Northern Illinois Shooting

[Mr. Snackpants]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/14/uni...ing/index.html

DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) -- A gunman dressed in black stepped from behind a curtain at the front of a large lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday and shot 21 people, five of them fatally, then turned shot and killed himself, said university president John Peters.
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Rescue workers carry a victim from Cole Hall Thursday after a gunman shot 22 people during a geology class.
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Four died at the scene, including the shooter, and two later died at the hospital, he said.

At least 22 people, including a graduate student who was teaching an ocean sciences class, were shot, Peters said.

Seventeen victims were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, its Web site said.

Of those, six were in critical condition and were flown to other hospitals. One fatality, a male, was confirmed -- but was not the gunman, the hospital said. Two were admitted, and three others were discharged. The other five were not addressed on the Web site.

Four of the fatalities were female, said Peters.

Most of the injuries are head and chest gunshot wounds, a hospital spokeswoman told CNN.

The gunman started shooting from a stage in the room shortly after 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Cole Hall, officials said.

Police Chief Donald Grady said authorities do not yet know of a motive.

They know the identity of the gunman but have not released his name, Grady added.

The shooter was a graduate student at NIU in the spring of 2007. Currently he was not enrolled in there but, Grady said, "He may have been a student elsewhere."

Kevin McEnery said he was in the classroom when the gunman, 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 a student describe the chaos at the scene »

There are about 162 registered students in the class that met in the large lecture hall.

A student described the classroom as having four exits - two at the front and two at the rear. "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.

At 3:03 p.m., NIU police responded, and four minutes later, the campus was ordered into "a lockdown situation," Grady 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.
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"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 man used three guns during his rampage -- a shotgun, a Glock pistol 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, Grady said.

"As much as we do, it's unlikely that anyone would ever have the ability to stop an incident like this from beginning," he said.

Events and classes were canceled until further notice, Peters said.

Seven counseling areas were set up throughout the campus, and hotlines were established.

Security around campus was increased In December when police found threats scrawled on a campus bathroom wall that included racial slurs and references to last April's Virginia Tech killings. Learn about other recent school shootings »

One of the threats said "things will change most hastily" in the final days of the semester.

Peters said there is no evidence that points to a link between the December incident and Thursday's shooting.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared a state of emergency, which will open the governor's disaster fund to reimburse local government entities for "extraordinary expenses related to the response in NIU DeKalb" and will allow the state Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance, the governor's office said in a statement.

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. See a map of where the shooting took place »

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.
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He said ATF agents could help trace the weapon or weapons used.

The FBI is processing the crime scene, and the ATF is helping to interview witnesses, Peters said.

CNN reports 22 shot and 5 dead. He took out the professor first and shot himself on stage.

Crazy. Two years in a row now. A Valentines Day Massacre. It could happen anywhere. Are these shootings "inspiring" more ****ed up people to do the same? It's scary.

[Machias Banshee]

It's sad... people see this being broadcasted on the news and think, 'hey, I wanna be known like that...', and sneak semi-automatics onto school grounds. It's like the douchbag at Va Tech. He Purposefully made a videotape and sent it to NBC just before killing those poor people..

And the more the news drags this kinda stuff through the airwaves to get Ratings, the worse it gets. They should NEVER show these bastards' faces... let them be faceless scum on the fast track to hell...

*sure is glad she's not at college anymore*

[Dr. Doom]

I think I know some people at NIU...

[tone-master21]

I know about 20 or so people who go to NIU luckily they are all okay. I live about 50 miles away from the campus.

[Revan]

Check out what's going on
http://www.sdsucollegian.com/media/s...-3192028.shtml

House passes bill allowing guns on campus
Lawmakers pass legislation on to Senate, but want to see universities develop campus crisis plans.


"We're not suggesting that students carry guns. We're clarifying the law that says these college students are adults and have the same rights as all citizens," Majority leader Rep. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center said.

Joel Dykstra, R-Canton, also supported the measure. "What we're talking about is a fundamental principal of the American constitution," he said.

Rep. Richard Engels, D-Hartford, agreed but said that all constitutional rights are subject to regulation. This regulation should only be done by the legislative body rather than higher education institutes, he said.

Despite the majority of the floor supporting the bill, there were some safety concerns.

"I'm concerned with the accidental shootings," Rep. Bill Thompson, D-Sioux Falls said. Many deaths are the direct result of firearms and adding alcohol to the situation, which often happens on campuses, makes for even greater danger, Thompson said.

According to Rep. Larry Lucas, D-Mission, this bill isn't the answer to safety concerns.

"We're all concerned for the safety of our campuses. We should instead see a crisis plan on our campuses," Lucas said.

The bill now moves to the Senate for approval.

Think this^ is a good idea? Well it may not matter because the courier-journal reports it probably won't pass. but should it?

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/.../1024/NEWS0101

[愛]

This is a terrible article. I don't see anyone blaming Doom, Duke Nukem and Halo for what the gunman did.

[Mr. Snackpants]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

Check out what's going on
http://www.sdsucollegian.com/media/s...-3192028.shtml



Think this^ is a good idea? Well it may not matter because the courier-journal reports it probably won't pass. but should it?

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/.../1024/NEWS0101

My roomates and I were talking about this. It would be nice to be able to protect yourself, but everyone having guns could lead to many more disputes.

