Steve Kazmierczak – Another School Shooter
Six Killed, Eighteen Wounded At Northern Illinois University
Written by OddCulture on February 15th, 2008 in Odd Crime.
Tags: Odd Deaths, school shooting
Steve Kazmierczak another guy in a long line of school shooting rampages.
A mass shooting at Northern Illinois University left six people dead, including the gunman Steve Kazmierczak. NIU is located in DeKalb (65 miles outside Chicago).
Steve Kazmierczak
The victims were:
Catalina Garcia, 20
Julianna Gehant, 32
Ryanne Mace, 19
Gayle Dubowski, 20
Daniel Parmenter, 20
Valentines Day Massacre
Kazmierczak, 27, was not a current student. He had been enrolled as a sociology graduate student at NIU but left school last spring. Dressed in black, he stormed into an oceanography class and opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns. In a matter of seconds, 5 people were killed and 18 wounded. Then, still on stage, he killed himself.
This was the worst campus shooting in America since April 16, 2007, when 32 people were shot to death on the campus of Virginia Tech University by Seung-Hui Cho. (In Finland, on November 7th, 2007, Pekka Eric Auvinen killed 8 people at Jokela High School before turning the gun on himself).
Some info on Steve Kazmierczak:
alias: skazmie2
name: Kazmierczak Steven Phillip
sudent_department_name: School of Social Work
student_program_name: MSW:Social Work -UIUC
student_level_description: Graduate – Urbana-Champaign
student_major_name: Social Work
title: ACADEMIC HOURLY
type: person phone student staff
club he was in: Academic Criminal Justice Association, Vice-President
Kazmierczak coauthored a paper on prison self-injury:
Thomas, Jim, Margaret Leaf, Steve Kazmierczak, and Josh Stone. 2006. “Self-Injury in Correctional Settings: ‘Pathology’ of Prisons or of Prisoners?” Criminology and Public Policy 5(1):193-202.
Steve Kazmierczak: “Beginning graduate work at Northern Illinois University. In addition to his interests in corrections, political violence, and peace and social justice, he is co-authoring a manuscript on the role of religion in the formation of early prisons in the United States with Jim Thomas and Josh Stone. He is also develops content for online education and is an executive board officer of the NIU student chapter of the American Correctional Association.”
Political violence? Uncovering this man’s history should be very interesting, indeed.
… Steven P. Kazmierczak, 27, formerly of Elk Grove Village
… most recently registered as a graduate student pursuing a masters degree in sociology at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
… just before he left NIU, Kazmierczak’s 58-year-old mother died in the fall of 2006 after suffering from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a degenerative disease, according to obituaries from the time and ALS memorial Web sites.
… in 2006, the NIU sociology department gave Kazmierczak one of its highest honors, the Annual Dean’s Award.
… Kazmierczak graduated from Elk Grove High School in 1998. The high school yearbook lists him as enrolling in a special public service class and playing in the school band. He also made honor roll.
Update
Kazmierczak’s girlfriend, Jessica Baty, said that he was taking the drugs Xanax, Ambien, and Prozac. But he was never violent, according to her.
Since the shooting, authorities have intercepted a number of packages he sent to her, which included such items as a gun holster and ammunition, a textbook on serial killers for her class, the book The Antichrist by Friedrich Nietzsche, and a final note written for her, signed with his given name and family name. The shooting was baffling to those who knew him, as he appeared outgoing and never appeared to have social problems. This has also confused investigators, who have not found a suicide note. Some of Kazmierczak’s former NIU roommates described him as a quiet man who usually stayed to himself. They stated that, while fairly normal, they did not see him spend much time with other students.
A story published by Esquire stated that he allegedly had a history of mental illness and attempted suicides, was bullied in high school, and had shown an interest in previous school shootings, particularly those that occurred at Columbine High School and Virginia Tech.
newBob:
I agree with you. I did not mean that we should push kids into what we want them to do. You are right, if you don’t want to sit down ALL DAY for the rest of your life, why should you. Now, at some point, self-discipline must be taught, and students need to be able to follow directions. But I agree, meds don’t solve the problems, they cover them.
Also, to whomever commented about everyone having the answer, you should know that this is America, and in America, we all have freedom of speech. Not Freedom of the right answer, just freedom of speech. It is good to be able to bounce ideas off of others.
