News: 2008 Northern Illinois Shooting

I was a freshman in college when I joined Central Michigan Life. During second semester, I was asked to localize the Northern Illinois University shooting. It was my first cover piece for CM Life and the first large story I only had one day to gather information and contact sources.

'Close to home' published in Central Michigan Life on February 18, 2008.
 

Last week’s Northern Illinois University tragedy hit home for Stan Shingles.

Nineteen years ago, the director of University Recreational Services taught at NIU, and he still has friends who work there. Five students were killed Thursday in a lecture hall shooting.

Shingles said it frightens people at CMU because the NIU shooting, as well as the April 16 shooting at Virginia Tech that left 32 students dead, both occurred in rural towns.

“What’s alarming to all of us is that Blacksburg, Va., and DeKalb, Ill., are very much like Mount Pleasant,” Shingles said. “They’re rural college towns, so we all have this perception of being safe because they’re not urban centered – but what happened at Virginia Tech and at Northern Illinois can happen at Central Michigan.”

At approximately 3 p.m. Thursday, Stephen Kazmierczak opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns during a Geology lecture in NIU’s Cole Hall, shooting 22 students before killing himself.