Killer in NIU identified as Steve Kazmierczak!
By on
February 15th, 2008
Armed with a shotgun and two handguns, walked out from behind a screen in a geology class around 3pm at Northern Illinois University, the attacker opened fire before shooting himself on the lecture hall stage, mowing down 22 college students in two minutes. He was named unofficially as Steve Kazmierczak, a 27-year-old former student at the university.
Steve Kazmierczak is also listed as being the vice president of the Academic Criminal Justice Association at the university.
The Chicago Tribune newspaper has reported that the gunman was recognised by the university two years ago for his scholarship.
Detectives are investigating the possibility he was seeking vengeance over a failed love affair.
“We are looking at his past relationships to see if there is any connection,” said one officer.
“One obvious line of enquiry is to determine whether the choice of Valentine’s Day was coincidental or not.”
Some reports suggested the gunman had targeted specific sections of the crowd. Student Edward Robinson said: “It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot. He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at.”
Kazmierczak left the university last year after winning an award for his sociology work.
He had established himself as an authority on prison systems, having co-authored a study on self-injury in jails. That paper is:
Thomas, Jim, Margaret Leaf, Steve Kazmierczak, and Josh Stone. 2006. “Self-Injury in Correctional Settings: ‘Pathology’ of Prisons or of Prisoners?” Criminology and Public Policy 5(1):193-202. Download the paper here.
The paper describes Steve Kazmierczak thusly: “Beginning graduate work at Northern Illinois University. In addition to his interests in corrections, political violence, and peace and social justice, he is co-authoring a manuscript on the role of religion in the formation of early prisons in the United States with Jim Thomas and Josh Stone. He is also develops content for online education and is an executive board officer of the NIU student chapter of the American Correctional Association.”
The gunman also served as vice president of the Academic Criminal Justice Association chapter at NIU.
The Association’s mission is described as “to provide NIU students and member of DeKalb community with an opportunity to learn about and promote knowledge and understanding of all areas of the criminal justice system, especially corrections and juvenile justice.
“The organization will provide a forum for communicating about and participating in activities related to criminal justice, especially corrections.”
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