The 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting was a school shooting that took place on Thursday, February 14, 2008, at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb, Illinois. Steven Kazmierczak, a 27-year-old 2006 NIU graduate, opened fire with a shotgun and three pistols in a crowd of students on campus, killing 5 students and injuring 17 more people, before fatally shooting himself.
The shooting happened at the campus's Cole Hall at approximately 3:05 p.m. Central Standard Time. The school placed the campus on lockdown; students and teachers were advised to head to a secure location, take cover, and avoid the scene and all buildings in the vicinity of the area.
After the shooting, the university administration cancelled classes for the rest of the week as well as the following week.
It is the deadliest school shooting in Illinois history.
Events
Preparations
The night before the shooting, Kazmierczak called his girlfriend Jessica Baty to say goodbye and ask her not to forget about him. Baty told CNN that she had no idea that he could have been planning something. On Valentine's Day or the day that followed, Baty received two packages sent by Kazmierczak to her home in Wonder Lake, Illinois. The delivery included a copy of the book The Antichrist, a gun holster, ammunition, and a goodbye note thanking her for supporting him and wishing her a good future as a psychologist or social worker.
Scene and entrance
At approximately 3:05 p.m. CST, on February 14, 2008, Steven Kazmierczak entered a large auditorium-style lecture hall in Cole Hall (Auditorium 101), where an oceanography class was in session with approximately 120 students present. Kazmierczak was wearing dark brown boots with laces, jeans, a black T-shirt with the word "Terrorist" imposed over an image of an assault rifle, a coat, a black knit hat, and a black utility belt with two magazine holsters, a holster for a handgun, three handguns (a 9mm Glock 19, a .380 ACP SIG Sauer P232, and a .380 ACP Hi-Point CF-380), eight loaded magazines, and a knife. He also carried in a 12 gauge Remington Sportsman 48 shotgun concealed in a guitar case. He opened the auditorium door with such extreme force that many witnesses described him as "kicking the door in", entering at the extreme southwest corner, near the stage in front of the classroom, and began firing at the students. Police said that he was wearing a t-shirt with the word Terrorist on it.
Shooting
He next shot at the instructor, who was standing on the east side of the stage. The instructor tried to run out the exit at the southeast corner, but that door was locked. The instructor then ran out through the main exit at the east end of the classroom, through which the students were trying to leave. Some students who were not able to immediately escape hid under or in between the seats. When Kazmierczak paused to reload after firing three rounds, some students shouted "He's reloading," and began to escape. Others continued to hide or were too shocked to react. One of the victims, student Maria Christiansen, was critically struck in the face and neck. Christiansen would survive and later become an officer in the NIU Police Department.
After shooting all six shotgun rounds, Kazmierczak fired on the room's remaining occupants with the 9mm Glock pistol, firing a total of approximately 50 rounds. He was reported to have walked up and down the west aisle and directly in front of or on the stage, firing at people as he went. He shot and killed himself before police reached the room. The police recovered 55 unfired rounds of ammunition from the scene, including two fully loaded magazines containing rounds for a .380 semi-automatic pistol.
In a span of six minutes, Kazmierczak killed five students and injured several others before committing suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A total of 18 people were shot, six of whom died (including the perpetrator, who shot himself before police arrived). One witness reported that the gunman shot "at least" 30 rounds, with police later confirming that they had collected 48 cartridge cases and 6 shotgun shells.
At the time of the shootings, Kazmierczak was a graduate student in the school of social work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a former NIU Sociology graduate student. NIU Police Chief Donald Grady described him as "an outstanding student" who reportedly had stopped taking psychiatric medication recently and became "somewhat erratic."
Emergency response
The first 9-1-1 call of an active shooter was reported at 3:06 p.m. Seven seconds later, NIU police officers were notified by the dispatcher. At 3:06:33 p.m., NIU police officers Ayala and Zimberoff responded and told dispatchers that they were in the area. Driving northbound on Normal Road near Swen Parson Hall, they encountered students running east from the Martin Luther King Commons area. One student shouted, "He's shooting over there," pointing west towards the MLK Commons area. Officer Hodder was also driving in the area and encountered the same frenzy.
The officers proceeded in their vehicles, then on foot, joining Chief Grady, Lieutenant Mitchell, and Lieutenant Henert, who had reached the west side of the Commons area after coming directly from the Police Station. Also racing to Cole Hall from the Police Station were Sergeant Ellington and Officer Wright. Sergeant Holland was on patrol just south of the area along Lincoln Highway when he heard the call come in, and approached the area. In the MLK Commons, Chief Grady advised the officers to immediately begin attending to victims and identify witnesses and direct them to a room in Holmes Student Center, where they could be interviewed. Some of the officers began attending to injured students who were running from the scene.
