospitals. The victims have not yet been identified.
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Another 16 victims were injured and transported to area hospitals.
Classes at NIU are canceled until further notice.
Lauren Carr said she was sitting in the third row of the lecture hall around 3 p.m. when she saw the shooter walk through a door on the right-hand side of the stage, pointing a gun straight ahead.
"I personally Army-crawled halfway up the aisle," said Carr, a 20-year-old sophomore. "I said I could get up and run or I could die here."
She said a student in front of her was bleeding, "but he just kept running."
"I heard this girl scream, 'Run, he's reloading the gun.'"
The gunman, a former graduate student in sociology who was enrolled at the university last spring, committed suicide after the short rampage in the geology class at Cole Hall. After stepping out from hiding and shooting for a few minutes, he shot himself on the hall's stage, authorities said.
School President John Peters said witnesses reported "someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun."
The shooter was armed with a shotgun and a Glock handgun, both of which police recovered. Grady said the gunman had another small caliber handgun, which was not recovered.
Police were notified of the shooting at 3:03 p.m., and had the school on lockdown by 3:07 p.m. By 4 p.m, a police sweep had confirmed the threat was over, Peters said.
According to officials there, 18 victims arrived at Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb. Six of the victims are in critical condition – three of them have been flown to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Downers Grove, two to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, and one to Rockford Memorial Hospital. One male taken to Saint Anthony died in the hospital.
Three of the victims have been discharged. Six are being treated, and two have been admitted to the hospital, with one confirmed dead.
The shooting was over quickly, according to Grady.
"At this point, I’m being told that it was less than two minutes," he said. "This thing started and ended in a matter of seconds."
Grady said it would have been all but impossible to have prevented the tragedy.
"I wish I could tell you that there was a panacea for this kind of thing, but you’ve noticed there’s been multiple shootings all over this country within the last six months," Grady said. "It’s a horrendous circumstance."
Grady said officials have not yet established a motive.
NIU was under a security alert Dec. 10 until the end of the semester after police found threats scrawled on a campus bathroom wall. Officials said the threats included racial slurs and references to the Virginia Tech shootings earlier that year. Security at residence halls and other buildings was stepped up.
NIU Board of Trustees chairwoman Cherilyn Murer said the school had reviewed its policies and prepared for an emergency like this in the wake of last year’s shootings at Virginia Tech. The school instituted an alert system, and she believes, was well-prepared. But it was still stunning.
"It’s a horrific situation," she said. "It’s very eerie. It takes your breath away."
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sent 15 agents to the scene, according to spokesman Thomas Ahern. He said information about the weapons involved would be sent to the ATF’s national database in Washington and given urgent priority. The FBI was also assisting.
NIU officials said 162 students were registered for the Thursday afternoon ocean sciences geology class at Cole Hall, which seats about 500.
George Gaynor, a senior geography student, who was in Cole Hall when the shooting happened, told the student newspaper that the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on."
He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic.
"Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor said outside just minutes after the shooting occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended, too."
An initial alert on the university's Web site stated there was a possible gunman on campus. "Get to a safe area and take precautions until given all the clear," the report advised faculty and students. "Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity."
Dru Hartman, a 26-year-old senior from Batavia, was awoken by his roommate and told of the shootings. He was supposed to be in the language lab at the time, and was driving to campus Thursday afternoon to find out more information.
"It could have been anybody today," he said, adding that not knowing the names of the victims or the shooter adds to the tension.
Mat Warrenfeltz, a senior from Batavia, said he was on his way off-campus when the shooting occurred. He said he saw a dozen or so emergency vehicles roar past him.
“My roommate called me immediately, and said open your window. I did, and I heard all these kids screaming,” he said.
Communications Studies Instructor Tim Pierce, who works across a courtyard from Cole Hall, spent about an hour locked in his office with another instructor and six college students. The students had been working in a lab in the building and had run to Pierce’s office because they knew the door locked.
"They were really freaking out," said Pierce, an Oswego resident. "One, every time there was knock on the door, she was yelling."
The following hotlines – listed on the school's Web site - are available for students and parents: (815) 753-1573, (815) 753-6143, (815) 753-1574, (815) 753-1575, (815) 753-9564 and (815) 753-6257.
