U.S. school shooter identified as ex-student

By James Kelleher

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

He was identified as Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, a former student at Northern Illinois University where he returned to carry out Thursday's shootings, hiding a shotgun in a guitar case as he entered a lecture hall, police said.

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

Local officials revised the death toll downward, saying Kazmierczak killed five students, not six as they had earlier reported, and wounded many more. In all 21 people were shot before he turned one of his four guns on himself.

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

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

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

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