AGAIN?!?!?!?
Why?!?!?
This seems to happen almost exclusively (if not exclusively) in the U.S.
What's the deal?
School Shooting
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anonymous1980
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Thanks Magilla
WASHINGTON POST
Gunman at Illinois College Kills 5 Students, Wounds 16
By William Branigin and Christopher Lee
Friday, February 15, 2008
A gunman burst into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University yesterday afternoon and opened fire with a shotgun and a handgun, killing five people and wounding 16 others before taking his own life, authorities said.
The shooter, a thin white male dressed in black and wearing a stocking cap, went into Cole Hall on the university's campus in DeKalb, about 65 miles west of Chicago. He entered a science class through an emergency door and began shooting at students and a teacher, according to school officials.
"At last report, there are six fatalities, including the shooter," John G. Peters, the university president, told reporters at an evening news conference. "Four females and two males. Four were dead at the scene; two died later at the hospital."
He added: "All told, there were 22 casualties, including the shooter, that are either injured or deceased. As far as we know, all of the injured are students, including the instructor, who is a graduate teaching assistant, a graduate student."
Donald Grady, the campus police chief, said the gunman had no apparent motive. Peters said that the shooter was an NIU graduate student in the spring of 2007 but that he was not currently enrolled at the university.
Earlier, the university reported that 18 students had been wounded, four critically. It did not mention any fatalities. Kishwaukee Community Hospital said in its latest update that 17 victims were transported there, and that six in critical condition were subsequently flown to other hospitals. The hospital confirmed one fatality, described only as an "unidentified male" who was not the gunman.
Grady told reporters that the gunman apparently had a shotgun and two handguns, including a Glock, but that only one handgun was immediately recovered. He said the shooter, who appeared to have been acting alone, had not expended all of his ammunition.
Peters said in an evening news conference that the gunman apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the auditorium stage.
School officials also said they knew of no motive for the shooting, which took place near the end of a mid-afternoon lecture. The gunman emerged from behind a curtain near the stage of the lecture hall and began firing, they said. The man has been identified, but his identity had not yet been released last night.
"This is a tragedy, but from all indications we did everything we could when we found out," Peters said. "Our security people were there right away."
Grady said that police had found no credible threats to campus safety before the shooting, and that the incident appeared to be confined to Cole Hall, though police will continue to investigate it.
"It started and it stopped very, very quickly," he said. "This thing started and ended within a matter of seconds."
Grady said that police officers were at the scene within two minutes of the shooting and that a campus-wide alert was issued within 15 minutes. In its first alert to students at 3:20 p.m. Central time, the university said there was "a report of a possible gunman on campus" and urged people to "get to a safe area." Authorities confirmed 30 minutes later that a shooting had taken place and canceled classes.
The school later reported that "the immediate danger has passed" and that "the gunman is no longer a threat." Nearly two hours after it first reported the incident, the university announced that "the shooter is dead by a self-inflicted gunshot."
Officials said that the campus will be closed today and that students could go to residence halls for counseling. Northern Illinois University has about 25,000 students.
Peters, the university president, told reporters: "This is a campus, and like most campuses, it's fairly open. We've put in place so many security measures and we're reviewing them all the time. Unless you locked every door, I don't know how you really keep people out. I don't know of any plan that can prevent this kind of tragedy."
In April of last year, a student with a history of mental problems killed 32 people in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech before taking his own life, in the worst such incident in U.S. history. A review by a state-appointed panel after the shooting criticized Virginia Tech administrators for not taking quicker action in shutting down the campus, saying it might have reduced casualties.
Officials at Northern Illinois urged people to stay away from campus for the time being.
A witness told Chicago radio station WBBM that the gunman entered the science class through an emergency exit -- shotgun in hand -- and began shooting toward the middle of the lecture hall. The shooter then began firing toward the professor, according to the witness.
Sheila Cosgrove, a student who was in the room when the gunman started shooting, said in an interview on WBBM that he appeared to be aiming at certain people.
"He was quiet. He stood on the stage in the front of the room," said Cosgrove, who described the shooter as a white male, about 6 feet tall. "I saw him holding the gun, and it was huge. I thought it was fake, and then I realized he was actually shooting at people and I got down."
