Northern Illinois Shooting Takes Toll on Students

It's been nearly a week since this past Valentine's Day. While many of us took the opportunity to spend time with significant others, 27-year-old University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate student Steven Kazmierczak entered a Northern Illinois University lecture hall and opened fire, killing five before turning the gun on him self. Sixteen others were wounded during the shooting.

On Friday, police confirmed that students Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester, Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero, Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville, Julianna Gehant, 32, of Mendota, and Gayle Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream were among the dead.

Monday saw the first two of five funerals to come. As Garcia was laid to rest at Our Lady of the Mount Church in Cicero, and Mace at Baker Memorial United Methodist Church in St. Charles, hundreds of mourners gathered looking for a place to grieve and share stories of those they loved and lost.

"When a tragedy like this happens, many people want to find a reason. . . . We know we will never have an answer. So if we can't find a reason, we need to find comfort elsewhere. . . . We have our faith to give us the strength to continue," said Rev. Lawrence Collins, who spoke in Spanish at Mace's service, according to The Chicago Tribune.

On Tuesday, as temperatures struggled to make it out of the single digits in many parts of Illinois, a similar scene unfolded at the funerals of Parmenter, Gehant, and Dubowski.

As the healing process slowly continues across the country, national media attention has shined a spotlight on Kazmierczak's personal life in an effort to find an explanation to questions which beg to be answered.

The biggest question: Why did this have to happen?

So far, only a vague picture has immerged, one that still leaves much to be debated and discovered.

It has been widely reported that Kazmierczak didn't fit the profile of an individual who would commit such a hideous act. By many accounts, he was an academic scholar and a bright student. However, investigators believe that trouble started to brew in the few weeks before the shooting took place.

According to authorities, Kazmierczak family reported that he had stopped taking an unspecified medication prior to the shooting. He also legally obtained a gun from a Champaign area dealer, and in a chilling twist Kazmierczak also reportedly purchased accessories from an internet dealer who also sold goods to Seung-Hui Cho, responsible for killing 32 people during a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech last April.

Kazmierczac also showcased a number of troubling tattoos on his arms. One depicted bloody gashes and a character from the movie Saw, another simply of a pentagram.

Investigators also believe that Kazmierczak's relationship with his girlfriend Jessica Baty, 28, was rocky and on-and-off in nature.

In an interview with CNN, Batey recounted that Kazmierczak had called her to say good bye at midnight the day of the shooting, telling her to "not to forget about him."

Batey also told CNN that she didn't believe that Kazmierczak was acting strange, even though she admitted he had stopped taking his medication. She referred to him as a nice and caring individual; even going as far as to that she still loved him.

In an effort to thwart investigators, it has also been reported that Kazmierczak removed the hard drive from his computer, and a SIM card from his cell phone; both of which might hold key evidence into the rational behind his motives.

Across the country Universities and Colleges are taking precautions, many choosing to expand patrols and student escorts, in an effort to increase security.

Shortly after the incident at Virginia Tech, Suffolk University purchased a messaging and voice mail system capable of quickly providing students with crucial information about school closings and crisis situations.