The New and Cool American Trend: Go to a University Campus and Open Fire...

[Deicide]

killing lots of people and injuring more...as the finale, you off yourself...fucking awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

By CARYN ROUSSEAU and DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writers
48 minutes ago
 


DEKALB, Ill. - A former student dressed in black walked onto the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a packed science class Thursday, killing five students, wounding 16 and setting off a panicked stampede before committing suicide.

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Police say they have no motive for the rapid-fire assault, carried out by the gunman who fired indiscriminately into the crowd with a shotgun and two handguns as students dove to the floor and ran toward the exits. At least two of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.

"I kept thinking, `Oh God, he's going to shoot me. Oh God, I'm dead. I'm dead. I'm dead,'" said Desiree Smith, a senior journalism major who dropped to the floor near the back of the auditorium.

"People were crawling on each other, trampling each other," she said. "As I got near the door, I got up and I started running."

University President John Peters said four people died at the scene, including three students and the gunman, while the other two died at a hospital. The teacher, a graduate student, was wounded but was expected to recover.

Peters said the gunman was a former graduate student in sociology at NIU, but was not currently enrolled at the 25,000-student campus about 65 miles west of Chicago.

"It appears he may have been a student somewhere else," University Police Chief Donald Grady said. Authorities did not release any other details about the gunman or identify the victims.

Witnesses said the skinny gunman, dressed in black and wearing a stocking cap, emerged from behind a screen on the stage of 200-seat Cole Hall and opened fire just as the class was about to end around 3 p.m.

Officials said 162 students were registered for the class but it was unknown how many were there Thursday.

Lauren Carr said she was sitting in the third row when she saw the shooter walk through a door on the right-hand side of the stage, pointing a gun straight ahead.

"I personally Army-crawled halfway up the aisle," said Carr, a 20-year-old sophomore. "I said I could get up and run or I could die here."

She said a student in front of her was bleeding, "but he just kept running."

"I heard this girl scream, 'Run, he's reloading the gun!'"

Student Jerry Santoni was in a back row when he saw the gunman enter a service door to the stage.

"I saw him shoot one round at the teacher," he said. "After that, I proceeded to get down as fast as I could."

Santoni dived down, hitting his head the seat in front of him, leaving a knot about half the size of a pingpong ball on his forehead.

Eighteen victims were brought to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, where one died, according to the hospital's Web site. One male was transferred in critical condition and died at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, an official said.

Dan Parmenter, a 20-year-old sophomore from Elmhurst, Ill., was one of those killed, his stepfather, Robert Greer, told the Chicago Tribune.

"I'm not angry," Greer said. "I'm just sad, and I know that right now what I need to do is comfort my wife."

Minutes after the shooting erupted, students phoned each other and sent text messages even before school officials could warn them, many said. The school Web site announced a possible gunman on campus within 20 minutes of the shots and locked down the campus, part of a new security plan created after a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people last year.

"This is a tragedy, but from all indications we did everything we could when we found out," Peters said.

Michael Gentile was meeting with two of his students directly beneath the lecture hall when the shootings happened. He could hear the chaos a few feet above his head.

"The shotgun blast must have been so loud," said Gentile, a 27-year-old media studies instructor. "It sounded like something was dropping down the stairs... We had no idea what this was."

Then, shorter, sharper noises he recognized as handgun shots.

"There was a pretty quick succession ... just pow, pow, pow," said Gentile, who didn't leave his office for about 90 minutes. He used a surveillance camera just outside his office to confirm that the people knocking on his door were police.

George Gaynor, a senior geography student, who was in Cole Hall when the shooting happened, told the student newspaper the Northern Star that the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on."

He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic.

"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 too."

Witnesses said the young man carried a shotgun and a pistol. Student Edward Robinson told WLS that the gunman appeared to target students in one part of the lecture hall.

"It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot," Robinson said. "He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at."

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sent 15 agents to the scene, according to spokesman Thomas Ahern. He said information about the weapons involved would be sent to the ATF's national database in Washington and given urgent priority. The FBI also was assisting.

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.

The school 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, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a dormitory. Police determined after an investigation that there was no imminent threat and the campus was reopened. Peters said he knew of no connection between that incident and Thursday's attack.

The shooting was the fourth at a U.S. school within a week.

On Feb. 8, a woman shot two fellow students to death before committing suicide at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. In Memphis, Tenn., a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically wounding a fellow student Monday during a high school gym class, and the 15-year-old victim of a shooting at an Oxnard, Calif., junior high school has been declared brain dead.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/niu_shooting

[Hugo Chavez]

sick fucking times... sick fucking times...  I am truely losing all hope in humanity.  I grew up with all kinds of dreams for what we would become.  Fucking lousy fantasy.