Cosgrove said in the radio interview that a student sitting behind her was shot, as was the teacher. Terrified, she crawled down an aisle to get to the door, getting blood on her jeans, and scrambled out of the building, she said. Despite temperatures in the mid-30s, she left behind her coat, wallet and cellphone and ran with a crowd of fleeing people toward the student center, she said.
Another student who was in the room, George Gaynor, said the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on," the campus newspaper Northern Star reported on its Web site. He described the scene as terrifying and chaotic. "Some girl got hit in the eye; a guy got hit in the leg," the paper quoted Gaynor as saying outside the hall minutes after the shooting.
Northern Illinois University faced a threat of violence as recently as two months ago. University officials closed the school for a day in early December and rescheduled some final exams after students found two separate threats scrawled on a bathroom wall in a residence hall, according to local news reports at the time.
The messages included racial slurs aimed at black students and references to the Virginia Tech shootings. Several black students were quoted in news stories as saying they felt unsafe on campus, even with an increased police presence.
In a Dec. 11 message to students, Peters said the graffiti was considered a "credible threat." He said school officials had ordered a police presence around final-exam sites after the campus reopened.
"Events of the past several days remind all of us that community is more than a word, and that threats against a group are a threat to us all," Peters wrote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn....&sub=AR
WASHINGTON POST
Gunman at Illinois College Kills 5 Students, Wounds 16
By William Branigin and Christopher Lee
Friday, February 15, 2008
A gunman burst into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University yesterday afternoon and opened fire with a shotgun and a handgun, killing five people and wounding 16 others before taking his own life, authorities said.
The shooter, a thin white male dressed in black and wearing a stocking cap, went into Cole Hall on the university's campus in DeKalb, about 65 miles west of Chicago. He entered a science class through an emergency door and began shooting at students and a teacher, according to school officials.
"At last report, there are six fatalities, including the shooter," John G. Peters, the university president, told reporters at an evening news conference. "Four females and two males. Four were dead at the scene; two died later at the hospital."
He added: "All told, there were 22 casualties, including the shooter, that are either injured or deceased. As far as we know, all of the injured are students, including the instructor, who is a graduate teaching assistant, a graduate student."
Donald Grady, the campus police chief, said the gunman had no apparent motive. Peters said that the shooter was an NIU graduate student in the spring of 2007 but that he was not currently enrolled at the university.
Earlier, the university reported that 18 students had been wounded, four critically. It did not mention any fatalities. Kishwaukee Community Hospital said in its latest update that 17 victims were transported there, and that six in critical condition were subsequently flown to other hospitals. The hospital confirmed one fatality, described only as an "unidentified male" who was not the gunman.
Grady told reporters that the gunman apparently had a shotgun and two handguns, including a Glock, but that only one handgun was immediately recovered. He said the shooter, who appeared to have been acting alone, had not expended all of his ammunition.
Peters said in an evening news conference that the gunman apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the auditorium stage.
School officials also said they knew of no motive for the shooting, which took place near the end of a mid-afternoon lecture. The gunman emerged from behind a curtain near the stage of the lecture hall and began firing, they said. The man has been identified, but his identity had not yet been released last night.
"This is a tragedy, but from all indications we did everything we could when we found out," Peters said. "Our security people were there right away."
Grady said that police had found no credible threats to campus safety before the shooting, and that the incident appeared to be confined to Cole Hall, though police will continue to investigate it.
"It started and it stopped very, very quickly," he said. "This thing started and ended within a matter of seconds."
Grady said that police officers were at the scene within two minutes of the shooting and that a campus-wide alert was issued within 15 minutes. In its first alert to students at 3:20 p.m. Central time, the university said there was "a report of a possible gunman on campus" and urged people to "get to a safe area." Authorities confirmed 30 minutes later that a shooting had taken place and canceled classes.
The school later reported that "the immediate danger has passed" and that "the gunman is no longer a threat." Nearly two hours after it first reported the incident, the university announced that "the shooter is dead by a self-inflicted gunshot."