While Henert established perimeters around Cole Hall, Mitchell and Grady entered the building, where they met with Holland, Ellington, and Wright. Ellington, the first officer to arrive on the scene, evacuated the adjacent auditorium, and met with the other officers in the front walkway. Holland was instructed to remain in the hallway to ensure no one came into the auditorium and that the shooter did not come out. Grady, Mitchell, Ellington, and Wright entered the south auditorium, discovering a body on the stage, surrounded by guns, with a pool of blood coming from the head. Victims with varying injuries lay on the floor or were propped up against the seats. Confirming there were no immediate threats, Grady and Mitchell began attending to victims, while Ellington and Wright confirmed that the shooter was dead. At 3:11:42 (five minutes after the first 911 call), Ellington reported to the dispatcher, "Shooter's down. Shotgun's secure. We need an ambulance and the coroner at Cole Hall."
At the same time that officers arrived at Cole Hall, Sergeant Rodman, who had left a meeting at the Holmes Student Center, arrived at the west entrance of that building to find a shooting victim who had been shot in the back and the head, along with another victim who had blood on the face, seeking help for his injured friend. Rodman attended to the most severely wounded victim.
By 3:11 p.m., a DeKalb Fire Department ambulance was the first to arrive on the scene and was staged in a nearby parking lot. The parking lots near the Field House were used as a staging area for ambulances and fire trucks that arrived from throughout the region. At 3:13 p.m., Sergeant Ellington advised that there were at least two deaths. Officers encountered several problems, including a piercing fire alarm that had been pulled, as well as very high radio traffic and static that made it hard to hear radio calls come in. In addition, due to conflicting reports (including the presence of a shooter at Founders Memorial Library) and the multitude of injured victims at various buildings around campus, officers needed to check multiple sites to rule out the possibility of multiple shooters and multiple shooting sites. Injured victims began appearing at Neptune Hall (just north of Cole Hall) and at DuSable Hall (west of Cole). At 3:21 p.m., as personnel arrived from the DeKalb Fire Department, DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, DeKalb Police Department, and Sycamore Police Department, officers advised that the scene and perimeter of Cole Hall were secure, and that it was safe for emergency personnel to proceed to the shooting site and to the sites of the injured victims.
At 3:34 p.m., after a sweep of Founders Library was conducted and officers determined that Neptune and DuSable were not shooting sites, they declared the area safe. Police officers established a reception area for law enforcement personnel at Wirtz Hall, and an investigative command center at Holmes Student Center. By 4:00 p.m. CST, school officials announced that there was no further danger. They said that counselors would be made available in all residence halls.
Victims
Dead
Five people, all residents of Illinois, were killed by Kazmierczak:
Catalina Garcia, Juliana Gehant, Ryanne Mace, and shooter Steven Kazmierczak were declared dead on the scene at Cole Hall, while Daniel Parmenter was pronounced dead shortly after arrival to Kishwaukee Hospital at 4:00 p.m. Gayle Dubowski was flown to the nearest trauma center, St. Anthony Hospital in Rockford, where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at 4:14 p.m.
Injured
21 people survived the incident with injuries. 17 sustained gunshot wounds, while three injured their knees or backs escaping the scene; one injury was undetermined. Of them, three remained in Cole Hall, five had fled to Neptune Hall or its parking lots, one to DuSable Hall, two to the Holmes Student Center Bookstore, two to the Holmes Student Center's Sandburg Auditorium, three to the Health Services Building, and five returned home to seek treatment.
16 of the injured victims were transported to DeKalb's Kishwaukee Community Hospital. One was transferred by helicopter to Rockford's Saint Anthony Medical Center, three to Downers Grove's Good Samaritan Hospital, and one to Rockford Memorial Hospital.
On February 15, another victim sought treatment at Kishwaukee Hospital, bringing the total of hospitalized injured victims to 17. On February 15, seven of the victims were in critical condition, one in good condition, one in stable, and eight discharged, according to Kishwaukee Community Hospital.
Like those killed, all who were injured were from Illinois.
Investigation and psychological profile
NIU launched its own investigation into the shooting along with local police and the FBI. The FBI established that Kazmierczak had been particularly obsessed with Seung-Hui Cho, who perpetrated the Virginia Tech shooting, and with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the two shooters of the Columbine High School massacre. His freshman roommates at NIU recalled Kazmierczak's obsessions with figures like Adolf Hitler and serial killer Ted Bundy.
On February 17, 2008, CNN interviewed Kazmierczak's girlfriend Jessica Baty at her home in Wonder Lake. Baty expressed shock at her boyfriend's actions and said that the "person who went into Cole Hall and did that" was not the person she knew, adding that Kazmierczak was "anything but a monster" and probably "the nicest, (most) caring person ever." Baty also stated that Kazmierczak had stopped taking his psychiatric medications three weeks before the shooting because "(it) made him feel like a zombie." The medications prescribed by a psychiatrist included Xanax, Prozac, and Ambien.
NIU Police Chief Donald Grady said that Baty's statements to CNN were contradictory, alleging that Baty had told them that Kazmierczak had been acting erratically days before the shooting. In response to Grady, Baty said she was "upset" over the police chief's remarks, and added that she never said that Kazmierczak was erratic, pointing instead to having stated that he was "just a little more irritable."
According to mental health professionals who treated Kazmierczak, he used to be noncompliant with the treatment and further described him as anxious, defiant, and verbally aggressive sometimes. Psychiatric records from the last group home where he resided noted that he suffered from insomnia and hypersomnia as well as having tendencies for self-mutilation.