OMG! Northern Illinois University Shooting!

[3113]

A gunman reportedly opened fire ...at Northern Illinois University, sending students fleeing from a lecture hall on campus, students said. University officials warned students to get to a safe area and ``take precautions until given the all clear,'' according to a message posted on the school's Web site at 3:20 p.m. ``Avoid the King Commons and all buildings in that vicinity.''

The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle said there were injuries, citing information heard over a police scanner shortly after 3 p.m. The scanner alerted police about a white, male shooter with a shotgun and pistol. Messages were left for university police and police in DeKalb, located about 65 miles west of Chicago.

Not a lot of other details except that something like 18 people have been shot and taken away in ambulances. The gunman *might* still be at large and student are being told to get to a safe place and lock their doors!

 

[sweetness6280]

Not a lot of other details except that something like 18 people have been shot and taken away in ambulances. The gunman *might* still be at large and student are being told to get to a safe place and lock their doors!

Not again! Here's hoping everyone is ok, and healing thoughts to help the students and staff deal with something that we cannot comprehend.

 

[Guest]

Damn.

Right now Headline news is saying 18 shot, 3 or 4 possibly dead, one of them perhaps the gunman as a suicide.

But it's all speculation right now.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

What the hell is with all these shootings?

So sad.

 

[Fallenfromgrace]

It was just on UK news, saw some body bags being taken away, so obviously some fatalities, though there were not many details. I beleive this happened in the last hour?

 

[3113]

It was just on UK news, saw some body bags being taken away, so obviously some fatalities, though there were not many details. I beleive this happened in the last hour?

About two-and-a-half hours ago.

 

[kendo1]

The BBC quoted a local TV station as saying 18 casualties.

 

[3113]

Here's the latest:

DEKALB, Ill. - A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 15 people before he was killed, authorities said. DeKalb Police Lt. Gary Spangler told the student newspaper the Northern Star that the gunman was dead. It was not immediately clear how he died.

The university issued a statement on its Web site about an hour after the 3 p.m. shooting that "the immediate danger has passed. The gunman is no longer a threat."

Kishwaukee Community Hospital said on its Web site it received 13 victims. It said earlier three to four had head wounds. George Gaynor, a senior geography student, who was in Cole Hall when the shooting happened, told the student newspaper that the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on." He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic. "Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor said outside just minutes after the shooting occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended too."

Witnesses said the young man carried a shotgun and a pistol. Student Edward Robinson told WLS-TV in Chicago that the gunman appeared to target students in one part of the lecture hall. "It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot," Robinson said. "He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at."

All classes were canceled Thursday night and the 25,000-student 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.

Dominique Broxton, 22, a student from Oak Park, told the Chicago Tribune she could see two wounded students from her dorm room. "The ambulance took away two students on the ground right outside my dorm," she said. "I don't know them. They looked bloody." She said she saw a lot of confusion. "Students were running. People really didn't know what was going on. There is an intercom system inside the dorm. Someone came on and stated that someone had been caught. They said they caught the shooter and that we should remain calm and stay in our rooms. I am in my room now."

 

[impressive]

 

[carsonshepherd]

My boyfriend's 21 year old cousin goes to NIU. She's called and checked in and is fine, but shit - I'd want to come home!

 

[Liar]

Yikes.

Nobody dead yet but the shooter, but 3 ppl in critical condition, says CNN.

 

[carsonshepherd]

We found out his cousin was in a nearby classroom and administered first aid to a shooting victim

 

[starrkers]

News report I just saw said 4 dead, 17 injured. Gunman dead, not sure if he was included in the 4.

 

[Katyusha]

A couple of my friends graduated from there. They're devastated. Why are these things happening and why does it seem to be getting worse?

 

[Xelebes]

10 days after the Lane Bryant shooting too. Damn.

 

[cloudy]

Latest news is six dead (including the gunman), and 16 injured.

So sad.

 

[Liar]

Sigh.

 

[trysail]

Why are these things happening and why does it seem to be getting worse?

There are a lot of people asking the same question. Amateur psychologists along with the professional variety will no doubt inform us that it's:

(a) the result of too many kids growing up without proper adult supervision, or
(b) the glorification of violence by Hollywood and the media, or
(c) improper child rearing, i.e., the sense of entitlement arising from all the fragile self-esteem reinforcement imparted by "modern" "helicopter" parents, or
(d) global warming, or
(e) George W. Bush, or
(f) all of the above, or
(e) none of the above.

The report on tonight's Beeb says the death toll is now six (including the shooter, who graduated from the school last spring). The Beeb report also stated that this was the FOURTH school shooting IN THE LAST WEEK! I have to admit that I missed the other three. Does anyone know what the three other shootings were this week?

The whole thing sickens me. WTF is going on with these kids?

 

[PrincessErin]

Very scary indeed. In regards to the first 3 shootings that occured this week - I didn't catch it in the news but since it seems to happen so 'often' it's possible it's not longer newsworthy.
I'm in Canada and we're not immune to these school shootings either.
Erin

 

[Ǽltya]

Does anyone know what the three other shootings were this week?

I only heard about the one in Memphis. Student Shot at Memphis High School. I didn't know there had been others.

 

[_Lynn_]

This is from Yahoo News.


