gunmen kills 5 at NIU DeKalb

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Friday February 15, 2008
Gunman kills 5, then himself at Illinois college
By John Gress


DEKALB, Ill. (Reuters) - A black-clad man fired into a lecture hallpacked with students at an Illinois university on Thursday, killingfive people and wounding 18 before shooting himself dead, police andcollege officials said.

Avideo grab shows security tape being secured at the scene of shootingat Northern Illinois University outside Chicago February 14, 2008.(REUTERS/WMAQ TV NBC 5 via REUTERS TV)

The gunman, who police said had a shotgun and two handguns, steppedonto the lecturer's stage near the end of a mid-afternoon geology classat Northern Illinois University and began shooting down the room,sending terrified and bleeding students fleeing, witnesses said. Hethen shot himself on the same stage.

Police on the 25,000-student college 104 km west of Chicago said thegunman was a former student but they did not publicly identify him andsaid they did not know the motive in the latest in a series ofshootings at U.S. colleges and high schools.

University President John Peters said there had been a "very briefrapid fire assault that ended with the gunman taking his own life." Hesaid those killed by the gunman were all students -- four women and oneman -- and that 4 were in critical condition in hospitals. Theinstructor teaching the class survived, he said.

"I ducked behind the seats and ran out the door," student Zach Seward told the local Daily Chronicle newspaper.
"As I was running, I just kept waiting for something to hit me inthe back. I didn't know where to run, tried to decide where it's safeto be, and there isn't anywhere safe."

FORMER STUDENT

Peters said the gunman was a sociology major who last attendedclasses as a graduate student in the spring of 2007 and who may havesince enrolled at a different college. He said he had no police recordor previous contact with police.

One student told local radio that roughly 140 students were in theclassroom when the man opened fire. Ambulances swarmed onto thesnow-covered campus and classes were canceled for the rest of the dayand Thursday.

"Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," GeorgeGaynor, a student who was in the hall told the Northern Star, thestudent newspaper on the campus.

Kristina Balluff, a student, said the gunman was dressed in black pants and had fired randomly from the raised classroom stage.

"I looked at this girl next to me and actually said, 'is this real?' I think the professor ... ducked out of the way."
Mass shootings are not rare in the United States, where gun controlis less strict than in many countries and where the gun-ownership lobbyis politically influential.

A university in Blacksburg, Virginia, Virginia Tech, became the siteof the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history in April lastyear when a gunman killed 32 people and himself.

Last week, a nursing student shot dead two women and killed herself in front of horrified classmates at a college in Louisiana.
In December, a threat was found scrawled on a wall at NorthernIllinois University referring to the Virginia shooting and threateningsimilar violence, but officials said they had no reason to link that toWednesday's incident.





Aku dgr news ni dalam keta tadi..  NIU DeKalb ni aku punya alumni so mmg terkejut lak dengar ni!! Tak selamat dah students kat U di states sana !!

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Lagi amukan bersenjata di AS, enam pelajar terbunuh

DEKALB, Illinois 15 Feb.

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Tragedi Hari Kekasih -
Enam maut bekas pelajar mengamuk di Universiti  Northern Illinois
TIGA anggota polis berlari menuju ke sebuah dewan universiti ketika seorang
bekas pelajar mengamuk di Universiti Northern Illinois.

SEORANG bekas pelajar menjadikan dewan Universiti Northern Illinois,Dekalb, Amerika Syarikat (AS) sebagai medan pembunuhan besar-besaranpada Hari Kekasih kelmarin dengan menyebabkan enam orang terbunuh dan18 lagi cedera.

Bekas pelajar itu yang identitinya dikenal pasti sebagai StevenKazmiercza kemudian menembak dirinya di mana menurut pihak berkuasa iamerupakan kejadian tembakan kelima berlaku di institusi pendidikan diAS.

Menurut para saksi, pelajar lelaki itu menggunakan selaras senapangpatah dan dua pucuk pistol dan melangkah keluar dari tirai di hadapansebuah auditorium beberapa minit sebelum kelas geologi berakhir.

