Report: Gunman who killed 5 at Ill. college may have been angry at school for academic changes

Report: NIU gunman may have been angry at school

CHICAGO — A gunman who killed himself and five students at Northern Illinois University in 2008 may have been motivated in part by fury at academic changes the school made that he believed de-emphasized his academic field, according to a new report released Thursday.

The 322-page report, the first to speculate in detail about motives behind Steven Kazmierczak’s attack, said simmering anger, mental issues and his mother’s death may have contributed to his decision to enter a full lecture hall — “Terrorist” scrawled across his T-shirt — and open fire.

Kazmierczak was praised at the time by his professors as an ‘A’ student but left NIU in 2007 before completing a master’s degree, apparently upset by what he perceived as a de-emphasis of his chosen field in criminology. And his resentment could have been intensified because he may have seen NIU as a “surrogate family,” the report suggested.

“These multiple, emotionally debilitating losses crushed Kazmierczak’s fragile self-concept and eventually sent him reeling toward a destructive end,” the report said.

There’s never been a clear finding about motives behind the Valentine’s Day shootings and the new report was based on psychological profiles, not direct evidence. No suicide note was ever found, nor was the hard drive on Kazmierczak’s computer.

“Nothing in here should be taken as, ‘We know for a fact what Kazmierczak was thinking,’” NIU Police Chief Donald Grady, who helped compile the report, told The Associated Press. “What we have are professional opinions about what he could have been thinking.”

Some critics have said it should have been released long ago, noting that two voluminous reports were released within five months of the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. But Grady, the lead investigator of the NIU shootings, resisted releasing a report too quickly since the most important facts were known.

Grady said Thursday he was still concerned the report gave Kazmierczak some of the notoriety he clearly sought in the killings and could potentially lead to copycat crimes. He said no additional findings should be expected.

“This is pretty much the last step,” he said.

The report said Kazmierczak was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, distinguished by schizophrenia and mood swings. It also cites a history of disturbing behavior: As a teen, he got angry at his sister and chased her with a knife.

Kazmierczak, 27 at the time, might have targeted the red-brick Cole Hall in the heart of the school’s Dekalb campus because he took undergraduate courses and was later a teaching assistant in the building, the report said.

Authorities concluded Kazmierczak had no personal connection to any of the more than 100 students in the lecture hall that day, but the report suggested he may have considered them extended family.

“By ending his life and the lives of other siblings there, Kazmierczak would have come full circle,” the report said. “It was where he had flourished. Now it would be the setting for his grotesque end.”

Authorities said Kazmierczak fatally shot himself and five students — Gayle Dubowski, 20; Catalina Garcia, 20; Julianna Gehant, 32; Ryanne Mace, 19; and Daniel Parmenter, 20 — on Feb. 14, 2008. Campus police were there within minutes of the first 911 calls only to find Kazmierczak dead, weapons strewn about him.

The report praised the school’s response, saying administrators quickly alerted the 25,000-student campus, and said school officials couldn’t have predicted the attack.

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On the Net:

NIU shootings report released Friday: www.niu.edu/feb14report/Feb14report.pdf