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DEKALB, Ill. (AP) - The suspect who gunned down six people including himself in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall before committing suicide was identified Friday as 27-year-old former student Stephen Kazmierczak.
Police Chief Don Grady says Kazmierczak had stopped taking medication recently and had ``become erratic'' in the days leading up to the shooting.
A total of five people besides the gunman were killed. DeKalb County Coroner Dennis Miller said earlier reports of a sixthvictim were incorrect.
 (pictured: Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester, Ill.,who was identified as one of the victims)
A total of 48 shell casings and six shotgun shells were found at the scene, Grady said.
Two of the weapons - the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun - were purchased legally less than a week ago, on Feb. 9, authorities said. They were purchased in Champaign, where Kazmierczak was enrolled at the University of Illinois; authorities would not release the name of the store.
The other two guns were also legally purchased at the Champaign store - a High Point 380 pistol on Dec. 30, 2007, and a Sig Sauer pistol on Aug. 6, 2007, according to Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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Kazmierczak graduated from NIU with a degree in sociology in 2007, and had been a member of the Alpha Kappa Delta Sociology Honor Society. Grady said Kazmierczak had given a stellar impression to many he encountered.
"He was an outstanding student. He was an awarded student," Grady said. "He was someone who was revered by the faculty and staff and students alike."
The NIU Web site shows that Kazmierczak had been vice president of the university's Academic Criminal Justice Association.
Kazmierczak also wounded 15 people in Thursday's attack, which sent panicked students fleeing for the exits before he killed himself.
The people killed have been identified as Daniel Tarmenter, 20, of Westcheter; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; Julianna Gehant, 32, of downstate Meridan; and Gayle Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream, according to the DeKalb County coroner's office. Fifteen others have been hospitalized.
Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove has upgraded the conditions of two of the three shooting victims who are being treated there. Unhum Rahman, 19, of Plainfield has been upgraded to fair condition despite multiple gunshot wounds, including one to her right eye.
A 20-year-old unidentified man has been upgraded from critical to serious condition. He has head and shoulder-area wounds. Patient Maria Ruiz-Santana remains in critical condition, and hospital officials say she has not responded to doctors.
Witnesses said the 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.
Allyse Jerome, 19, a sophomore from Schaumburg, said the gunman burst through a stage door and pulled out a gun.
``Honestly, at first everyone thought it was a joke,'' Jerome said. Everyone hit the floor, she said. Then she got up and ran, but tripped. She said she felt like ``an open target.''
``He could've decided to get me,'' Jerome said. ``I thought for sure he was gonna get me.''
John Giovanni, 20, of Des Plaines said the gunman calmly fired at the greatest concentration of students.
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Witnesses said the 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.
Allyse Jerome, 19, a sophomore from Schaumburg, said the gunman burst through a stage door and pulled out a gun.
"Honestly, at first everyone thought it was a joke," Jerome said. Everyone hit the floor, she said. Then she got up and ran and tripped. She said she felt like "an open target."
"He could've decided to get me," Jerome said Friday. "I thought for sure he was gonna get me."
``He was shooting from the hip. He was just shooting,'' said Giovanni, who turned and ran so fast that he lost a shoe. ``I was running but I was hurtling over people in the fetal position.''
Peters said four people died at the scene, including three students and the gunman. The others died at hospitals. The teacher, a graduate student, was wounded but was expected to recover.
Another victim, Gayle Dubowski, a 20-year-old sophomore from Carol Stream, died at a Rockford hospital, Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said Friday.
The killer had been a graduate student in sociology at Northern Illinois as recently as spring 2007, but was not currently enrolled at the 25,000-student campus, Peters said. He was currently enrolled at the gunman was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 
He also said the suspect had no record of police contact or an arrest record while attending Northern Illinois, about 65 miles west of Chicago.
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!'''
More than a hundred students cried and hugged as they gathered outside the Phi Kappa Alpha house early Friday to remember Parmenter, the 20-year-old sophomore from Elmhurst, who was one of those killed.
``I'm not angry,'' his stepfather, Robert Greer, told the Tribune. ``I'm just sad, and I know that right now what I need to do is comfort my wife.''
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. |
