Spring Break
Gunman opens fire in lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, kills 5 and himself
By CARYN ROUSSEAU and DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writers
Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: News
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Police say they have no motive for the rapid-fire assault, carried out by the gunman who fired indiscriminately into the crowd with a shotgun and two handguns as students dove to the floor and ran toward the exits. At least two of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.
"I kept thinking, 'Oh God, he's going to shoot me. Oh God, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead,'" said Desiree Smith, a senior journalism major who dropped to the floor near the back of the auditorium.
"People were crawling on each other, trampling each other," she said. "As I got near the door, I got up and I started running."
University President John Peters said four people died at the scene, including three students and the gunman, while the other two died at a hospital. The teacher, a graduate student, was wounded but was expected to recover.
Peters said the gunman was a former graduate student in sociology at NIU, but was not currently enrolled at the 25,000-student campus about 65 miles west of Chicago.
"It appears he may have been a student somewhere else," University Police Chief Donald Grady said. Authorities did not release any other details about the gunman or identify the victims.
Witnesses said the skinny gunman, dressed in black and wearing a stocking cap, emerged from behind a screen on the stage of 200-seat Cole Hall and opened fire just as the class was about to end around 3 p.m.
Officials said 162 students were registered for the class but it was unknown how many were there Thursday.
Lauren Carr said she was sitting in the third row when she saw the shooter walk through a door on the right-hand side of the stage, pointing a gun straight ahead.
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