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News: Update: Six dead in shooting at NIU

Posted by web78377 - on Friday, February 15, 2008 @ 04:20:51 UTC

MORE PROOF WE NEED TO TEACH CHILDREN A RESPECT FOR ALL LIFE. Make the connections. The meat and dairy industry has indoctrinated our parents and us into a killing society.

Update: Six dead in shooting at NIU

By The NORTHWEST NEWS GROUP

DeKALB – A man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun from a stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, killing himself and five others, University President John Peters said.

Peters described the incident as a “rapid fire” shooting. He said witnesses “say someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun.”

“The assailant began firing into the assembled class from the stage,” Peters said. “Early reports indicate that he had a shotgun and two handguns.”

Peters said there were a total of 22 casualties – six dead including the gunman – four females and two males.

One of those killed by the gunman was Dan Parmenter, a sophomore from Westchester and a staff member of the school newspaper, an advisor for the paper said Thursday night.

"He was a wonderful young man, just very nice, very easy to work with. [He was] somebody who was part of our family," said Maria Krull, business advisor for the Northern Star newspaper.

Krull said Parmenter had worked with the newspaper for about a year as an advertising sales rep. He was a member of a fraternity and had been considering a major in finance, she said.

"He was just like a teddy bear, always willing to help others. [He was] a kid you want to have for your own. I just can't believe I'm not going to see him anymore," she added.

The gunman, who has not yet been identified, was previously enrolled in an NIU Master’s sociology program in the spring of 2007 but he was not currently enrolled at the school. Peters said they believe the gunman was enrolled at another state university.

“As far as we know, all of the injured were students including the instructor, who was a graduate teaching assistant,” Peters said.

Peters said investigators are not aware of any previous arrests involving the gunman or any prior police contact.

Cole Hall is a large lecture hall where many general education classes are held. Peters said thousands of students enter the centrally located building each day.

NIU Police Chief Donald Grady said police have no known motive for the attack that occurred about 3 p.m. at Cole Hall, about 15 minutes before class ended. Police say they think the gunman, who killed himself on the auditorium stage, acted alone.

Grady stressed that the entire incident took place over a matter of seconds and said campus officers were on the scene in less than two minutes.

“As much as we do, it’s unlikely that anyone could stop an incident like this from the beginning,” Grady said.

Kishwaukee Hospital reported that 18 victims had arrived at the hospital.

A viewer who e-mailed CBS 2 said that her brother was in the lecture hall when the shooting happened.

“He says that the gunmen was a white male dressed in all black. He kicked the door in and opened fire. My brother dove under the desk, and popped his head up to see the gunmen was reloading. He grabbed his girlfriend’s hand and ran to the library where they have been in lockdown since.”

NIU sophomore Zach Seward, 20, was in Room 101 of Cole Hall when the shooting took place. About 90 students were in the class at the time, he said.

A white male in a black hat and black hoodie opened the side door on the stage in the lecture hall, then pulled a shotgun, pumped it and started firing at people at about 3:05 p.m., Seward said. It seemed there were no intended targets, he said.

Seward said he ducked and ran out of the room, thinking that he thought he could get shot in the back.

“You see this kind of stuff on TV and you never think it would happen to you,” he said. “I don’t think I could ever go into that classroom again.”

Seward said he later spoke with students who had stayed in the classroom. They told him the shooter, after firing the shotgun, later took out a pistol and continued shooting.

Shane Pope, 21, a junior studying in finance, said the shooter “came in the side stage door on the stage where the teacher was talking and unloaded with a shotgun right into the front row. Everybody put their heads down and ran out, and he just kept shooting. ... It was the scariest thing ever. It was right at 3:05 because I was thinking about cutting out of class early to go have a beer. I should have.”

Chris Birks, a graduate student and teaching assistant in NIU’s Communications Department, was in Watson Hall, a building across the quad from Cole Hall, when another teacher’s assistant came in and said he heard gunshots in Cole Hall.

Birks and about eight others who shared the office immediately locked the doors, turned off the lights and stood against a concrete wall before calling to check up on their colleagues, Birks said.

They also pulled out the university's new emergency plan, which Birks said was written in the fall in response to the Virginia Tech shooting.

“We stayed in there for probably a half hour. Then we noticed police officers coming into an adjacent building with guns drawn to sweep the building and get everyone out. We felt at that time that we were pretty safe leaving.”

Birks said he did not believe the shooting was related to threats found written on a wall on campus the day before final exams in December.

Peters said all classes and events canceled until further notice, although residence halls will remain open so students who must remain on campus can have their needs attended to.

“Many of out students are asking what should we do,” Peters said. “We’re advising them to stay calm and seek counseling.”

- Northwest Herald reporters Kevin Craver and Jenn Wiant, Northwest Herald videographer Danielle Guerra, The Daily Chronicle, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.