Officials at Northern University Illinois reported on their website that the death toll rose from six to seven early Friday after a victim died from injuries sustained in the incident. Authorities are investigating what caused a former student to go on this shooting rampage, initially killing six people and wounding 15 others before turning the gun on himself.

The shooter has been identified by enforcement as a 27-year-old graduate in social work at another area school, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign. Although his name hasn’t been released, he graduated with honors in 2006 and began graduate work before transferring to another school.

He was said to have been armed with a shotgun and two handguns, calmly stepping out from behind a curtain at the front of an auditorium Thursday afternoon before the end of a geology class, officials said.

This was reportedly the fifth school shooting in a week in the U.S. according to the Herald Sun.

It really seems that school campuses aren’t safe anymore. Actually, there aren’t too many places that are safe these days between reports of shootings, stabbings at schools, places of work, etc. Maybe we should all stay home with our doors locked and only communicate via the internet. How depressing eh?

Our sympathies go out to the victims and their families at Northern University Illinois.

Source

UPDATE: The name of the shooter at NIU has been released as Steven Kazmierczak.

UPDATE: Steven Kazmierczak was said to have stopped taking his medication which caused him to start behaving erratic according to people close to him.