[愛]

Oh whew, Jack Thompson to the rescue.

http://kotaku.com/356999/jack-thomps...on-video-games

[jeff the cheff]

Originally Posted by Neutrino

Check out what's going on
http://www.sdsucollegian.com/media/s...-3192028.shtml



Think this^ is a good idea? Well it may not matter because the courier-journal reports it probably won't pass. but should it?

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/.../1024/NEWS0101

I like it.

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by Ai

Oh whew, Jack Thompson to the rescue.

http://kotaku.com/356999/jack-thomps...on-video-games

And there's a bunch of dumb asses for you there. There really isn't any one person you can blame except for the gun men. It's a sad situation, but I play video games, and I have no intentions of going to a school or my job and shooting up the place. But I will say, kids today are very impressionable. This slew of school shootings seem to be the work of copycats or people sickly inspired by the Columbine incident.

Geeze, you got kids that think it's fun to choke themselves to get a high? WTF? Maybe it's in the vaccinations, all that mercury is actually screwing up the kids more than the doctors and scientists are willing to admit.

[Type 97 Chi-ha]

I went to NIU for two years (1984-1986) and my mother went there in the 1970's to complete her master's degree in education. So this story does hit quite close to home for both of us. (Actually, in a couple of classes one man announced there was a bomb threat, which nobody took seriously, and classes continued as scheduled.)

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

And there's a bunch of dumb asses for you there. There really isn't any one person you can blame except for the gun men. It's a sad situation, but I play video games, and I have no intentions of going to a school or my job and shooting up the place. But I will say, kids today are very impressionable. This slew of school shootings seem to be the work of copycats or people sickly inspired by the Columbine incident.

Well, if these pseudo-psycologists actually picked up any freaking history from stuff like this, they'd realise it is nothing more than copy catting. There were no shcool shootings until 1999. And even if most of them were idle threats cobbled together by people who would crap themselves, they still saw someone shooting up a school, and said, "My life sucks, I want to do that too."

What person in their right mind says, "You know what's fun? GTA. Hey! GTA is like real life. I get points for shooting cops and raping women! YAY! I'll do what the game told me to do."? What person in any mind says that? Basically what we have here are people who somehow felt they were wronged and want people to pay for it. I don't see how any video game inspires that, especially the ones mentioned. I'd believe the conspiracy that these new games are designed to make people fight in wars, and that they're all sponsered by the government (don't ask me where I got that one ) before I believe that.

If any outside source is to blame, maybe it's the media for giving into what the shooters want- attention.

[Cure]

Originally Posted by Drtooth

"You know what's fun? GTA. Hey! GTA is like real life. I get points for shooting cops and raping women! YAY! I'll do what the game told me to do."?

You don't rape women in GTA. You can kill prostitutes to get your money back, but never rape them.

[Type 97 Chi-ha]

Actually there were a series of elementary school shootings back in the 1980's. There was one which got a lot of attention, and of course there were copycats shortly afterward. So yes, I agree the media is at fault for giving these people attention.

[Warhorse]

Originally Posted by Drtooth

If any outside source is to blame, maybe it's the media for giving into what the shooters want- attention.

I can see that. My cousin told ne she doesn't watch the news because all it shows or covers is bad news. I've been watching the news closely, and she's right, all they care about is the bad. Once in a blue moon, you might see a feel good story, but not often. It's all about the shootings, murderes, corruption, greed, stock markets falling, prices inflating, wars, etc....Never ending.

Only light hearted news I can think of lately is the great Superbowl we had.

[Mr. Snackpants]

Originally Posted by Warhorse

I can see that. My cousin told ne she doesn't watch the news because all it shows or covers is bad news. I've been watching the news closely, and she's right, all they care about is the bad. Once in a blue moon, you might see a feel good story, but not often. It's all about the shootings, murderes, corruption, greed, stock markets falling, prices inflating, wars, etc....Never ending.

Only light hearted news I can think of lately is the great Superbowl we had.

I've been telling my family this for years. They don't understand why I hate watching the news. It's become pointless because I can just find out what I need to know on the web without the depressing ****.

[Voltron]

Originally Posted by Type 97 Chi-ha

Actually there were a series of elementary school shootings back in the 1980's. There was one which got a lot of attention, and of course there were copycats shortly afterward. So yes, I agree the media is at fault for giving these people attention.

It has become popular to do this, hasn't it? The thing that gets me, though, is that it's approaching a decade long string of this. Weird.

When you think about it, there's no sure-fire way to prevent this. Unless we lock down the entire country with check points and "pat down" stations, institute rigid laws and numerous checks, and throw away half the Bill of Rights, we're not going to put a dent in this behavior. It's just one of the risks you take stepping out into the world every day.

How sad.

[BubblyShell22]

And another campus shooting hits the news. This is so horrible and hits close to home for me, too, even though I live in Indiana. It's still not too far from where I live, which is why this scares me. It's horrible to think people would do this to themselves and others. I, too, rarely watch the news at all because of all the death and murders they show. Good things are happening in Iraq, but you never hear of them. You only hear of the suicide bombings and things like that.

My thoughts go out to the victims' families and friends as well as the gunman's family. I heard this weekend that he was on medication, but had stopped taking this.

The only good thing I heard today was that Ryan Newman won the Daytona 500.

[Revan]

Just heard a statement from his girlfriend on the radio.

She said he was on anti-depressants but had ceased taking them because they made him "feel like a zombie"

[Jon]

I had heard that he was on medication (though didn't say what type) on the news. And apparently had gotten his weapons from the same shop as the Virginia Tech shooter.
* Just have to say here -- what the heck, does that place not check out about the people before giving them the weapons?!