Sixth victim dies in U.S. school shooting

Classes were cancelled after Thursday's shooting atNorthern Illinois University, a 25,000-student school 65 miles(104 km) west of Chicago.

The gunman, who police said was a former Northern Illinoisstudent, had a shotgun and two handguns when he stepped ontothe lecturer's stage near the end of an afternoon geology classand began shooting, witnesses said. Terrified and bleeding,students fled the hall before the gunman shot himself on thestage.

Police did not identify the gunman or a motive in thelatest in a series of shootings at U.S. colleges and highschools.

Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia, becamethe site of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S.history in April when a gunman killed 32 people and himself.

The president of Northern Illinois University on Fridaysaid the university had reviewed and improved its emergencyresponse plans after the Virginia Tech shooting.

While universities traditionally have been "some of themost open institutions," he said on CNN, "events like this andVirginia Tech and others are forcing us to reconsider how we dothings. I think that is unfortunate but necessary."

Peters said the gunman, whom he did not identify, was asociology major at the university with a good academic recordwho went on to graduate work in 2007.

"Motive is the one thing that we're trying to pin down atthis point. I really at this point have no sense of that. Thereis no note or threat that I know of," Peters told ABC's "GoodMorning America."

The shooter "by all accounts that we can tell right now wasa very good student that the professors thoughts well of," hesaid. "There is nothing in our system that he has had anycounselling."

(Reporting by Bill Trott, editing by Vicki Allen)