NIU shooter did stint in mental health center

Associated Press
February 18, 2008

DEKALB, Ill. — Steven Kazmierczak, at 27, looked like an average schoolboy — except that his arms were covered with disturbing tattoos, including a doll from the horror movie “Saw.”

Professors and students knew him as a bright, helpful scholar, but his past included a stint in a mental health center.

Many saw him as happy and stable, but he had developed a recent interest in guns and was involved in a troubled — possibly abusive — on-again, off-again relationship.

What people initially told police about the Northern Illinois shooter didn’t add up, and now investigators are searching for answers to what triggered Thursday’s bloody attack, in which five students were killed and 16 more injured before Kazmierczak committed suicide.

While searching for a motive, authorities questioned family and friends and tried to determine whether he had recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend.

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