At least 15 people injured in NIU shooting
Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: News
DEKALB, Ill. (AP) -- A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 15 people, authorities said.
"Campus police report that the immediate danger has passed. The gunman is no longer a threat," the school reported on its Web site at 4:14 p.m.
"The gunman is deceased," Lt. Gary Spangler of the DeKalb Police Department told the student newspaper Northern Star.
DeKalb police referred The Associated Press to NIU public safety, where no one answered the telephone Thursday afternoon. The Associated Press left messages for university police.
Kishwaukee Community Hospital said on its Web site that 13 victims had arrived, and earlier reported three to four had head wounds.
Two victims were being airlifted to Rockford Memorial Hospital, and two others with head injuries were expected at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, also in Rockford, representatives of those hospitals said.
The FBI was en route to the scene Thursday afternoon.
The shooting took place around 3 p.m. in Cole Hall near the King Commons, a central gathering place on the 25,000-student campus about 65 miles west of Chicago, according to the Web site.
George Gaynor, a senior geography student, who was in the class, told the Northern Star that the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on."
He said it was a chaotic, terrifying scene.
"Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor said outside just minutes after the shooting occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended."
Senior Mike Digiannantonio was in a campus bus passing Cole Hall about 3:15 p.m. and saw dozens of people racing from building.
"They were running out of Cole Hall. You could see they were looking (back) at something; they were on their phones," the 21-year-old said later from a dorm across campus. "People were saying, 'Go, go, go, let's get out of here.'"
By 4:30 p.m., students in Douglas Hall, a dorm about two blocks away from Cole Hall, were being told they were not on lockdown and could leave if they wanted, said Michael Murphy, 19, a sophomore.
Shortly after the shootings, people across the country began posting message pages on the Facebook social networking site to respond to the shootings. One, posted by someone at Texas A&M University, was titled "Condolences to Northern Illinois University."
In its introduction, the page said: "Only God knows why this keeps happening. But at least we can all unite and be there for each other."
All classes were canceled Thursday night and the campus was closed on Friday. Students were urged to call their parents "as soon as possible" and were offered counseling at any residence hall, according to the school Web site.
NIU was closed for one day during final exam week in December after campus police found threats, including racial slurs and references to shootings earlier in the year at Virginia Tech University, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a dormitory. Police determined after an investigation that there was no imminent threat and the campus was reopened.
"Campus police report that the immediate danger has passed. The gunman is no longer a threat," the school reported on its Web site at 4:14 p.m.
"The gunman is deceased," Lt. Gary Spangler of the DeKalb Police Department told the student newspaper Northern Star.
DeKalb police referred The Associated Press to NIU public safety, where no one answered the telephone Thursday afternoon. The Associated Press left messages for university police.
Kishwaukee Community Hospital said on its Web site that 13 victims had arrived, and earlier reported three to four had head wounds.
Two victims were being airlifted to Rockford Memorial Hospital, and two others with head injuries were expected at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center, also in Rockford, representatives of those hospitals said.
The FBI was en route to the scene Thursday afternoon.
The shooting took place around 3 p.m. in Cole Hall near the King Commons, a central gathering place on the 25,000-student campus about 65 miles west of Chicago, according to the Web site.
George Gaynor, a senior geography student, who was in the class, told the Northern Star that the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on."
He said it was a chaotic, terrifying scene.
"Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor said outside just minutes after the shooting occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended."
Senior Mike Digiannantonio was in a campus bus passing Cole Hall about 3:15 p.m. and saw dozens of people racing from building.
"They were running out of Cole Hall. You could see they were looking (back) at something; they were on their phones," the 21-year-old said later from a dorm across campus. "People were saying, 'Go, go, go, let's get out of here.'"
By 4:30 p.m., students in Douglas Hall, a dorm about two blocks away from Cole Hall, were being told they were not on lockdown and could leave if they wanted, said Michael Murphy, 19, a sophomore.
Shortly after the shootings, people across the country began posting message pages on the Facebook social networking site to respond to the shootings. One, posted by someone at Texas A&M University, was titled "Condolences to Northern Illinois University."
In its introduction, the page said: "Only God knows why this keeps happening. But at least we can all unite and be there for each other."
All classes were canceled Thursday night and the campus was closed on Friday. Students were urged to call their parents "as soon as possible" and were offered counseling at any residence hall, according to the school Web site.
NIU was closed for one day during final exam week in December after campus police found threats, including racial slurs and references to shootings earlier in the year at Virginia Tech University, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a dormitory. Police determined after an investigation that there was no imminent threat and the campus was reopened.
Be the first to comment on this story