Stories related to: school shooting

A Virginia judge yesterday approved an $11 million settlement with 42 families of those killed or injured in last year's Virginia Tech shootings, the Washington Post reports. The families sued after a panel concluded that lives might have been saved if the university contacted students immediately after the first shootings. Instead, 2.5 hours passed before an email warning was sent, just 10 minutes before the second rampage, which claimed 32 lives. More »

An Indiana 16-year-old plotted a Columbine-style mass killing on September 11 and even sought the same pistol used in that attack, the AP reports. The high school student faces charges of conspiracy to commit murder when he appears in court today. Police found 100 knives in his home and say he discussed how to make explosives and obtain weapons online with an out-of-state friend. More »

Ryan Schallenberger, the South Carolina teenager whose Columbine-style attack police say they foiled yesterday, will be charged with a federal count of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, the AP reports. The charge, stemming from the 10 pounds of explosives discovered by Schallenberger’s parents yesterday, carries a possible life sentence. The 18-year-old also faces two lesser federal charges. More »

Steven Kazmierczak didn’t leave a note before his deadly February shooting spree at Northern Illinois University, nor clues to his motivations on his computer or cell phone. But in essays for graduate-school applications, the Chicago Tribune reports, the future killer writes extensively about his life and his mental problems—including a stint in a group home. More »

In the wake of campus shootings at Virginia Tech and NIU, threats in a bathroom stall at Chicago’s St. Xavier University prompted an indefinite campus shutdown last night. After graffiti appeared for the second time Thursday, this time reading “Be prepared to die 4/14,” school authorities told students to leave campus and suspended operations, the Chicago Tribune reports. More »

For about 90 minutes, his Facebook status read: “Lucas Caparelli: recommends not going to class on Wednesday because he is going to blow up campus. ” In those 90 minutes, Caparelli went from a highly-recruited running back to a persona non grata suspended by Wake Forest. “It was a dumb, immature, ignorant joke, but to me, it was a joke,” Caparelli told the Washington Post . More »

The state of Virginia is offering $100,000 to each family of the 32 students and teachers killed by a lone gunman in the Virginia Tech massacre, the Virginian-Pilot reports. If accepted, the settlement would prevent families from suing the state for negligence. One attorney called the offer "for a human life an insult, an absolute insult." More »

Eric Thompson sold guns to both the Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech shooters, but he’s not apologizing for it. “I’m a businessman,” he tells the Los Angeles Times . “It’s a product.” But Thompson thinks he knows how to stop such violence: allow students to carry guns. “We know it’s going to happen again. It’s time to hit it head on.” More »

As Northern Illinois University resumes classes today, the prevailing feeling is uncertainty. One professor will leave it up to her class whether to stick to the syllabus or talk about the Valentine's Day shooting that left five students dead. Others question whether the semester's grading standards should change and wonder what will become of the scene of the tragedy, reports the Chicago Tribune. More »

While many states have responded to recent college shootings by debating whether firearms should be allowed on campus, Utah is the only one with such a law on the books—and students at its public universities are taking advantage, CNN reports. Predictably, while some students say they feel safer with their guns on hand, others say it makes classrooms even scarier. More »

The shooter in the NIU carnage that left five students dead last week began to exhibit troubling signs of mental illness as a high school student as he explored satanism and white-power movements, reports AP.  Steven Kazmierczak "started to identify more with hatred-type stuff," said a friend. His behavioral problems became so severe that he required mood-stabilizing drugs, and landed for a year in a psychiatric treatment center where he cut himself and resisted taking medication. More »

An Army Corps of Engineers vet who wanted to be a first grade teacher. A violinist who knit for fun. A rugby player and frat man who worked for the student newspaper. The Chicago Tribune profiles the five students gunned down in their oceanography class Thursday at North Illinois University, while police are still searching for the killer's motive. All of the victims—four of them women—had Illinois hometowns. More »

Before his shooting rampage at NIU, Steven Kazmierczak spent two days in a motel, taking cold medicine and drinking Red Bull, the Chicago Tribune reports. He left behind no note, only a sealed duffel bag filled with gun ammo. Kazmierczak, who had stopped taking medication for anxiety, also sent his ex-girlfriend packages loaded with gun accessories. He instructed her not to open them until Valentine’s Day. More »

An online gun dealer who helped arm the Virginia Tech shooter also sold accessories to the killer in Thursday's Northern Illinois University rampage, the AP reports. "I'm still blown away by the coincidences," said Eric Thompson, whose company, TGSCOM, is based in Green Bay. He called a federal agency yesterday when he realized he had sold two magazines and a holster to Illinois shooter Stephen Kazmierczak.  More »

Northern Illinois University profs and students who knew Stephen Kazmierczak said today they were stunned by his transformation into a killer: “I knew him as a warm, sensitive, very bright student,” one professor said in disbelief. "I have had him in my home." A mentor told the Chicago Tribune , "He was the most gentle, even guy." A fellow student  said he was  "probably the best student in the class." More »

With cellphone lines on much of the campus jammed, Northern Illinois University students turned to the Internet to let friends and loved ones know they had survived yesterday’s shooting and to console each other, the Chicago Tribune reports. Most logged on to Facebook, where 10,000 joined a prayer group, while others updated status messages to proclaim themselves unharmed. More »

The gunman who killed five and wounded 15 in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall yesterday was identified this morning as Steven Kazmierczak, an ex-NIU grad student who had won top sociology department honors, the Chicago Tribune reports. "There were no red flags," said the campus police chief. But police said this morning he had recently stopped taking regular medication and had been behaving erratically. More »

A sixth victim of the gunman who opened fire in an Illinois college classroom yesterday has died and at least four more remain in critical condition. The assailant, a former grad student at Northern Illinois University, entered through a door to the right of the lecture stage and silently started shooting. He fired a shotgun at the more than 100 students in Geology 104, then shot and wounded the instructor with a handgun, and then shot himself. More »

A gunman opened fire in a packed lecture hall at Northern Illinois University today, killing five students before fatally shooting himself, the Chicago Tribune reports. Another 16 people were wounded. Witnesses say the gunman, clad in black, entered the lecture hall without speaking and opened fire. He had a shotgun and two handguns. Police identified him only as a former grad student with no apparent criminal history. More »

A student shot and killed two other students and herself this morning at the Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge, CNN reports. Police arrived within minutes, only to find all three already dead amidst widespread chaos. “There was mass pandemonium, people running,” a sergeant said. “One officer told me he could still smell gunpowder.” More »