Gunman's friendly exterior masked past
Sunday, 17 February 2008
DEKALB, Illinois, Feb 16 (AP): Steven Kazmierczak's quiet, dependable and fun-loving exterior masked troubling details from his past that emerged as a stunned community struggled to understand what caused the 27-year-old to open fire on a class at Northern Illinois University, leaving six people dead.
A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment centre said Kazmierczak was placed there after high school by his parents. She said he used to cut himself, and had resisted taking his medications.
He also had a short-lived stint as a prison guard that ended abruptly when he didn't show up for work. He was in the Army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend he'd gotten a psychological discharge.
Exactly what set Kazmierczak off - and why he picked his former university and that particular lecture hall - remained a mystery.
A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment centre said Kazmierczak was placed there after high school by his parents. She said he used to cut himself, and had resisted taking his medications.
He also had a short-lived stint as a prison guard that ended abruptly when he didn't show up for work. He was in the Army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend he'd gotten a psychological discharge.
Exactly what set Kazmierczak off - and why he picked his former university and that particular lecture hall - remained a mystery.