Posted on 02/19/2008 10:39:43 AM PST by Esther Ruth
Gunman's Contradictions Confound Police
By ASHLEY M. HEHER and CARYN ROUSSEAU –
DEKALB, Ill. (AP) — Steven Kazmierczak had the look of a boyish graduate student — except for the disturbing tattoos that covered his arms. 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 University 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 several 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.
One person who knew the couple, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, said the couple's relationship was on-again, off-again and "really rocky." Kazmierczak was controlling, she said.
"He was abusive, had a temper," she said. "He didn't actually hit her; he would push her around."
The 27-year-old Kazmierczak also had a history of mental illness and had become erratic in the past two weeks after he stopped taking his medication, said university Police Chief Donald Grady.
A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment center said Kazmierczak had been placed there after high school by his parents. He used to cut himself and had resisted taking his medications, she said.
Kazmierczak spent more than a year at the Thresholds-Mary Hill House in the late 1990s, former house manager Louise Gbadamashi told The Associated Press. His parents placed him there after high school because he had become "unruly" at home, she said.
Gbadamashi couldn't remember any instances of him being violent, she said.
"He never wanted to identify with being mentally ill," she said. "That was part of the problem."
Jason Dunavan, a tattoo artist in Champaign, said he spent hours as recently as last month creating tattoos for Kazmierczak. His work included an image of the macabre doll from the horror movie "Saw" riding a tricycle through a pool of blood with images of several bleeding cuts in the background.
Dunavan said he was so proud of the tattoo that he enlarged a photo of it and placed it on a wall in his shop — a move he is now rethinking.
"I don't know if I still want that picture on my wall," said Dunavan, who also described Kazmierczak as timid and apologetic.
"He was really, really mousy."
excerpt from article
Jason Dunavan, a tattoo artist in Champaign, said he spent hours as recently as last month creating tattoos for Kazmierczak. His work included an image of the macabre doll from the horror movie “Saw” riding a tricycle through a pool of blood with images of several bleeding cuts in the background.
“A former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment center said Kazmierczak had been placed there after high school by his parents. He used to cut himself and had resisted taking his medications, she said.”
How in the world did he get his FOID?
How many times have we seen this in the recent shootings?
Anybody else think it was taking the meds that messed him up in the first place?
Too many people murdering and committing suicide while/after taking this stuff, IMO.
From earlier radio report earlier this week, the files were sealed, report did not go into why they had been sealed. I suspect that he was a juvenile when he was released.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-niu_service_18feb18,0,907134.story
excerpts...
Jessica Baty said Kazmierczak, who killed himself with the last of 48 shots fired in the lecture hall Thursday, seemed only slightly changed after he stopped taking his medication a few weeks ago.
“He wasn’t erratic. He wasn’t delusional. He was Steve; he was normal,” Baty said in an interview Sunday on CNN.
Baty said Kazmierczak, 27, called her the night before to say goodbye.
“He called me at midnight and told me not to forget about him,” said Baty, 28.
==>> She is among many who describe Kazmierczak as a man with some demons, but ones he appeared to control as he applied himself as a curious and disciplined student.
He was in for over a year after high school. He should have been 18 when he got out.
Yes, GDan, meds seem to be often implicated in these things. They haven’t mentioned WHAT he stopped taking, either. And it is pretty unruly if you cannot be at home, imho. A whole lot of unruly is dealt with by parents.
If he was intelligent as they say, may have graduated early. Would also account for his parents being able to commit him, if he had his majority they would have not been able to commit him for so long.
There are unconfirmed reports it was Paxil, an SSRI drug somewhat similar to eg Prozac.
Illustrates that the law revisions to cover these cases of mental instability have to be done with EXTREME care. The American Medical and Psychiatric Associations have statements and advice out to doctors which seem to suggest that gun ownership is evidence of some sort of mental problem.
How many of us who own guns have been called at various times “gun nuts”? I work in a university and I get that a lot.
I’ve never been into cutting myself, but I do have tattoos. No demons here...<p.
No drugs either. If you need to hunt demons, do so in this kids doctors drug cabinet...
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