"On Feb. 8, a woman shot two fellow students to death before committing suicide at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. In Memphis, Tenn., a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically wounding a fellow student Monday during a high school gym class, and the 15-year-old victim of a shooting at an Oxnard, Calif., junior high school has been declared brain dead."

 

[3113]

a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically wounding a fellow student Monday during a high school gym class, and the 15-year-old victim of a shooting at an Oxnard, Calif., junior high school has been declared brain dead."

This one was particularly painful as it seems, on the surface, to have been a hate crime. The victim, male, sometimes wore feminine clothing and had been open about being gay. He got hassled and picked on a lot, but had good friends who helped him deal with the bullying. From what little is known, he was threatened "You'd better watch your back!" Next thing anyone knew, one of those kids who'd threatened him, walked into class, pulled a gun and shot him

The killer then ran off and was caught off campus by police. The police are looking into the case and haven't confirmed if the shooting was a hate crime, but it seems likely.

And, unfortunately, it was not a 17 year old shooting a 15 year old. The shooter was 14. Likely he'll be tried as an adult as this was clearly premeditated murder.

 

[SensualCealy]

There are a lot of people asking the same question. Amateur psychologists along with the professional variety will no doubt inform us that it's:

(a) the result of too many kids growing up without proper adult supervision, or
(b) the glorification of violence by Hollywood and the media, or
(c) improper child rearing, i.e., the sense of entitlement arising from all the fragile self-esteem reinforcement imparted by "modern" "helicopter" parents, or
(d) global warming, or
(e) George W. Bush, or
(f) all of the above, or
(e) none of the above.

The report on tonight's Beeb says the death toll is now six (including the shooter, who graduated from the school last spring). The Beeb report also stated that this was the FOURTH school shooting IN THE LAST WEEK! I have to admit that I missed the other three. Does anyone know what the three other shootings were this week?

The whole thing sickens me. WTF is going on with these kids?

You forgot 1 thing: Access to guns!!

WTF, a gun if you open a bank account?
a gun if you register for a department credit card?

WHY?

In Canada we have shootings too, and they are becoming more and more, but not half as many as you hear of south of the border.
Is Canada right in making it illegal to carry firearms by joe public?

C

 

[3113]

Oxnard Killing

14-year-old is charged in shooting of Oxnard classmate

Ventura County prosecutors charged a 14-year-old boy with the shooting death of a classmate Thursday and said the killing in an Oxnard classroom was a premeditated hate crime. Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox declined to discuss a motive in the shooting or why prosecutors added the special allegation of a hate crime against Brandon McInerney, who was charged as an adult.

But classmates of the slain boy, Lawrence King, said he recently had started to wear makeup and jewelry and had proclaimed himself gay. Several students said King and a group of boys, including the defendant, had a verbal confrontation concerning King's sexual orientation a day before the killing. King, 15, was declared brain-dead and was expected to be taken off a ventilator late Thursday so organs could be removed for donation, said Craig Stevens, senior county deputy medical examiner. King was shot in the head early Tuesday in a classroom full of students at E.O. Green Junior High School. Police said the suspect fled and was apprehended a few blocks away.

McInerney's family was in a Ventura courtroom Thursday as the adolescent was brought into a holding chamber to face charges. His arraignment was delayed to give his attorney time to review the police investigation before entering a plea. McInerney was charged with premeditated murder with enhancements of use of a firearm and a hate crime. Because he is a minor, McInerney will remain in Juvenile Hall and be taken to the Ventura courtroom for court appearances, Fox said. He is being held in lieu of $770,000 bail. If convicted, McInerney could face 50 years to life. The hate crime enhancement would add another one to three years to his sentence.

"In Ventura County, we've never had a violent shooting like this," Fox said. "It's very tragic."

The defendant's family declined to talk to reporters, rushing out of the courthouse after a short hearing. But his attorney, Brian Vogel, said McInerney and the boy's family also were hurting. "Both Brandon and the family are terribly sad to learn [King] is brain-dead," he said. Vogel declined to discuss the case but said he would ask the court to move it back into the juvenile system. McInerney had no criminal history and was generally a good student at E.O. Green, where he was an eighth-grader. Vogel said the boy turned 14, the legal cutoff for charging an adolescent as an adult, on Jan. 24. Voters gave prosecutors the option of charging teenage suspects as adults under 2002's Proposition 21.

Details on the backgrounds of both boys began to emerge Thursday. King was a foster child living at Casa Pacifica, a shelter for abused and troubled children in Camarillo. Steven Elson, executive director at Casa Pacifica, said he could not discuss how long King had lived there or the circumstances involving his removal from his family. But Elson said King had made many friends on the sprawling residential campus and that many of the children were grieving his loss.

"It's been a sad couple of days here," Elson said.

King's father, who lives in Oxnard, declined to comment.

I wanna wave pictures of this kids in the faces of the next group of assholes trying to quelsh lessons in tolerance at high schools because they don't approve of anything with a "gay' agenda. Those who insist such lessons and new laws aren't necessary should be forced to go to one boy's funeral and the other boy's trial.

What a tragic waste of lives.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Brandon is "Terribly sad" to find out that the kid he tried to kill is dead. Too many cartoons.

I knew a boy who did something quite similar, and who was equally shocked to realise that shooting someone makes them dead. Honestly.