Other News...
sponsored by Richardson Repair

Autopsy: NIU Killer Shot Self in Mouth

Send a link to a friend

[March 15, 2008]  DEKALB, Ill. (AP) -- A former Northern Illinois University graduate student who opened fire inside a lecture hall died when he put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, according to partial autopsy results released Friday by the university.

Steven Kazmierczak, 27, also had trace amounts of cold medicine, nicotine and alprazolam - the generic name for the anti-anxiety drug Xanax - in his bloodstream when he fatally wounded five students before committing suicide on Valentine's Day, the school said. Eighteen other people were wounded.

NIU officials said the DeKalb County coroner found that four of Kazmierczak's five victims died from gunshot wounds. No cause of death was given Friday for the fifth victim, who died at a hospital in neighboring Winnebago County.

"This is the extent of the information we are presently able to make available for public dissemination," school administrators said in a statement.

Police found empty cigarette cartons, cold medicine and energy drinks inside a DeKalb motel room where Kazmericzak paid cash for a three-night stay before the attack. Authorities have said he stopped taking antidepressants several weeks before the attack.

They still don't know what prompted Kazmierczak, who had transferred from NIU to the University of Illinois in 2007, to return to the DeKalb campus of 25,000 students, or why he targeted an undergraduate geology class inside Cole Hall.

Kazmierczak completed his undergraduate work at NIU, where he excelled in his studies of sociology.

Cole Hall, a large lecture complex at the center of campus, has been closed since the attack and its future is uncertain.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

< Top Stories index

Back to top


 

News | Sports | Business | Rural Review | Teaching & Learning | Home and Family | Tourism | Obituaries

Community | Perspectives | Law & Courts | Leisure Time | Spiritual Life | Health & Fitness | Teen Scene
Calendar | Letters to the Editor