[Deicide]

Guns....the best part of the American tradition!

Hello!

[Deicide]

sick fucking times... sick fucking times...  I am truely losing all hope in humanity.  I grew up with all kinds of dreams for what we would become.  Fucking lousy fantasy.

Well at least Ron changed your name....

[JBGRAY]

And don't forget your Matrix-style trenchcoat!

School shootings are rapidly becoming commonplace.  Pretty soon, they'll barely be mentioned anymore.  20-25 years ago schools were worried about kids chewing gum in class.  Now they have to worry about who's carrying an assault rifle.

I've always known that the assertion that "most people are good" is a baldfaced fucking lie.  The opposite is more true.

[Deicide]

And don't forget your Matrix-style trenchcoat!

School shootings are rapidly becoming commonplace.  Pretty soon, they'll barely be mentioned anymore.  20-25 years ago schools were worried about kids chewing gum in class.  Now they have to worry about who's carrying an assault rifle.

I've always known that the assertion that "most people are good" is a baldfaced fucking lie.  The opposite is more true.

I thought the 9 millimeter was the preferred weapon of choice?

[Hugo Chavez]

Well at least Ron changed your name....

Hey bro, I sense you're blaming me   This is the busy season for him.  Just pm him after a bit again.  He doesn't have any bias against you.

[Deicide]

Hey bro, I sense you're blaming me   This is the busy season for him.  Just pm him after a bit again.  He doesn't have any bias against you.

It's ok negro....it's not that big of an issue...the fact that I haven't slept more than 3 hours a night for over 2 weeks is....

[240 is Back]

Northern Ill was a specified gun-free zone.

There were no heroes in that theater because there was only one man with a gun - the shooter.

Univ police are on MSNBC right now bragging about their response time- they endured only 17 people were shot.  Bravo!  if this had happened in utah, the moment the asshole emerged on the stage with his rife and raised it, would you have had 2 or 4 or 10 people from the audience lowering their sites on the stage and taking the asshole out.

Would innocents still have died?  possibly.  Would the gunman have been able to point blank shoot seventeen people?  No way.

In Utah, you're allowed to carry on campus with a permit.

[Colossus_500]

It's ok negro....it's not that big of an issue...the fact that I haven't slept more than 3 hours a night for over 2 weeks is....

Been there done that, bro.  I went years and years feeling great if I was lucky enough to get 3.5-4 hours sleep on any given night.  Insomnia sucks big time....destroys your sense of well-being and makes you depressed as ever. 

[Tre]

Fucking emos.

[tonymctones]

Guns....the best part of the American tradition!

Hello!

trap it sounds like your blaming this on the guns and not placing the blame where it belongs on the sick fack who decided to try and take as many people out before he ultimately killed himself

[GreatFinn]

Northern Ill was a specified gun-free zone.

There were no heroes in that theater because there was only one man with a gun - the shooter.

Univ police are on MSNBC right now bragging about their response time- they endured only 17 people were shot.  Bravo!  if this had happened in utah, the moment the asshole emerged on the stage with his rife and raised it, would you have had 2 or 4 or 10 people from the audience lowering their sites on the stage and taking the asshole out.

Would innocents still have died?  possibly.  Would the gunman have been able to point blank shoot seventeen people?  No way.

In Utah, you're allowed to carry on campus with a permit.

And that is best solution you guys can figure out?  Get even more guns to school, so the students can defend them self by shooting down every one who look  suspicious. Great idea. You have an army, which is killing 1/3 of their own men with friendly fire in every war zone where they have been fighting, and now you want to take this tradition to the schools also...brilliant thinking. That is great way to handle the problem. What is going to happen is that in the end, you just generate more school massacres with this stupidity, because in the eyes of the potential shooter, there is even more challenge and  excitement involved. Just four shooting incident in one week, that is below an average, isn't it. If it isn't, it surely is going to be 

[240 is Back]

And that is best solution you guys can figure out?  Get even more guns to school, so the students can defend them self by shooting down every one who look  suspicious. Great idea. You have an army, which is killing 1/3 of their own men with friendly fire in every war zone where they have been fighting, and now you want to take this tradition to the schools also...brilliant thinking. That is great way to handle the problem. What is going to happen is that in the end, you just generate more school massacres with this stupidity, because in the eyes of the potential shooter, there is even more challenge and  excitement involved. Just four shooting incident in one week, that is below an average, isn't it. If it isn't, it surely is going to be 

what is the solution?  take away all the guns?  everytime that happens in a society, some very bad things happen.  Guns are entrenched in American culture.  You have thousands upon thousands of old men who love their guns would would get very very violent if they tried confiscation.  You going to tell an 80-year old Korea vet that he cannot protect himself?  Gimme a break.

