The victim was shot above the knee and his injury is “not life-threatening,” Peters said. <\/p>\n
Kevin Anderson, a freshman from Hoffman Estates, said he and the victim were standing near the front steps of the dormitory smoking cigarettes before the incident. He said the suspected shooter, who was walking in front of the building, was stumbling and appeared intoxicated. The man asked Anderson and the victim for directions.<\/p>\n
“We tried to point him in the right direction, and he took offense to it,” Anderson said. The man then opened his jacket, pulled out a handgun and shot the victim, said Anderson, who would not identify nor give the hometown of his friend.<\/p>\n
“It’s nothing I would ever want to see again.”<\/p>\n
Anderson ran to the lobby windows, trying to alert security and get in the building. Students have to use an electronic pass to open the door.<\/p>\n
An NIU police officer stationed at Stevenson North responded immediately to the incident, Peters said. The suspect, who ran toward a lagoon near the dorm, was apprehended five minutes later.<\/p>\n
Peters said the name of the suspect was not released at the request of the DeKalb County State’s Attorney’s office. The first assistant prosecutor for the office declined to give any information, because the matter was still under investigation by NIU police. <\/p>\n
Peters said a handgun was recovered, but he did not know the motive behind the shooting.<\/p>\n
A text alert about the shooting and lockdown of the campus was sent to 12,000 subscribers at 3:48 a.m., and posted on the university’s Web site. The lockdown was lifted about an hour later.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, we have learned how to do this from our previous experience,” said Peters, referring to the Feb. 14, 2008 shooting at Cole Hall in which a gunman killed five students before turning the gun on himself.<\/p>\n
“Violence continues to plague college campuses and society across this country. It is important we continue to be vigilant in providing a safe learning environment for our students and faculty,” Peters said.<\/p>\n
Cali Gannon, a 19-year-old student from Chicago, said she feels safe on the campus, but “the fact it is practically in our backyard is just a little too close for comfort.” The sophomore lives in an off-campus apartment near the dormitory.<\/p>\n
Roommate Cristina Aguilera, 20, of Mount Prospect, said, “We were actually surprised” the school decided to go ahead with classes. “I feel (classes should have been canceled) especially because of the students who were here for the first shooting.”<\/p>\n
“It is such a sensitive situation,” Gannon said.<\/p>\n
Michael Multerer, a freshman from Hoffman Estates, said his stepbrother questioned his decision to attend NIU in the wake of the Cole Hall shootings.<\/p>\n
“When was the last time there were two shootings at the same college?” Multerer said he told him.<\/p>\n
Abel Campos of Hoffman Estates, a Harper College student and guest of Anderson’s staying in the dorm Thursday night, said the shooting didn’t scare him off. “I’m still going to come here,” he said.<\/p>\n
Matt Bruns, 19, freshman from Lemont, lives in Lincoln, a nearby dormitory. He defended NIU’s response.<\/p>\n
“People (writing on Facebook) are angry at the police department … and it’s not (the police’s) fault,” Bruns said. “People on Facebook are writing, ‘Another shooting, come on NIU.’ They’re saying the police should be stronger and more proactive. And I think that perception is completely false. The response time to the shooting was something like 47 seconds. The police were right there.”<\/p>\n
Bruns sensed the feeling on campus Friday morning and afternoon might’ve been a bit uneasy, but there was no panic among the students.<\/p>\n
“Everyone has 2-14 (the 2008 date of the Cole Hall shootings) on their mind, so they were a little tense (after Friday’s shooting),” he said.<\/p>\n
Bruns said that despite the shooting two years ago and the one Friday, there is no cause for alarm.<\/p>\n
“I’m a Northern Ambassador. I’m part of the group that gives campus tours to incoming freshmen and transfer students. One of the big things we touch on during the tours is campus security, so I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about it.<\/p>\n
“NIU has something like 65 state- and EMS-trained police officers. We have canine unites. Each dorm has its own police substation. I think security here is really good. <\/p>\n
“There’s no way to tell who has a concealed weapon. If people want a perfect campus, you’d have to have metal detectors in every building, at every entrance. We have 25,000 students. No one would be able to carry a book bag, things would always be searched. No one wants that and it’s just not feasible.<\/p>\n
“The security presence Friday on campus is really good. Any other day, the police are always around, out walking, on bikes … we have call boxes all around campus.<\/p>\n
“Northern is a safe campus.”<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/chicagopressrelease.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/6d20b0a905021910.jpg.jpg\")
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Read the original article on DailyHerald.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n A 22-year-old white male from the Northwest suburbs has been charged in Friday’s shooting at Northern Illinois University that left one student hospitalized, police officials said. The NIU Department of Public Safety said late Friday afternoon the suspect has been charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated battery and unlawful use of a weapon. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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