Backgrounder: Deadly campus shootings in U.S.

Six people were killed and a dozen others injured when a young gunman shot in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University (NIU) Thursday afternoon.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- The gunman who killed six people and himself Thursday in Northern Illinois University (NIU) showed nothing wrong before he committed the crime, his teachers said Friday.

    The gunman, Stephen Kazamierczak, a 27 year-old former NIU student who later studied in the University of Illinois (UI), did not appear to be a killer, said Jan Carter-Black, his academic advisor at UI.

    "I saw nothing that caused me any alarm," she told USA Today Friday.

    "He was engaging, motivated, responsible," Carter-Black spoke about Kazamierczak.

    "I saw nothing that would suggest that there was anything troubling about his behavior or him," she said.

    Chris Larrison, also an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, said he was really shocked to hear about Kazamierczak's shooting rampage.

    Larrison said he liked Kazmierczak.

    "Because he was so personable and he was clearly concerned about the quality of his work, it made it very easy to interact with him."

    Kazamierczak stormed a lecture hall at NIU Thursday with a shotgun and two handguns and opened fire at the students inside the hall, before killing himself.

    Five people, including Kazamierczak, were dead at the scene.

    Two more people died at a hospital later and 15 others were wounded.

    Police are still trying to find out the motive of Kazamierczak.

U.S. university shooting death toll rises to seven

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- One more person injured in the shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University (NIU) has died in hospital, bringing the total number of those killed to seven, the authorities said Friday.

The shooting took place shortly after 3 p.m. (2100 GMT) Thursday when the gunman, a young, white male all dressed in black, walked out from behind a screen in a geology class taking place in600-seat lecture hall and opened fire, the university's president, John Peters, told a press conference.  Full story 

Several people shot in U.S. university

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Several people were shot at Northern Illinois University in the Chicago suburb of DeKalb, Ill. Thursday, CNN reported.

The shooting took place shortly after 3 p.m. (2100 GMT), when police received report that a white, male shooter with a shotgun and pistol opened fire in a lecture hall of the university.  Full story

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