The other point I think is very strong is that mental illness is a way to blame someone else for one’s actions. (Blaming someone’s mental illness on others). I agree totally, people need to start taking responsibility. As a whole, this new society is becoming “soft.” By that, I mean that we are taught that it is ok to not be responsible because someone else will pick up our slack. NOT TRUE!
Hello. NewBob nailed the issue 100% Physical traits do come into play (as NewBob) stated. The issue is what takes place while a child is developing. At this point it is next to impossible to distinguish between people that had a genetic issue or were fine at birth only to be driven mad by their surroundings. Time and time again we have people that seemingly have come from good homes, good families, supposedly raised well by good people, only to “snap” and in a short amount of time go out and murder scores of people. And you are not talking about morons either. As much as he is hated, Cho was an extremely intelligent individual, this was noted all through his high school years, in his college years (up until the incident that took place during his senior year) and was noted during the federal investigation that followed his rampage. As was the shooter we are discussing right now. There is something in our society that is driving our people mad and it is not something that guns, meds, counseling or surveillance is going to fix.
Have people really noticed the amount of mental illness that those who work in the so-called mental health industry display. That many of these people do not have any morals or ethics. That a number of psychiatrists are not only into violence, but promote violence. That a number of people are falsely labeled and illegally drugged There is not any test that will state that one has any mental illness. If a person has been forced fed the psychiatric drugs, they leave pixels on the brain. They are drug induced. An EEG will give a false positive. Much of psychiatry is a con game, mad doctoring, sham, shell game, etc. There is no such thing as “Chemical Imbalance”. It cannot be measured or anything else.
The drug companies and many psychiatrists have knowingly lied about the evil side effects of the psychitric drugs for years. They do not tell the complete truth about the side effect involving the psychiatric drugs.
Who even knows unless an autopsy is done what these drugs did to his organs. For the truth about the psychiatric drugs one can see it at “drugawareness.org”. As a doctor has stated a 5th grader can be taught in one week’s time what psychiatry is all about the way it is practiced. In many ways it is the darkside of medicine and there are many sad stories that come out of these places. In truth you probably could not believe the hell that goes on behind closed doors and how there are those who are lucky if he/she survives the insanity. AT times thousands and thousands of dollars are exploited from insurance companies for cruel, inhumane, degrading treatment and punishment, abuse, torture, violence, “Unspeakable Crimes Against Humanity, and homicidal activity.
I wonder if Steve was bipolar. I know individuals who are bipolar and when medicated are normal, caring people, but when off meds, become psychotic and homocidal. From the posts I’m reading here, it’s pretty clear that many people don’t understand mental illness at all. People who become psychotic are LITERALLY not in their right minds and should not be treated as though they are terrible people who made a conscious decision to commit unspeakable violence. I know a woman who when psychotic tried to cut off her own head with a razor blade to keep “the wolves” from eating her. She also attempted to harm her brother, whom she loves dearly. She is medicated now and feels quite a bit of shame, guilt, and bewilderment as to how her brain could malfunction is such a way. I truly hope that those of you calling Steve a slimeball never have to experience the torture of mental illness.
The poster who said there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance in the brain has been brainwashed by Scientology or some other group that knows NOTHING about mental illness. Not only is there a chemical imbalance in the brains of people with mental illnesses like schizophrenia, there are physiological differences in their brains (atrophied gray matter, larger ventricles, etc.)
Perhaps it’s too late to add anything more to this discussion. It seems while contributors have been reflecting on this tragedy all the essentials have been touched upon: mental illness, how little we know about it yet how terribly it can distort a person’s functioning both in the world and in terms of thinking/feeling, the complexity and helplessness of it all for the afflicted as well as for those around him/her.
The point about gun laws in Illinois (what are the rules anyway?) seems very relevant in that some states restrict gun access if there’s a mental illness history, while others don’t. Of course the determined person can travel to a state where restrictions don’t exist to make their weapon purchase. Or get a gun illegally. The “gun lobby” and others who have never been touched by gun violence object to creating a national law about access to guns by the mentally ill, so it appears those who probably should never gain access to weapons will continue to get them. Perhaps it will take the murder of some pro-gun Senator’s child by someone who is mentally ill for this rule to change.
As for determining when a person is mentally ill, I agree there are few if any truly objective tests to establish mental illness. An experienced professional can diagnose, usually accurately, but many aren’t all the experienced and further they have too many people needing care. The growing sophistication of functional brain imaging promises to eclipse this now very subjective process, but that technology scares lots of people. It sounds like as a form of “mind reading”, which many see as only a few steps away from brain washing and dangerously close to sacred moral and spiritual issues. However, the continually growing stain of lives lost to random violence in schools, malls, and other domestic situations may slowly be tipping public opinion in the direction of supporting a large-scale scientific effort to discover what goes on inside the brains of people who are labeled mentally ill. To say nothing of the “purely” criminal.
