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The Daily OrangeShooter opens fire at Northern Illinois U.
By Stephanie Musat
Posted: 2/15/08, 1:58 AM EST Section: News
Jamie Shepard has a science class in Cole Hall on Wednesdays and Fridays at 3 p.m. at Northern Illinois University. But if her class met on Thursdays, she would have shared the lecture hall with a gunman.
Six people were killed, and 16 others were injured when a former NIU student opened fire Thursday afternoon, multiple news sources reported late Thursday. Eighteen students were transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, Ill.
"I know that if the shooter would have picked yesterday or tomorrow to do that, that I would've been in that exact classroom at that time," said Shepard, a freshman biological science major at NIU, in a telephone interview Thursday night.
The shooting took place shortly after 3 p.m. The gunman shot himself after opening fire in an ocean sciences class.
NIU is approximately 65 miles outside of Chicago and has 25,000 undergraduate students, most from Illinois.
The shooter, who has yet to be identified, was a graduate student in sociology at the university in 2007 but was no longer enrolled, said NIU president John G. Peters at a news conference.
Police said there were three weapons found on the shooter - two handguns and the shotgun he used with extra ammunition.
Witnesses in the classroom said the gunman appeared from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall and began to open fire without saying a word, according to reports from The New York Times. There were 162 people enrolled in the class.
"It's really scary at a university setting because as you know at Syracuse or any place else, its such an open setting, " said Chris Jones, an associate professor and chair of political science at NIU and a 1995 graduate of Syracuse University in a telephone interview. "Anybody can really go anywhere."
At 3:20 p.m., the university issued a warning that there was a report of a possible gunman on campus. The administration told students to "get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear. Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity," according to the university's Web site.
Six people were killed, and 16 others were injured when a former NIU student opened fire Thursday afternoon, multiple news sources reported late Thursday. Eighteen students were transported to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, Ill.
"I know that if the shooter would have picked yesterday or tomorrow to do that, that I would've been in that exact classroom at that time," said Shepard, a freshman biological science major at NIU, in a telephone interview Thursday night.
The shooting took place shortly after 3 p.m. The gunman shot himself after opening fire in an ocean sciences class.
NIU is approximately 65 miles outside of Chicago and has 25,000 undergraduate students, most from Illinois.
The shooter, who has yet to be identified, was a graduate student in sociology at the university in 2007 but was no longer enrolled, said NIU president John G. Peters at a news conference.
Police said there were three weapons found on the shooter - two handguns and the shotgun he used with extra ammunition.
Witnesses in the classroom said the gunman appeared from behind a curtain on the stage of the lecture hall and began to open fire without saying a word, according to reports from The New York Times. There were 162 people enrolled in the class.
"It's really scary at a university setting because as you know at Syracuse or any place else, its such an open setting, " said Chris Jones, an associate professor and chair of political science at NIU and a 1995 graduate of Syracuse University in a telephone interview. "Anybody can really go anywhere."
At 3:20 p.m., the university issued a warning that there was a report of a possible gunman on campus. The administration told students to "get to a safe area and take precautions until given the all clear. Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity," according to the university's Web site.
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