Pocono News Section

5 Killed, 16 Wounded in College Shooting in Illinois

5 Killed, 16 Wounded in College Shooting in Illinois - Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 11:50PM EST

Reported by: MSNBC.com
Thursday, Feb 14, 2008 @11:50pm EST
DEKALB, Ill. - A former graduate student armed with two handguns and a shotgun opened fire Thursday in a large lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University, killing five students and wounding 16 others before killing himself, authorities said.

University President John G. Peters said six students — four women, the shooter and another man — were killed in what he described as a “very brief, rapid-fire assault.” Sixteen other students were injured by gunfire or flying glass, authorities said.

All of the victims were students, including the shooter and the instructor, a graduate teaching assistant, who survived, Peters said. Two of the survivors were in critical condition Thursday night.

The gunman, who was not identified, was a former graduate student at NIU but had since enrolled at another college, Peters said. None of the victims were identified pending notification of their families.

University Police Chief Donald Grady said police knew of no motive for the shooting, which occurred about 3 p.m. CT in an introductory geology class in an auditorium inside Cole Hall. The campus is in DeKalb, a city of 40,000 in a rural area about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago. Its enrollment is more than 25,000.

Paul Sundstrom of Rockford, Ill., one of 150 to 200 students in the class when the shooting took place, told NBC affiliate WMAQ that the gunman was a thin white man wearing a black “beanie” and a black trench coat.

The man entered the room from behind the instructor and, without saying a word, began shooting from the stage, Sundstrom and other witnesses said. Firing in the general direction of the students, he emptied a clip of ammunition and calmly reloaded before resuming firing.

“He just walked in and just started shooting at people randomly,” Sundstrom said. “I crawled out to the main aisle, then just got up and ran and turned around and saw him shooting.”

Sundstrom added: “I just don’t know why anybody would want to do anything like this.”

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