NIU Killer Identified; Was Committed to Social Justice

You never can explain these things. Some people just can't handle rejection, I guess. Learn to deal with it and leave others out of it. Maybe you can't handle the pain, but do you really have to go and murder a bunch of innocent people?

Illinois gunman 'may have been jilted lover'

The attacker, described as a tall skinny white young man, walked out from behind a screen in a geology class around 3pm at Northern Illinois University.

Armed with a shotgun and two handguns, he opened fire before shooting himself on the lecture hall stage. He has been named unofficially as Steve Kazmierczak, 27.

Reports said police were investigating the possibility that he was seeking revenge over a failed love affair.

"We are looking at his past relationships to see if there is any connection," one officer is quoted as saying.

"One obvious line of enquiry is to determine whether the choice of Valentine's Day was coincidence or not."

Police officials said seven people had died, including the gunman. One victim has been named as Dan Parmenter, 20.

Many of the gunman's victims were shot in the head at the university in DeKalb, 65 miles west of Chicago.

Witnesses said the gunman kicked open a door near the stage in Cole Hall just 10 minutes before the end of the lecture and started shooting with the shotgun without saying a word.

Dispensing with the shotgun, the gunman - who was wearing a black ski cap and black trenchcoat - pulled out a pistol and walked down the aisles firing it into the crowd of terrified students.

Police Chief Donald Grady said the gunman was a student but not at the DeKalb campus.

"It started and ended within a matter of seconds," he said.

Via Gateway Pundit, we discover Kazmierczak was at one time the VP of the Academic Criminal Justice Association at NIU. More here.

VICE-PRESIDENT: Steve Mazmierczak. Steve served as an undergrad teachingaid for Sociology 388 (corrections) and 488 (juvenile delinquency) inspring, 2004. He has strong interests in justice reform and, as an older sociology/criminal justice major, he brings experience and ideas to the group.

My name is Steve Kazmierczak, and I'm a 3rd year student here at NIU. During my sophomore year I served as an aid for the SOCI170 web-board and last semester, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be a team leader for SOCI488-Juvenile Delinquency. Since attending NIU, I've worked very hard as a student, and I know that I would be able to forth the same effort as an officer of the ACA. I feel that I'm committed to social justice, and if elected as treasurer I promise to serve the NIU chapter of the ACA to the best of myability.

Previously.

Some good links from Glenn Reynolds here.

Latest here.

Another student shot at a Northern Illinois University lecture hall has died, raising the toll to seven, including the gunman, who had graduated from the school and had been considered a good student, officials said Friday.

Florida authorities and a university official have identified the suspect in the Northern Illinois University slayings as 27-year-old former student Steven Kazmierczak.

The motive of the shooter, who graduated from NIU in 2006, was not known, officials said. The gunman also wounded 15 people and sent panicked students fleeing for the exits before killing himself.

"There is no note or threat that I know of," NIU President John Peters said on Friday ABC's "Good Morning America." "By all accounts that we can tell right now [he] was a very good student that the professors thought well of."

DeKalb County Coroner Dennis J. Miller on Friday released the identities of the four victims who died in his county: Daniel Parmenter, 20 years old, of Westchester; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; and Julianna Gehant, 32, of Meridan.

Two other victims died after being transferred to hospitals in other counties, Mr. Miller said in a news release. Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia on Friday said a female victim died in her county but has not been identified pending notification of family. An autopsy was planned for Friday, she said.

Say some prayers for these kids.



Update: More from the Daily Mail.

Mystery still surrounds his motives. "There is no note or threat that I know of," Northern Illinois President John Peters said today on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"By all accounts that we can tell right now (he) was a very good student that the professors thought well of."

Witnesses today told of the bloodbath.

Meghan Murphy, 22 said: "He stood there for a second, looked and then just started shooting.

"His face was blank, like he wasn't a person. He was a statue, aiming."

Desiree Smith told how she dropped to the floor near the back of the auditorium: "I kept thinking, 'Oh god, he's going to shoot me. Oh god, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead.'

"People were crawling on each other, trampling each other. As I got near the door, I got up and I started running."
...
Some reports suggested the gunman had targeted specific sections of the crowd. Student Edward Robinson said: "It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot. He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at."

Kazmierczak left the university last year after winning an award for his sociology work.

He had established himself as an authority on prison systems, having co-authored a study on self-injury in jails and in his role as vice president of the Academic Criminal Justice Association.

The Association's mission is described as "to provide NIU students and member of DeKalb community with an opportunity to learn about and promote knowledge and understanding of all areas of the criminal justice system, especially corrections and juvenile justice.

"The organization will provide a forum for communicating about and participating in activities related to criminal justice, especially corrections."

Update II: He was off his meds.

The man who gunned down five people at Northern Illinois University in a suicidal rampage became erratic after halting his medication and carried a shotgun to campus inside a guitar case, police said Friday.

The man, 27-year-old former student Stephen Kazmierczak, was also wielding three handguns during Thursday's ambush inside a lecture hall.

Two of the weapons — the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun — were purchased legally less than a week ago, on Feb. 9, authorities said. They were purchased in Champaign, where Kazmierczak was enrolled at the University of Illinois.

The other weapons were still being traced.

The gunman's father, Robert Kazmierczak, briefly came out of his single-story house in Lakeland, Fla., to talk to reporters.

"Please leave me alone. ... This is a very hard time for me," he said as he threw his arms up and wept.