Officials said that the campus will be closed today and that students could go to residence halls for counseling. Northern Illinois University has about 25,000 students.
Peters, the university president, told reporters: "This is a campus, and like most campuses, it's fairly open. We've put in place so many security measures and we're reviewing them all the time. Unless you locked every door, I don't know how you really keep people out. I don't know of any plan that can prevent this kind of tragedy."
In April of last year, a student with a history of mental problems killed 32 people in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech before taking his own life, in the worst such incident in U.S. history. A review by a state-appointed panel after the shooting criticized Virginia Tech administrators for not taking quicker action in shutting down the campus, saying it might have reduced casualties.
Officials at Northern Illinois urged people to stay away from campus for the time being.
A witness told Chicago radio station WBBM that the gunman entered the science class through an emergency exit -- shotgun in hand -- and began shooting toward the middle of the lecture hall. The shooter then began firing toward the professor, according to the witness.
Sheila Cosgrove, a student who was in the room when the gunman started shooting, said in an interview on WBBM that he appeared to be aiming at certain people.
"He was quiet. He stood on the stage in the front of the room," said Cosgrove, who described the shooter as a white male, about 6 feet tall. "I saw him holding the gun, and it was huge. I thought it was fake, and then I realized he was actually shooting at people and I got down."
Cosgrove said in the radio interview that a student sitting behind her was shot, as was the teacher. Terrified, she crawled down an aisle to get to the door, getting blood on her jeans, and scrambled out of the building, she said. Despite temperatures in the mid-30s, she left behind her coat, wallet and cellphone and ran with a crowd of fleeing people toward the student center, she said.
Another student who was in the room, George Gaynor, said the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on," the campus newspaper Northern Star reported on its Web site. He described the scene as terrifying and chaotic. "Some girl got hit in the eye; a guy got hit in the leg," the paper quoted Gaynor as saying outside the hall minutes after the shooting.
Northern Illinois University faced a threat of violence as recently as two months ago. University officials closed the school for a day in early December and rescheduled some final exams after students found two separate threats scrawled on a bathroom wall in a residence hall, according to local news reports at the time.
The messages included racial slurs aimed at black students and references to the Virginia Tech shootings. Several black students were quoted in news stories as saying they felt unsafe on campus, even with an increased police presence.
In a Dec. 11 message to students, Peters said the graffiti was considered a "credible threat." He said school officials had ordered a police presence around final-exam sites after the campus reopened.
"Events of the past several days remind all of us that community is more than a word, and that threats against a group are a threat to us all," Peters wrote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn....&sub=AR
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Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19377
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
Oh god, another one.
NEW YORK TIMES
February 15, 2008
Gunman Kills 5 on Illinois Campus
By MONICA DAVEY and SUSAN SAULNY
DeKALB, Ill. — With minutes left in a class in ocean sciences at Northern Illinois University on Thursday afternoon, a tall skinny man dressed in black stepped out from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall, said nothing, and opened fire with a shotgun, the authorities and witnesses said.
The man fired again and again, witnesses said, perhaps 20 times. Students in the large lecture hall, stunned, dropped to the floor.
Five people, all of them students, were killed, John G. Peters, the president of Northern Illinois, said at a news conference Thursday evening. Sixteen others were injured. Hospital officials said several of the students had been shot in the head.
The gunman, whom the authorities did not immediately identify, also died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mr. Peters said, noting that the man’s body was found on the stage. Police from the campus, in a snow-filled city of about 40,000 people 65 miles due west of Chicago, said three weapons were found with the man’s body — two handguns, including a Glock, and the shotgun. He had ammunition left over, the police here said.
The gunman had been a graduate student at the university in 2007 but was no longer enrolled, Mr. Peters said.
Desiree Smith, one of the university students, said she saw students fall down around her as the gunman opened fire. She tried to crawl away, she told a local television station, CLTV, thinking she was going to die, then wondered if she should play dead before getting up to run out of the classroom.
Ms. Smith said the gunman was wearing a black beanie cap or a ski cap. She said he aimed, right off, for one person: the classroom instructor.
Other students told of a chaotic scene in which panicked students dropped to the floor, the blood of victims spattering those who escaped injury.
