Valentine’s Day massacre at NIU
p2pnet news | Crime:- The day after the shootings at Virginia Tech, last year, Northern Illinois University president John Peters said the school would make sure it was prepared in case of a similar crisis.
But it wasn’t enough.
In a Valentines Day tragedy, an ex-student in the school of social work used a shotgun and two handguns to kill seven and wound 16 others.
Within minutes school authorities had warned students via loudspeakers and text messages and the school intranet that a gunman was on the loose.
But it was too late.
“Following the shooting Thursday at NIU, campus officials said that while no system could prevent such an attack, their system worked well in response to the tragedy,” continues the Chicago Sun-Times, quoting board of trustees chairwoman Cherilyn Murer as saying::
“We took great pains to review what our actions would be. Under the most horrific of circumstances, NIU was the most prepared.”
A plan was already in place even before Virginia Tech and, “In addition to the emergency alerts, the school said it installed public address systems in all residence halls, the library and student center, and also had plasma screen monitors in other buildings with emergency information,” says the story, going on:
“The school said last spring it was exploring sending alerts through social networking sites such as Facebook, as well as setting up a subscription-based system that would send messages to cell phones. Campus officials could not be reached Thursday to confirm whether that system had been put into place, and students said they didn’t think that system had been enacted. The school also encouraged students to refer students with mental or emotional health issues to get counseling.”
NIU had honored the killer with a dean’s award for his sociology work, says the Chicago Tribune.
“The gunman had established himself as an authority on prison systems, having co-authored a manuscript on self-injury in prison and the role of religion in the formation of early prisons in the United States,” in states, continuing that he’d als been vice president of the Academic Criminal Justice Association chapter at NIU.
The murderer, “grew up in Elk Grove Village, but records show his parents moved to Florida shortly before his mother’s death in 2004,” adds the story
Also See:
Virginia Tech – Book on Virginia Tech massacre, May 2, 2007
Chicago Sun-Times – ‘It’s unlikely that anyone’ could have stopped shooter, February 15, 2007
Chicago Tribune – NIU noted gunman’s scholarship, February 15, 2007
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe
to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.phpNet access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details. Download here.
February 15th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I sincerely hope that no new outlet ever says this cowards name.
Part of the reason they do it is the ‘fame’, and if no one gives it
to them, it may in some small way discourage this.
All news should focus on the victims, and never refer to the killer
as anything other than ‘The Coward’ ..
February 15th, 2008 at 8:54 am
If there is a hell, I hope this cocksucker rots in it.
February 15th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Lot of good the infamy will do him when he’s dead. . .
February 15th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Correction: only six died, including the shooter.
To previous posters: it’s not the shooter who will get any fame from the media coverage, it is the NEXT shooter who thinks they also want the media coverage and fame and THEREFORE plans and executes (no pun intended) his dastardly and nefarious deed because of this current news coverage. THAT is the reason why the media should just report it once, low-key, and that’s it.
Second point: I hope, although I know I’m spitting in the wind, that our dumb U.S. Congress doesn’t knee-jerk react and try to implement some crazy and ill-thought gun-control legislation….it is a proven fact that lawbreakers do not follow the law! Duh. So making a law that says guns aren’t allowed on college campuses will ONLY prevent the law-abiding from protecting themselves. This is a no-brainer, and I see no logic in the anti-gun agendas being pushed by these groups who obviously can’t think clearly.
This was a tragedy to be sure, but all the laws in the world would not have prevented it. So, we do the best we can, and move on.
February 15th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
No need for congress to outlaw guns on college campuses, most schools are already doing that on their own. In a majority of schools, any studnt caught with a gun on campus, even if they have a concealed-carry permit will be expelled. Any staff member caught carrying a gun, even with a concealed-carry permit will be fired. Supposedly this make everyone safer since the school is a “gun-free” zone.
The part that mystifies me is how these idiots actually think this makes anyone safer, when school shootings such as this clearly demonstrate that the people you have to worry aren’t going to obey the rules anyway!
Here’s a great video from Dr. Susanna Hupp, who lost her parents in a 1991 shooting at Texas Luby’s cafeteria, which was “gun-free zone”. She had a carry permit at the time, but was forced to leave her gun in the car, rendering her and everyone else unarmed when a maniac drove through the window and started shooting people. In this one, she is interviewed about Virginia Tech. Check the sidebar for what she had to say in front of congress on the issue of gun control. Personally, I wish there were more people like her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ggg0LwhrH0
February 15th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Monthly lie detectors.
1. Have you ever thought of hurting in any way somebody?
29. Are you planning killing one of your college mates?
57. Do you have the weapons to carry out your plan?
You get the picture.
February 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
” Monthly lie detectors.
1. Have you ever thought of hurting in any way somebody? ”
Most anyone human has felt this way at one time or another.
The difference is most are balanced enough to know it is wrong to
act on such feelings, and continue on their day.
Policing thought is never good, no matter the intentions.
” 29. Are you planning killing one of your college mates? ”
So how do you decide who merits getting questioned in this manner ?
Their clothes ?
The fact that they are a little ‘different’ from others ?
” 57. Do you have the weapons to carry out your plan? ”
Many people have weapons, of MANY kinds, not just guns.
Knives, bats, bombs ..etc .. do we round up everything that could be a weapon ?
We still can’t confiscate fists though, can we ?
” You get the picture. ”
I do.
It’s like what we have a nation have endured for a very long time.
Control through fear.
Give up liberty and rights so we can feel ’safer’.
I understand fascism.
I understand what a police state is.
That will only make things worse.