Police name U.S. school shooter

DEKALB, Illinois (Reuters) - A man who killed five studentsand himself during a shooting spree at an Illinois college hadstopped taking medication and become erratic in the last twoweeks, buying two guns used in the bloodbath just six days ago,officials said on Friday.

He was identified as Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, a formerstudent at Northern Illinois University where he returned tocarry out Thursday's shootings, hiding a shotgun in a guitarcase as he entered a lecture hall, police said.

His motive is not known, campus police chief Don Grady tolda news conference. Nor were there indications he had anyrelationship with any of his victims who were mowed down as hefired more than 50 shots in a matter of seconds from a lecturehall stage, Grady said.

Local officials revised the death toll downward, sayingKazmierczak killed five students, not six as they had earlierreported, and wounded many more. In all 21 people were shotbefore he turned one of his four guns on himself.

"Apparently he had been taking medication" but stopped andhad become "somewhat erratic" in the last two weeks, Gradysaid. He did not describe what kind of medication was involved.

"There were no red flags. He was an outstanding student, anawarded student" who was even "revered" by faculty and fellowstudents, Grady said. "A fairly normal, undistressed person."

Grady said the shooter had been enrolled at the Universityof Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the central part of thestate, far removed from Northern, a 25,000-student school 65miles (104 km) west of Chicago.

A federal firearms agent said Kazmierczak bought a shotgunand a handgun nine days ago in Champaign, apparently legally.

The Chicago Tribune reported that he had drawn notice inacademic circles, helping write papers on self-injury in prisonand on the role of religion in early U.S. prisons, work thatearned him a dean's award.

'A VERY GOOD STUDENT'

Kazmierczak "by all accounts that we can tell right now wasa very good student that the professors thought well of,"school president John Peters said in an interview on ABC's"Good Morning America."

"There is nothing in our system that he has had anycounselling," he added. "Motive is the one thing that we'retrying to pin down at this point. I really at this point haveno sense of that. There is no note or threat that I know of."

Three of the students who died were 20, one was 19 and onewas 32.

Terrified and bleeding, students fled the hall before thegunman shot himself on the stage in the latest in a series ofshootings at U.S. colleges and high schools.

Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia, becamethe site of the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S.history in April 2007 when a gunman killed 32 people andhimself.

Peters in a separate interview on CNN said the universityhad reviewed and improved its emergency response plans afterthe Virginia Tech shooting.

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

President George W Bush said he had spoken to Peters andtold him "that a lot of folks today will be praying for thefamilies of the victims and for the Northern IllinoisUniversity community. Obviously a tragic situation on thatcampus and I ask our citizens to offer their blessings,blessings of comfort and blessing of strength."

Illinois senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama ina statement said that beyond prayers "we must also offer ...our determination to do whatever it takes to eradicate thisviolence from our streets and our schools; from ourneighbourhoods and our cities."

(Reporting by Michael Conlon, Bill Trott and David Morgan;editing by Vicki Allen)