I have two final photos from the time we have spent here in DeKalb.
The U.S., Illinois, and university flags fly at half-mast on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2008, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. Photo: Josh Harrell/Iowa State Daily
Flowers and items lie below crosses Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. There were various events and memorials throughout the weekend honoring the victims of the NIU shootings. Photo: Josh Harrell/Iowa State Daily
DeKalb,Ill. — Naturally, when a balloon loses pressure, it deflates. The same laws applied to DeKalb, Illinois after the Thursday, Feb. 14 shooting that claimed the lives of six individuals, including the gunman, Steven P. Kazmierczak.
During our time here on the NIU campus and in DeKalb, there has been one common trend — a lack of student presence.
On Friday, when we first arrived to campus, there was an outpouring of support as students and community members packed the Duke Ellington Ballroom at the Holmes Student Center to hear speeches from state political figures and Rev. Jesse Jackson.
The vigil and speech, drew more than 3,000 individuals. A mark that put the building over capacity.
But, as the weekend has gone on, dorms, churches and establishments of social activity have been baron, at best.
The Grant Towers Residence Halls sit mostly deserted on Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. Most students went home to be with friends and family. Classes are scheduled to resume on Monday, Feb. 25. Photo: Josh Harrell/Iowa State Daily
As of fall 2007, 25,254 students were enrolled at NIU. Now, compare that to the 24,445 students enrolled at Iowa State University, and things aren't that much different.
On Saturday, we attended a benefit concert at a local watering hole, Otto's, where fewer than 20 individuals attended. The bands scheduled to play publicized the event as a "fund raiser" for the NIU Memorial fund.
Normally, about 1,200 students inhabit each tower of Grant Hall, but on this weekend, only an average of 20 students stuck around, per building, according to the Northern Star, NIU's campus newspaper.
Though a long weekend may have sufficed, a week-long break seemed much more fitting, given the events that have taken place the last few days.
In interviews, we have had gathered mixed feelings— "should I stay? or should I go?" Unfortunately, it seemed as if the people have chosen the latter.
This max exodus of the NIU campus has left events vacant. Gatherings that may have once aided the healing process have been discarded for the comfort of home and family.
During our last night here in DeKalb, we scoured the city for emotion and activity among students. On a day (Sunday) best known for religion and spirituality, all we were able to obtain was a stone wall.
When we arrived at the church that was scheduled to hold a memorial for NIU faculty and staff, we were turned away by pastors, who cited spirituality and peace.
Though I'm sure the professors and staff in attendance would have been willing to talk to us on an individual basis, the simple fact that they were at the religious outpost to seek refuge was a point in itself.
On a coffee table in front of the main sanctuary, there were fliers that documented the recovery process of a violent act and the steps to take when those acts were encountered.
There weren't more than 30 people at Westminster Presbyterian Church on Sunday night, but the emptiness we felt entering the sanctuary, and being turned away was the same as the emptiness felt by those sitting in their dorm rooms alone, thinking of the violence and tragedy that has fallen into their laps.
By: John Askew We found Evan D'Orazio, junior at NIU, at a concert in downtown DeKalb. He was friends with the Chicago-based band Strange Arrangement, and had come to the show to see his friends and hopefully take his mind off the recent shooting at NIU that he experienced. The following interview took place in a back room of the venue, Otto's. Parts have been cut where Evan went off topic. Below you can find a story written by Ross Boettcher.
On Sunday, I was going to get a photograph of the lecture hall where the shootings happened so that, as a photojournalist, I was covering all my bases. Consequently, I happened to run into a custodian, Pete Scoffield, who works at Cole Hall.
He was not working Thursday, Feb. 14. Instead, he was sitting in class in the next building down from Cole Hall.
During our conversation, Scoffield explained to me some of the things he had heard from his co-workers, who were woking in Cole Hall, about what had had taken place on that fate-filled day.
The shooter, Steven Kazmierczack, paced around between two buildings with his guitar case, waiting...
He walked through the back doors of the building. Kazmierczack then slipped onto the elevated stage overlooking the lecture. From his vantage point, it gave him the "ideal" area to shoot from. Scoffield said the circumstance gave the the shooter a perspective that was like shooting from a tree stand.
"Bird shot spreads. First person, it hit and kills. Second person it kills. Third person it maimes them. The fourth person is wounded," said Scoffield.
What I heard after that took me by surprise. Scoffield said, Kazmierczack, once he ran out of ammunition for his shotgun, began to chase students around Cole 101, firing at them with his handguns.
...
After hearing this testimony, then talking with my colleagues documenting this event, it really made me think about what had to be going through Kaznierczack's mind to get to this point. It had to be so much more than we could comprehend.
Myself, I suffered through the death of my father before the start of my freshman year of high school, I understand some of the pressure that he went through. It had to be so intense to get to the point that he reached to feel that he, along with other people, had to die to feel that he would be relieved from the pain that he was going through.
I feel for these families and friends that were affected by this event.
I will never truly understand the extent to which this event will touch them, but I can definitely tell that this will resonate with college students across the country.
Elissa Stowell, Northern Illinois Univeristy teaching assistant in political science and Iowa State alumna, started her car to go on campus around 3:20 p.m. on Thursday February, 14, when she got the text message from a friend.
“Why?” she replied.
No response.
A few minutes later, her roommate came home from work. She said something was happening on campus, people were running and there were police everywhere.They turned on the TV, and didn’t see anything.
Stowall got on the NIU Web site and saw the campus alert that said there was a reported gunman on campus. The site told students who were on campus to go somewhere safe and for off-campus students to stay away.
The university also sent out e-mails to all students, faculty and staff. Stowall got both the faculty e-mail and the student e-mail. She said the e-mail into her T.A. account came in around 3:20 p.m. and the e-mail into her student account didn’t get to her until 4 p.m.
Stowall and her roommate spent the rest of the afternoon watching the news and calling and texting friends.
“It took a while, but we were able to get ahold of everyone,” Stowall said. Stowall is a teaching assistant for political science 100.
On Fridays, she leads discussions with a smaller group of about 50 students from a much larger class.
“I have to stand up in a class. It is kind of hard for me, what if something like that happens to me,” Stowall said.
Stowall said she normally arrives on campus at noon or 1 p.m., but she stayed up late the night before working on a paper and decided to sleep in on Thursday.
“You can’t believe it happened on your campus,” Stowall said. “I think everyone is in complete shock. Everyone is trying to figure out how to deal with it and move forward.”
She said she can understand how people on campus may feel unsafe for a long time. Everytime a door opens in a classroom, students will be thinking about what happened, she said.
“I think it is going to be a while before things will be normal,” she said. “I think it is going to be a healing process. The whole point of carrying on is so that the people who did this don’t win.”
Stowall said she thinks a situation like this is unpreventable, and she doesn’t feel unsafe.
“I feel safe because the campus response was so quick,” she said.
