Former student opens fire at Northern Illinois, kills 5, self

DEKALB, Ill. – A former student dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns from the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, killing five students and injuring 16 others before committing suicide, authorities said.\nThe gunman fatally shot four women and a man in a “brief, rapid-fire assault” that sent terrified students running for cover, university President John Peters said. Four died at the scene, including the gunman, and the other two died at a hospital, he said.\nWitnesses in the geology class said “someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun,” Peters said.\nStudent Jerry Santoni was in a back row when he saw the gunman enter a service door to the stage.\n“I saw him shoot one round at the teacher,” he said. “After that, I proceeded to get down as fast as I could.”\nSantoni dived down, hitting his head the seat in front of him, leaving a knot about half the size of a ping-pong ball on his forehead.\nThe teacher, a graduate student, was wounded but was expected to recover, the school president said. He did not give details of the injuries.\nPeters 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.\n“It appears he may have been a student somewhere else,” University Police Chief Donald Grady said, adding that police had no apparent motive.\nSeventeen victims were brought to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, according to spokeswoman Theresa Komitas. One died, two were admitted and three were discharged; five are being evaluated and six others were transferred to other hospitals in critical condition. At least one male died at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, an official said.\nMichael 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.\n“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.\nGeorge 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.”\nThe 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.\nAll 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.