Lonskils
02-14-2008, 03:36 PM
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23171567?GT1=10856
DEKALB, Ill. - A gunman opened fire Thursday in a packed lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, wounding as many as 16 people, police and witnesses said. Police said the gunman was dead.
Police reported that the scene was secure and that the gunman was “no longer a threat” about an hour after the shooting, which occurred about 4 p.m. ET in Cole Hall. It was not immediately clear whether the man committed suicide or was killed by police.
Three people with head wounds were being treated at Rockford Medical Center, while Kishwaukee Community Hospital it had received 13 patients. Further information on their conditions was not available.
The university’s main campus is in DeKalb, a city of 40,000 nestled in a rural area about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. Its enrollment is more than 25,000.
Paul Sundstrom of Rockford, Ill., one of 150 to 200 students in the geography class when the shooting took place, told WMAQ that the gunman was a thin white man wearing a black “beanie” and a long black trench coat.
The man entered the room from the back, behind the professor, and began shooting without saying a word, Sundstrom said, firing in the general direction of the students. He emptied his clip of ammunition and calmly reloaded before resuming firing.
“He just walked in and just started shooting at people randomly,” Sundstrom said. “I crawled out to the main aisle, then just got up and ran and turned around and saw him shooting.”
Sundstrom added: “I just don’t know why anybody would want to do anything like this.”
Post-Va. Tech warning system used
In keeping with a new security system put in place after the massacre last year at Virginia Tech University, the university (http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=41.933205~-88.767675&style=a&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&sp=Point.qzp7707m2h90_Kings%20Common___~Point.qzp4 5b7m2b3q_Cole%20Hall___~Point.qzp2047m2j0d_Library ___&encType=1) issued an alert at 4:20 p.m. ET telling students to avoid Kings Common and buildings in the area. The university was locked down, and all classes were canceled through Friday.
<TABLE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 15px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 5px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/ArtAndPhoto-Fronts/USNEWS/080214/MAP_Dekalb_IL.gif</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Cell phone service in the area was overloaded. The university urged all students to send text messages to their parents to reassure them that they were safe and to aid in accounting for everyone.
David Shaffer got a call from his daughter, Lisa Mikolajewski, a senior, minutes after the shooting. She told her father she had not seen the shooting but was calling to let her parents, who live in Phoenix, know she was safe.
“She’s very upset right now because cell phone coverage is spotty and she can’t find out about the condition of her friends,” Shaffer said. “I advised her to get to her apartment, which is off campus.”
“She did not sound too shaken up; she was more concerned about her mother and me worrying,” Shaffer said.
A school spokesman told WMAQ that police investigated threats scrawled on a restroom wall Dec. 10, warning of a shooting on campus. The spokesman said the warning obliquely made reference to Virginia Tech massacre, but he said it could not be immediately determined whether the threat was related to Thursday’s shootings.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time that an unknown person posted bathroom graffiti in the Grant Towers D complex residence hall. It included a racial slur and the notation, “What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter.”
This breaking story will be updated.
DEKALB, Ill. - A gunman opened fire Thursday in a packed lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, wounding as many as 16 people, police and witnesses said. Police said the gunman was dead.
Police reported that the scene was secure and that the gunman was “no longer a threat” about an hour after the shooting, which occurred about 4 p.m. ET in Cole Hall. It was not immediately clear whether the man committed suicide or was killed by police.
Three people with head wounds were being treated at Rockford Medical Center, while Kishwaukee Community Hospital it had received 13 patients. Further information on their conditions was not available.
The university’s main campus is in DeKalb, a city of 40,000 nestled in a rural area about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. Its enrollment is more than 25,000.
Paul Sundstrom of Rockford, Ill., one of 150 to 200 students in the geography class when the shooting took place, told WMAQ that the gunman was a thin white man wearing a black “beanie” and a long black trench coat.
The man entered the room from the back, behind the professor, and began shooting without saying a word, Sundstrom said, firing in the general direction of the students. He emptied his clip of ammunition and calmly reloaded before resuming firing.
“He just walked in and just started shooting at people randomly,” Sundstrom said. “I crawled out to the main aisle, then just got up and ran and turned around and saw him shooting.”
Sundstrom added: “I just don’t know why anybody would want to do anything like this.”
Post-Va. Tech warning system used
In keeping with a new security system put in place after the massacre last year at Virginia Tech University, the university (http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=41.933205~-88.767675&style=a&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&sp=Point.qzp7707m2h90_Kings%20Common___~Point.qzp4 5b7m2b3q_Cole%20Hall___~Point.qzp2047m2j0d_Library ___&encType=1) issued an alert at 4:20 p.m. ET telling students to avoid Kings Common and buildings in the area. The university was locked down, and all classes were canceled through Friday.
<TABLE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 15px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 5px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="1%" align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/ArtAndPhoto-Fronts/USNEWS/080214/MAP_Dekalb_IL.gif</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Cell phone service in the area was overloaded. The university urged all students to send text messages to their parents to reassure them that they were safe and to aid in accounting for everyone.
David Shaffer got a call from his daughter, Lisa Mikolajewski, a senior, minutes after the shooting. She told her father she had not seen the shooting but was calling to let her parents, who live in Phoenix, know she was safe.
“She’s very upset right now because cell phone coverage is spotty and she can’t find out about the condition of her friends,” Shaffer said. “I advised her to get to her apartment, which is off campus.”
“She did not sound too shaken up; she was more concerned about her mother and me worrying,” Shaffer said.
A school spokesman told WMAQ that police investigated threats scrawled on a restroom wall Dec. 10, warning of a shooting on campus. The spokesman said the warning obliquely made reference to Virginia Tech massacre, but he said it could not be immediately determined whether the threat was related to Thursday’s shootings.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported at the time that an unknown person posted bathroom graffiti in the Grant Towers D complex residence hall. It included a racial slur and the notation, “What time? The VA tech shooters messed up w/ having only one shooter.”
This breaking story will be updated.