Havoc in Israeli School: Eight Killed

A gunman entered a prominent Jewish seminary in the heart of Jerusalem Thursday night, killing at least eight students and wounding at least nine others, three of them seriously, the Israeli police said.

In a scene of havoc and confusion while the students prayed, the gunman killed two people at the entrance to the Mercaz Harav yeshiva and then entered the first-floor library, spraying the religious students with gunfire from a Kalashnikov rifle, according to the Israeli police.

The gunman, who has not yet been identified, was thought to be either a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab living inside Jerusalem. The dead were thought to be mostly between 20 and 30 years of age.

Anything But Erratic, Says Jessica Baty of Her Boyfriend, Steven Kazmierczak

CNN reports:

The girlfriend of the gunman who killed five people and then himself at Northern Illinois University last Thursday told CNN that there was "no indication he was planning something."

Jessica Baty said her boyfriend, Steve Kazmierczak, gave no warning of the terror he planned to unleash at NIU.

"He wasn't erratic. He wasn't delusional. He was Steve; he was normal," Jessica Baty tearfully said in an exclusive interview Sunday.

Baty, 28, had been dating and living with Steven Kazmierczak for two years.

"He was a worrier," she said. He once told her he had "obsessive-compulsive tendencies" and that his parents committed him as a teen to a group home because he was "unruly" and used to cut himself.

He had been seeing a psychiatrist, Baty said, and was taking an anti-depressant to treat depression. But Kazmierczak had stopped taking the medication three weeks ago, "because it made him feel like a zombie," she said.

"He wasn't acting erratic," she said. "He was just a little quicker to get annoyed."

She knew he had purchased at least two guns. He told her they were for home protection.

On Valentine's Day, Baty was in class at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where she and Kazmierczak were graduate students studying criminal justice. The students began to talk about a mass shooting taking place at Baty and Kazmierczak's alma mater, NIU in DeKalb.

She didn't think much of it, and her mind drifted to where her boyfriend told her he would be that day -- with his godfather in another town in Illinois.

Contradictory Views of Steve Kazmierczak

What people initially told police about the Northern Illinois University shooter — a portrait of a happy, stable young man who was a bright, helpful scholar — didn't add up.

Now investigators searching for what triggered Thursday's bloody attack, in which five students were killed and several injured before Steven Phillip Kazmierczak committed suicide, are finding some disturbing details.

He had spent time in a mental health center, had disturbing tattoos covering his arms and had developed a recent interest in guns.

Ordering Guns Via Internet

Web site used to buy gun accessories by Steven Kazmierczak is owned by the same company that operates a site patronized by Seung-Hui Cho, the company said.

Kazmierczak ordered two 9 mm Glock magazines and a holster for a Glock handgun from the Web site February 4, said a statement released by TGSCOM Inc.

He received them February 12, two days before the NIU shootings, it said.

"TGSCOM Inc. also operates the Web site used by Seung-Hui [Cho] to purchase a firearm used in the Virginia Tech shootings last April," the statement said.

Cho killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself in that incident.

Once more, I am amazed that anyone can order a firearm over the internet! How stupid can we get? Anonymity is the name of the game when you have decided to end your own life and take as many others with you as you can in a few minutes. What easier way is there than to order a weapon via online shopping? Once more, you've got to be kidding.

Quick Response From Authorities at NIU Shooting: Only 90 Seconds

MSNBC reports,

Steven Kazmierczak, a 27-year-old NIU (Northern Illinois University) graduate, opened fire Thursday afternoon in a lecture hall, killing five students and injuring more than a dozen others in a rapid-fire assault that lasted just a few minutes. He committed suicide on the stage.

Authorities responded quickly; the first 10 police officers were on the scene in 90 seconds. NIU launched its emergency alert system — a carefully rehearsed plan developed after Virginia Tech — sending out e-mails and messages on Web sites to notify students that a possible gunman was on campus and they needed to find a safe area.

We should be proud that our police officers responded in such a timely manner, in only 90 seconds. If Mr. Kazmierczak had not committed suicide immediately, he may have tried to go into other buildings on campus to shoot other students and professors. The police response would have prevented this additional tragedy. We should be relieved that authorities responded so quickly.

Another School Shooting/Another Young Murderer

NY TIMES reports:

Confronted with the scene of horror, people who knew him at the campus he attacked and the one he was currently enrolled in, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, struggled with shock.

His adviser in Champaign, who saw him earlier this year, used words like “nice,” “engaging,” “motivated” and “responsible” to describe him. "I saw nothing that would suggest that there was anything troubling about his behavior or him,” Professor Jan Carter-Black told reporters today, according to USA Today. “I enjoyed having him as a student.”

When Mr. Kazmierczak was a graduate student in sociology at Northern Illinois University, he appeared to be a model student, earning a dean’s award in 2006.

He also served as vice president of the Academic Criminal Justice Association, a student group focused on educating the community. In a biography posted to the college’s Web site, he vowed to serve as treasurer “best of my ability.”

“I’ve worked very hard as a student,” Mr. Kazmierczak wrote. “I feel that I’m committed to social justice.”

He wrote a paper on prison issues, “Self Injury in Correctional Settings,” with several co-authors, including the group’s president.