[Deicide]

Been there done that, bro.  I went years and years feeling great if I was lucky enough to get 3.5-4 hours sleep on any given night.  Insomnia sucks big time....destroys your sense of well-being and makes you depressed as ever. 

Terrible and slowing impact on training as well...

[Deicide]

what is the solution?  take away all the guns?  everytime that happens in a society, some very bad things happen.  Guns are entrenched in American culture.  You have thousands upon thousands of old men who love their guns would would get very very violent if they tried confiscation.  You going to tell an 80-year old Korea vet that he cannot protect himself?  Gimme a break.

That's the problem. Western Europe is MUCH safer than the USA and has zero tolerance for guns but Americans are obsessed with guns. Trying to say they should go without them is a moot point.

[240 is Back]

That's the problem. Western Europe is MUCH safer than the USA and has zero tolerance for guns but Americans are obsessed with guns. Trying to say they should go without them is a moot point.

It's part of the culture.  that cannot be changed.

people want to protect themselves from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  We all know that police respond time, nationally, averages 11 minutes.  Even if the threat is only three kids with baseball bats, I don't like my chances of making it thru those 11 minutes.

Guns level the playing field.  A 105-pound woman can stop a 220 pound rapist.

In Europe, what does a 105-pound woman do when a 220-pound man decides he is going to rape her?  Watch the clock and hope he finishes quick?

[BayGBM]

Guns....the best part of the American tradition!

Hello!

So true.  These stories barely register with me anymore.  If you make handguns and semiautomatic weapons easily available to people, it doesn't take a psychic to see what is going to happen...

I'm waiting for someone psycho to sneak into an NRA meeting/convention with an automatic weapon and mow them all down.

[Camel Jockey]

The north hollywood bank robbery is my all time favorite shootout.

I also can't forget that Korean kid.

Someone top the Korean kid by taking several assult rifles to a school campus. Do it! Don't take your lithium or paxil and raise hell!!!

[Camel Jockey]

If I went shooting up a campus I'd have a .45.. Not as many rounds, but more power and bang for your bullet.

[stormshadow]

That's the problem. Western Europe is MUCH safer than the USA and has zero tolerance for guns but Americans are obsessed with guns. Trying to say they should go without them is a moot point.

Western Europe is MUCH safer?  Great, that is your interpretation of statistics.  Do you personally go out and count all the bodies?  No?  Well until you do, lets rely a little more on logic and reason, and less on numbers you get from a year end police report.

I don't define safety by homicide statistics, and a gun law, which is nothing more than words on a piece of paper.

I define safety as my right to defend myself.

You think we should ban guns the same way that we have banned drugs?

[War-Horse]

So true.  These stories barely register with me anymore.  If you make handguns and semiautomatic weapons easily available to people, it doesn't take a psychic to see what is going to happen...

I'm waiting for someone psycho to sneak into an NRA meeting/convention with an automatic weapon and mow them all down.

LOL.. He better have a tommy gun...or set upa gatlin behind the curtain.

[stormshadow]

It's part of the culture.  that cannot be changed.

I disagree.  Unfortunately it can be changed, and the media does a great job of informing us about every killing and raping that it can.

My problem is with dumb asses that think stripping the common man of his right to own a gun is the solution.

I know many people that have carry permits that don't even bother carrying.  So you are not going to have everyone on campus running around with a gun just because they can.

[tonymctones]

And that is best solution you guys can figure out?  Get even more guns to school, so the students can defend them self by shooting down every one who look  suspicious. Great idea. You have an army, which is killing 1/3 of their own men with friendly fire in every war zone where they have been fighting, and now you want to take this tradition to the schools also...brilliant thinking. That is great way to handle the problem. What is going to happen is that in the end, you just generate more school massacres with this stupidity, because in the eyes of the potential shooter, there is even more challenge and  excitement involved. Just four shooting incident in one week, that is below an average, isn't it. If it isn't, it surely is going to be 

could you give me a link to that please? lol i would think that the shooter is thinking im gonna go to this class and shoot up some people b/c it would be easy not b/c he thinks its a good challenge. whether you want to agree or not the simple fact is disarming the general public is a bad idea, law abiding citizens will give up their guns and criminals wont and then well really be fucked. Honestly its only a matter of time before somebody decides to make a home made bomb and take it to a school...and then i wanna hear you wackos calling for a ban on fertilizer

[JOHN MATRIX]

there is a reason why this is an american phenomenon. there are strong factors here which lead to conditions which make stuff like this commonplace. it shoudlnt surprise anyone. you think this shit ever happens in mexico? italy? france? holland?
no one does it cause they think its 'cool'. quite opposite actually