Excuses, excuses, campus gunman was off his medication!

DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) -- Steven P. Kazmierczak, identified as the gunman in Thursday's shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University, was "an outstanding student" who reportedly stopped taking medication recently and became "somewhat erratic," the university's police chief said Friday.

Kazmierczak of Champaign, Illinois, opened fire on a geology class Thursday, shooting 21 people before killing himself. Five people were killed in addition to the shooter.

All the victims were from Illinois. The DeKalb County coroner's office identified four of them: Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; and Julianna Gehant, 32, of Meriden.

The fifth victim, Gayle Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream, died at a hospital in Rockford and was identified by Winnebago County authorities.

University Police Chief Donald Grady said people close to Kazmierczak have told authorities he was taking medication but had stopped and had become "somewhat erratic" in the last couple of weeks.

Grady would not name the medication Kazmierczak had been using or the condition for which he was taking it.

He said investigators had not determined a motive and are not aware of any relationships the gunman may have had with anyone in the class where the shooting occurred. Nor did Kazmierczak have any previous contact with police, Grady said.

"There were no red flags," Grady said. "He was an outstanding student, he was an awarded student, he was someone that was revered by the faculty, staff and students alike. ... So we had no indications at all."

Kazmierczak used a shotgun hidden in a guitar case and three handguns hidden under a coat, Grady said.

Grady said he didn't know how many shots had been fired, but he said investigators recovered 48 bullet casings and six spent shotgun shells.

Kevin Cronin of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that two of the weapons were legally purchased February 9 from a dealer in Champaign. The bureau was still tracing the other two weapons used in the attack.

Champaign police recovered at least one weapon from Kazmierczak's apartment Thursday night after being admitted by his girlfriend, Chief R.T. Finney said.

Authorities in Polk County, Florida, said police in Illinois had them question the man's father, Robert Kazmierczak of Lakeland, Florida.

A tearful Robert Kazmierczak stepped onto his porch and asked reporters to go away Friday.

University President John Peters said the gunman was a former graduate student who had a good record as an undergraduate, receiving a degree in sociology at the school in 2006.
"There's no indication that there was any trouble," Peters said.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the school honored the gunman two years ago for his research on the U.S. prison system, including a study of self-inflicted wounds among prisoners. He was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Tribune reported.

President Bush on Friday asked Americans "to offer their blessings -- blessings of comfort and blessings of strength" to the community at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, about 65 miles west of downtown Chicago.

All classes and events on the university campus were canceled until further notice. Dormitories remained open to house and feed students.

"I know what's happened, but I don't want to believe it," said Stefanie Miller, who saw two of her friends die in the Cole Hall shooting.

Late Thursday, dozens of students gathered on campus for a candlelight prayer vigil. Video footage showed students comforting one another and a young man playing guitar.

Seven counseling areas were set up, and hotlines were established.

Tributes were surfacing online. A Facebook community called "Pray for Northern Illinois University Students and Families" had more than 51,000 members by midday Friday.

Gunman 'just started shooting'

About 160 students were registered in the class that met in the large lecture hall.

Kevin McEnery said he was in the classroom when the gunman, dressed in a black shirt, dark pants and black hat, burst in carrying a shotgun.

"He just kicked the door open, just started shooting," McEnery said. "All I really heard was just people screaming, yelling 'get out.' ... Close to 30 shots were fired."

Student Zach Seward said, "We were having lecture as normal, a PowerPoint presentation. All of a sudden the side door on the stage opens. Average-height male Caucasian comes out, draws a shotgun, pumps it and fires the first round on the first couple of rows.

"After that, everybody ducked down, started screaming, going toward the door. On the way out, I heard shots still being fired. Everybody was screaming and running out of the room. It was chaos."

At 3:03 p.m. CT, university police responded, and four minutes later, the campus was ordered into "a lockdown situation," said Grady, the police chief.

At 3:20, an all-campus alert went out via the school Web site, e-mail, voice mail, the campus crisis hotline, the news media and alarm systems, he said.

By 4 p.m., DeKalb police had swept the area "and determined there was only one gunman" and that he was dead.

"It was absolutely a marvelous response" by campus safety authorities, Grady said.

Student Rosie Moroni said she was outside Cole Hall near the King Commons when she heard shots coming from the classroom.

The shots were followed by "a lot of people screaming," then people ran out the doors yelling, "He's got a gun, call 911," she recalled.

Security around campus was increased in December when police found threats scrawled on a campus bathroom wall that included racial slurs and references to last April's Virginia Tech shootings.

Peters and Grady said no evidence points to a link between the December incident and Thursday's shooting.

The university revised its emergency procedures after the Virginia Tech massacre, Peters said.

"I believe that paid off," he said. "That's really a sad thing to say, that you have to learn from an event like that, but we knew how we wanted to communicate and we sort of had some messages prearranged, and we got out there fairly quickly."

He said the shooting could force further changes.

"Universities for decades, for hundreds of years, have been open institutions -- the most open institutions," he said. "And events like this and Virginia Tech and others are forcing us to reconsider how we do things. I think that is unfortunate but necessary."

Eighteen victims were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, the hospital Web site said.

A doctor at the hospital said most of the injuries were from buckshot, which creates smaller wounds than bullets.

Nate Llewellyn, a spokesman for Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, said it had received two female patients and one male: Nineteen-year-old Unnum Rahman was in serious condition after receiving gunshot wounds to her right eye and arm; Maria Ruiz Santana was in critical condition; and an unidentified male was in critical condition. All three required surgery, he said.

The 113-year-old school has an enrollment of more than 25,000. The campus covers 755 acres.

The ridiculous reader responses to this story is Calls for More GUN CONTROL!

This shooting was near KING Commons, and the shooter from California was Lawrence KING.