A gunman killed five and injured 16 Thursday afternoon at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill. before shooting himself, authorities said.
Four of the victims were female and one was male, said NIU President John Peters at a news conference Thursday evening. Of the victims, four died at the scene and two died later at the hospital.
The gunman, who was carrying a shotgun and two pistols, was pronounced dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Peters said. His body was found on the lecture hall’s stage, where he had come out from behind the black curtains, Peters said.
The shooting occurred in Cole Hall, at a geology class at 3:05 p.m. Central Time, minutes before the lecture would have come to an end. The shooter, described as a tall white skinny man dressed in black, opened fire without saying a word and fired at least 20 rounds, according to students.
Through the use of an intercom system in the dorm rooms, students were told to remain in their rooms and that the gunman had been caught, Dominique Broxton, 22, a student from Oak Park, told the Chicago Tribune.
The university canceled classes and closed the campus for Friday, asking the 25,000 students to contact their families as soon as possible. Student Edward Robinson told WLS-TV in Chicago the shooter seemed to aim at a particular section of the lecture hall, as if he knew who he wanted to shoot.
The gunman had been a sociology graduate student at the university last spring, but was not currently enrolled, Peters said.
The shooting is the fourth of its kind this week. On February 8, a woman shot and killed two fellow students at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge, La. before committing suicide. On Monday, A 17-year-old in Memphis, Tenn. was accused of shooting and critically wounding a student during a high school gym class. The shooting at an Oxnard junior high school left a 15-year-old victim brain dead.