“This thing started and ended within a matter of seconds,” said Donald Grady, the chief of police at the university.
The class in Cole Hall had been an introductory offering, and most of the 162 students registered for it had probably been freshmen or sophomores, said Jonathan Berg, chairman of the department of geology and environmental geosciences.
Mr. Berg, who was in his office about two blocks from Cole Hall when the shooting began, ran over and found injured students sitting on sidewalks, waiting for ambulances. Some had bandages on their heads, he said.
Mr. Berg said an instructor and a teaching assistant had been in the classroom along with students; he said he believed that the instructor had been wounded, but not seriously.
In the moments after the shooting, university officials put into action a detailed security plan created for just such an incident, Mr. Peters said. Many universities and colleges around the country designed elaborate lock-down and notification plans in the days and weeks after a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people on that Blacksburg campus, the worst shooting rampage in modern American history.
“This is a tragedy,” Mr. Peters said. “But from all indications we did everything we could when we found out.”
Shots rang out inside Cole Hall shortly after 3 p.m. Central time, Mr. Peters said. At 3:07 p.m., the campus was ordered into a lockdown, he said. At 3:20 p.m., he said, the university posted an alert on its Web site, through its e-mail system, and through another campus alarm system. “There has been a report of a possible gunman on campus,” the alert read. “Get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear. Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity.”
By 4 p.m., Mr. Peters said, the police had determined that there was only one gunman, now dead, and issued another message to students at 4:14 p.m. “Campus police report that the immediate danger has passed,” it read. “The gunman is no longer a threat.”
The authorities here canceled classes for the rest of the evening and Friday. Counselors had been called in, they said, and counseling was being offered in every residence hall by Thursday evening.
Leaders at the university said the events in Virginia a year ago had shaken many, but also led to a focus on security and the possibility of such an incident at Northern Illinois.
“Since Virginia Tech, people have had time to think about how to respond to these things, so it’s fresh on everybody’s mind,” Mr. Berg said. “And they’re trying to do everything they’ve been talking about for the last few months.”
Police officers arrived at the classroom within two minutes, Chief Grady said, adding that even with elaborate plans, it might be impossible to prevent such violence entirely.
Students here had heard of threats at the university late last year, a fact that left some wondering whether there might have been some connection to what had happened on Thursday. Last December, university officials canceled classes for a day during final exams after someone scrawled threats in a dormitory bathroom, including a reference to the Virginia Tech killings and a racial slur. The police here said Thursday that they had no reason to suspect a connection.
Chartered in 1895, Northern Illinois University is a public institution with more than 25,000 enrolled students, 91 percent of them from Illinois.
In Springfield, the state capital, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich declared a state of emergency after the shootings, offering state relief for expenses and the state emergency management agency to offer help.
“The State of Illinois will provide whatever assistance and support is necessary to university staff and students, and to local officials,” Mr. Blagojevich said.
Officials and students said they had yet to even start to come to terms with all they had seen.
Outside the dormitories on Thursday evening, it looked like the last day of school. Students streamed out of dorms carrying backpacks and luggage. A caravan of parents’ cars made its way onto campus to meet them, and many waited for their children in idling vehicles.
“You don’t think it’s going to happen at your university and you certainly don’t think it’s going to happen in your department to people you know,” Mr. Berg said.
“You don’t know how to react,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008....=slogin
NEW YORK TIMES
February 15, 2008
Gunman Kills 5 on Illinois Campus
By MONICA DAVEY and SUSAN SAULNY
DeKALB, Ill. — With minutes left in a class in ocean sciences at Northern Illinois University on Thursday afternoon, a tall skinny man dressed in black stepped out from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall, said nothing, and opened fire with a shotgun, the authorities and witnesses said.
The man fired again and again, witnesses said, perhaps 20 times. Students in the large lecture hall, stunned, dropped to the floor.
Five people, all of them students, were killed, John G. Peters, the president of Northern Illinois, said at a news conference Thursday evening. Sixteen others were injured. Hospital officials said several of the students had been shot in the head.
