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Illinois university gunman identified
The man who shot to death five people in a classroom at Northern Illinois University has been identified by school authorities.
- Agencies
- Published: 08:20 February 16, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Police said that students and teachers described Steven Kazmierczak (pictured) as a "fairly normal" person.
Dekalb: The man who shot to death five people in a classroom at Northern Illinois University has been identified by school authorities.
Police said that students and teachers described Steven Kazmierczak as a "fairly normal" person.
However, police said Kazmierczak had stopped taking medication and become erratic in the last two weeks, buying a shotgun and a handgun used in the shooting.
Kazmierczak entered the lecture hall on Thursday and fired at the crowd of at least 150 people, killing five and wounding 16 others. He killed himself later.
Campus police chief Don Grady told a news conference that the shooter's motive was not known and that there were no indications he had any relationship with any of his victims.
"Apparently he had been taking medication" but stopped and had become "somewhat erratic" in the last two weeks, Grady said. He did not elaborate.
One of Kazmierczak's advisers, Jan Carter-Black, described him as a good student. "I found Steven to be a very committed student, extremely respectful of me as an instructor and adviser," Carter-Black said.
School President John Peters said that the shooter had graduated in 2006 with an undergraduate degree in sociology and that "he had very good academic record".
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