No clues into motive of niu shooting
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February 17th, 2008
Investigators still haven’t determined what set off 27-year-old shooter Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five students and injured more than a dozen other people with a shotgun and pistols during a science lecture, then committed suicide.
In searching for a motive, investigators have turned to Kazmierczak’s friends and family.
Police have questioned Jessica Baty, who reportedly was Kazmierczak’s girlfriend. Baty – just like Kazmierczak – once was a student in NIU’s sociology department but now is enrolled at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,Magara said.
Baty reportedly has told investigators that she and Kazmierczak did not have any kind of fight or argument before Kazmierczak left from Champaign to DeKalb three days before the shootings, investigators said Saturday.
An undated picture found on a MySpace page shows Kazmierczak wearing a T-shirt with a pistol on top of an American flag, barely covering his heavily tattooed arms.
Jason Dunavan, a tattoo artist in Champaign, said he spent hours as recently as last month creating tattoos for Kazmierczak. His work included an image of the macabre doll from the horror movie “Saw” riding a tricycle through a pool of blood with images of several bleeding cuts in the background.
Dunavan said he was so proud of the tattoo that he enlarged a photo of it and placed it on a wall in his shop – a move he now is rethinking.
“I don’t know if I still want that picture on my wall,” said Dunavan, who also described Kazmierczak as timid and apologetic.
Investigators also have found more clues to Kazmierczak’s whereabouts just before the shootings.
On Monday, Kazmierczak stayed for only 15 minutes at the room that he booked at the Best Western DeKalb & Suites before leaving, a Best Western employee said Saturday – even though he had reservations for Monday through Friday. He left after reportedly receiving a phone call.
Kazmierczak then moved to Room 105 in the Travelodge next to the Best Western on Lincoln Highway, paying cash and only signing “Steven” to register for the room, Rupa Patel, wife of hotel manager Jay Patel, said Saturday.
A laptop was found in Kazmierczak’s room, but the hard drive was missing, sources involved with the investigation said.
Authorities also found a duffel bag Friday, left behind by Kazmierczak with the zippers glued shut. The bag contained a small amount of ammunition, DeKalb police Lt. Gary Spangler said Saturday.
Described as thoughtful yet quiet by NIU students and his former professors, acquaintances of Kazmierczak also said he was avidly interested in guns. In the past few years, he bought several guns but often sold them to other people, sources close to the investigation said.
Authorities have said the guns that Kazmierczak used in Thursday’s shooting were bought legally and that he had a state police-issued FOID, a firearms owners identification card, which is required in Illinois to own a gun.
Kazmierczak had a short-lived stint as a prison guard that ended abruptly when he didn’t show up for work. He was in the Army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend that he had gotten a psychological discharge.
Kazmierczak also had a history of mental illness and had become erratic in the past two weeks after he stopped taking his medication, NIU Police Chief Donald Grady has said. A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment center said Kazmierczak had been placed there after high school by his parents. He used to cut himself and had resisted taking his medications, she said.
The investigation into a motive behind Kazmierczak’s attack continues by NIU Police, DeKalb Police, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Illinois State Police and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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