The gunman, whom the authorities did not immediately identify, also died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mr. Peters said, noting that the man’s body was found on the stage. Police from the campus, in a snow-filled city of about 40,000 people 65 miles due west of Chicago, said three weapons were found with the man’s body — two handguns, including a Glock, and the shotgun. He had ammunition left over, the police here said.
The gunman had been a graduate student at the university in 2007 but was no longer enrolled, Mr. Peters said.
Desiree Smith, one of the university students, said she saw students fall down around her as the gunman opened fire. She tried to crawl away, she told a local television station, CLTV, thinking she was going to die, then wondered if she should play dead before getting up to run out of the classroom.
Ms. Smith said the gunman was wearing a black beanie cap or a ski cap. She said he aimed, right off, for one person: the classroom instructor.
Other students told of a chaotic scene in which panicked students dropped to the floor, the blood of victims spattering those who escaped injury.
“This thing started and ended within a matter of seconds,” said Donald Grady, the chief of police at the university.
The class in Cole Hall had been an introductory offering, and most of the 162 students registered for it had probably been freshmen or sophomores, said Jonathan Berg, chairman of the department of geology and environmental geosciences.
Mr. Berg, who was in his office about two blocks from Cole Hall when the shooting began, ran over and found injured students sitting on sidewalks, waiting for ambulances. Some had bandages on their heads, he said.
Mr. Berg said an instructor and a teaching assistant had been in the classroom along with students; he said he believed that the instructor had been wounded, but not seriously.
In the moments after the shooting, university officials put into action a detailed security plan created for just such an incident, Mr. Peters said. Many universities and colleges around the country designed elaborate lock-down and notification plans in the days and weeks after a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people on that Blacksburg campus, the worst shooting rampage in modern American history.
“This is a tragedy,” Mr. Peters said. “But from all indications we did everything we could when we found out.”
Shots rang out inside Cole Hall shortly after 3 p.m. Central time, Mr. Peters said. At 3:07 p.m., the campus was ordered into a lockdown, he said. At 3:20 p.m., he said, the university posted an alert on its Web site, through its e-mail system, and through another campus alarm system. “There has been a report of a possible gunman on campus,” the alert read. “Get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear. Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity.”
By 4 p.m., Mr. Peters said, the police had determined that there was only one gunman, now dead, and issued another message to students at 4:14 p.m. “Campus police report that the immediate danger has passed,” it read. “The gunman is no longer a threat.”
The authorities here canceled classes for the rest of the evening and Friday. Counselors had been called in, they said, and counseling was being offered in every residence hall by Thursday evening.
Leaders at the university said the events in Virginia a year ago had shaken many, but also led to a focus on security and the possibility of such an incident at Northern Illinois.
“Since Virginia Tech, people have had time to think about how to respond to these things, so it’s fresh on everybody’s mind,” Mr. Berg said. “And they’re trying to do everything they’ve been talking about for the last few months.”
Police officers arrived at the classroom within two minutes, Chief Grady said, adding that even with elaborate plans, it might be impossible to prevent such violence entirely.
Students here had heard of threats at the university late last year, a fact that left some wondering whether there might have been some connection to what had happened on Thursday. Last December, university officials canceled classes for a day during final exams after someone scrawled threats in a dormitory bathroom, including a reference to the Virginia Tech killings and a racial slur. The police here said Thursday that they had no reason to suspect a connection.
Chartered in 1895, Northern Illinois University is a public institution with more than 25,000 enrolled students, 91 percent of them from Illinois.
In Springfield, the state capital, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich declared a state of emergency after the shootings, offering state relief for expenses and the state emergency management agency to offer help.
“The State of Illinois will provide whatever assistance and support is necessary to university staff and students, and to local officials,” Mr. Blagojevich said.
Officials and students said they had yet to even start to come to terms with all they had seen.
Outside the dormitories on Thursday evening, it looked like the last day of school. Students streamed out of dorms carrying backpacks and luggage. A caravan of parents’ cars made its way onto campus to meet them, and many waited for their children in idling vehicles.
“You don’t think it’s going to happen at your university and you certainly don’t think it’s going to happen in your department to people you know,” Mr. Berg said.
“You don’t know how to react,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008....=slogin