Man Kills 5 at NIU

Man kills 5, self at Northern Illinois

By CARYN ROUSSEAU, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago

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.

The 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.

Witnesses 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.

Lauren Carr said she was sitting in the third row of the lecture hall around 3 p.m. 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.'"

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Horribly tragic. And as a student these events always make you wonder if it could happen to your school, and if you'd know what to do. I was in High School when Columbine happened and we thought about it then. As I go into teaching it really makes me stop and think. Its not anything I ever would have thought of before Columbine, but it seems to be happening in schools with greater frequency.