Jeritan memenuhi dewan itu ketika dia melepaskan beberapa dastembakan dari pentas ke auditorium yang dipenuhi dengan berpuluh-puluhpelajar.

"Ia bermula dan berakhir dalam tempoh beberapa saat," kata ketua polis di universiti berkenaan, Donald Grady.
Anggota-anggota polis bergegas ke dewan itu dalam tempoh dua minitselepas memperoleh panggilan mengenai kejadian tersebut tetapi tidaksempat melepaskan sebarang tembakan kerana bekas pelajar berkenaanmenembak dirinya sendiri.
"Kami tidak mengetahui motif dia bertindak sedemikian buat masa ini," kata Graddy.


SEKUMPULAN pelajar menunggu disebuah dewan selepas
sorang bekas pelajar mengamuk di UniversitiNorthern
Illinois, Dekalb, Amerika Syarikat (AS) kelmarin.

Para saksi memberitahu bahawa penembak itu berkulit putih danmemakai pakaian serba hitam dengan ketinggian 1.8 meter dan tidakmengeluarkan sebarang perkataan sebelum dia melepaskan tembakan.

"Dia menjadikan sekumpulan pelajar sebagai sasaran tetapi sayaberpendapat lelaki itu tidak menjadikan seseorang sebagai sasaranutama," kata seorang saksi, Sheila.

"Lelaki itu hanya berdiri di atas pentas di hadapan orang ramai dan melepaskan tembakan.

"Saya melihatnya memegang senjata api. Saya berpendapat ia hanyapalsu tetapi kemudian saya menyedari bahawa dia memang benar-benarmenembak ke arah orang ramai dan saya meniarap," katanya.

"Saya melihat banyak darah. Darah memenuhi pakaian saya," katanya.

Menurut seorang lagi saksi, Zach Seward, semua orang melarikan diri ke arah pintu dan menjerit ketika kejadian tembakan.
"Saya berlari ke arah pintu. Dalam perjalanan itu, saya mendengarberbelas-belas das tembakan. Saya tidak pasti sama ada tembakan itumengenai belakang diri saya.

"Saya berlari sekuat hati menuju ke asrama saya," katanya.

Antara pelajar yang terbunuh itu adalah empat wanita dan seoranglelaki di mana tiga daripadanya meninggal dunia ketika anggota-anggotaparamedik tiba ke tempat kejadian.

Menurut para pegawai, penembak itu merupakan seorang bekas pelajardalam bidang sosiologi dari sebuah institusi pendidikan lain iaituUniversiti Illinois di Urbana-Champaign.

Pada tahun lalu dia pernah memenangi anugerah dekan kerana kecemerlangan dalam pendidikannya.
Tragedi itu berlaku selepas kejadian tembakan berlaku di Ohio,Louisiana, Tennesse dan California yang menyebabkan lima kematian.

Ia berlaku 10 bulan selepas 32 pelajar di Universiti Virginia Techmati ditembak oleh seorang pelajar yang mengalami masalah mental.

Universiti Northern Illinois itu merupakan institusi penyelidikan dimana ia mempunyai 862 pelajar asing dari 88 buah negara. - Agensi

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Gunman's friendly exterior masked past

DEKALB, Ill. - Steven Kazmierczak's quiet, dependable and fun-loving exterior masked troubling details from his past that emerged as a stunned community struggled to understand what caused the 27-year-old to open fire on a class at Northern Illinois University, leaving six people dead.

A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment center said Kazmierczak was placed there after high school by his parents. She said he used to cut himself, and had resisted taking his medications.

He also had a short-lived stint as a prison guard that ended abruptly when he didn't show up for work. He was in the Army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend he'd gotten a psychological discharge.

Exactly what set Kazmierczak off

amazed

This undated image obtained from a MySpace webpage shows

Steven Kazmierczak, who was identified by Florida authorities and

a university official familiar with the investigation as the gunman who

killed five people at Northern Illinois University