Imagine a study where every person convicted of violent crime were scanned. Even if the treatment of those convicted criminals was unaffected by their scan results, such a study would develop a database of correlates between brain function and future behaviors (or at least the risk of future behaviors). At some point that database could offer predictions. Is a pedophile going to re-offend? (Not all do, but certainly some do.) Is a person still prone to violence? Is a person delusional? Obsessed? Holding a grudge?
At some point functional correlates between how people’s brains work and certain types of crimes will be discovered. That’s my belief anyway.
I don’t think this type of study is being done anywhere today. Perhaps Kazmierczak’s violent actions will move the professionals a small step closer to acknowledging that research on this problem is essential and overdue. In the meantime we can hope those same mental health professionals, however handicapped they are by their lack of robust tests of mental dysfunction, excessive work loads and other difficulties, can minimize the number of future events like the one that occurred at NUI.
But they are hindered by what can only be called denial within a large segment of society — that mental health problems are common, insufficiently addressed or understood, and impose a very large burden on the whole of society. Mental illness has existed for a long time. In the past it was dealt with by murdering the afflicted; more recently these people were tortured and/or caged, sometimes for public ridicule. At least we don’t do that (much) now. (However, interested readers might find the book “Crazy” enlightening. And distressing.)
My hunch is that when we have faced the problem of mental illness squarely we will discover something precious and marvelous about ourselves as a byproduct, something that will let us look back upon today’s world and wonder “how did we manage to survive with such a primitive world view”. Unfortunately those six people who died in that classroom have no chance of seeing that come to pass.
Dear Jessica Baty,
Sorry. When Stephen took the lives of others by murdering them, he wasn’t a “victim” anymore.
He was a hard core manipulator. You have been duped.
The only I see that is sure about these situations is that the people involved (the perps) are confused. We need to keep open minds when thinking about motivation because we don’t know that they actually know what they doing when they do it. Ambien, for example. Was he dreaming? Mind control is another. Keep in mind that there is a very strong anti-faith movement amongst the intellectual community at this time (Social Darwinism and aethism rules). If you don’t believe me, then look up Gonzales vs. Iowa State University. Also, FIRE.
Fuck him let him rot in hell the stupid son of a bitch its where he belongs fucking
homocidal maniac .
this fucker pre meditate the murder and had it all planed out before hand which tells me
he thinks he was going to be some martyr or something well let me tell you martyr’s dont go to heaven
and have sex with 1000 virgins they fucking go to hell were the burn for eternity, so fuck this asshole its too bad someone
didnt fucking blow his goddamn head off before he got one shot off i would have love to been in this class with a 50 cal smith and wesson i would have turned the tables then .
Smart kid or not i would have blown his ass away ,
werent the nazi generals in world war II also real intelligent sick fucking bastard.
i live twelves miles from where this happened, and you would not fathom the amount of damage this sick little fuck has caused to
dekalb which a small town community that would have never dreamed of this happening .
i know this my kids will not go to college unless they either put metal detectors in or let the students arm themselves .
how many times does this shit need to happen before someone does something i.e. Kent State, Virginia tech, and now NIU .
I pray for the people of DeKalb who have to go thru all this shit because of one little evil fucker gone mad . Fuck him rot in hell you little bastard .
It’s because your government is sucks, i believe many more similar thing will happen in the near future until they realized how bad it is if we keep those gun stores alive.
Mad man = dangerous
Mad man with gun = Fatal
Simple solution…..
“Only a sick, and mentally ill person would ever do this.”
Most mentally ill people aren’t dangerous or violent. Maybe if you were less of an asshole you would be able to understand that!
“i know this my kids will not go to college unless they either put metal detectors in or let the students arm themselves .”
I feel sorry for any kid who has you as a parent!
In our society, nice guys finish last…well, sure but don’t be surprised if the nice guy blows away some not so nice guys before he decides to check out…treat people with some respect and this kind of shit won’t happen so often…otherwise, it’s an eye for an eye…lesson learned.
U of I is not a University for graduate Huskies. The evil seat of Champaign, Urban II the evil pope who started the crusades, is evil !