DEKALB, Ill. (AP) - A gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at
Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 17
people before he killed himself, authorities said.
"Police are confirming that the shooter is dead by a
self-inflicted gunshot," the school said on its Web site.
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 spokeswoman Theresa Komitas told
WLS-TV in Chicago it received 17 victims all with wounds from the
shooting or flying debris, including three with serious injuries.
She said she knew of no deaths at the hospital.
George 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."
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 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."
Jillian Martinez, a freshman from Carpentersville, told the
Chicago Tribune she was in the auditorium