‘No motive’ in US campus shooting

Former Illinois university student kills five people before turning gun on himself.

chicago university shooting — Witnesses described scenes of chaos after the armed man opened fire inside a lecture hall [EPA]

“He had stopped taking medication and become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks,” Donald Grady, the campus police chief, said on Friday.

Chaotic scenes

Five people died at the scene, including Kazmierczak, reports said, while one more later died in hospital from injuries sustained in the incident, while at least 15 were reportedly wounded.

Witnesses said the shooter burst into the lecture hall where more than 100 students were and began randomly firing a shotgun.

“He was quiet – he just stood on the stage in front of everybody and just started shooting”

Witness

“He was aiming towards the crowd but I don’t think he was aiming at a specific person,” a witness told WBBM local radio.

“He was quiet. He just stood on the stage in front of everybody and just started shooting.”

Student Lauren Carr told AP she was sitting in the third row when she saw the shooter walk through a door on the right-hand side of the stage while pointing a gun straight ahead.

“I personally … crawled halfway up the aisle. I said I could get up and run or I could die here.”

“I heard this girl scream, ‘Run, he’s reloading the gun!'”

Classes cancelled

All remaining classes were cancelled on Thursday following the shooting and the campus was closed on Friday.

Students were urged to call their parents “as soon as possible” and
were offered counselling.

Students gathered for a memoral service at
the university campus on Friday [AFP]

John Peters, the university president, told ABC News that the armed man had been considered “a good student”.

“By all accounts that we can tell right now [he] was a very good student that the professors thought well of,” he said.

Peters also ruled out the possibility that Thursday’s shooting was related to racial threats found on a bathroom wall at the university in December.

The writings on the wall also referred to the Virginia Tech shooting and a warning that “things will change most hastily” as the semester came to an end.

The incident led to the university being closed down for a day while police investigated.

Peters said while security was heightened at the campus, there was nothing more officials could have done.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies