Prayers of hope, healing after latest US university shooting

|PIC1|As students at Northern Illinois University (NIU) still recover from shock after a fatal shooting left six dead, including the gunman, Christian campus groups have opened their doors around the clock to offer comfort and prayers.

"We walk in hope, we pray for healing," says one message outside the Lutheran Campus Ministry Center. The Rev Diane Schmidt Dard, the Lutheran campus pastor, has been ministering with families and friends since Thursday's campus shooting.

Dard stood with families of those wounded and killed at Kishwaukee Community Hospital, according to the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) News Service.

Six large crosses have been set up outside the Lutheran center, inviting people to write messages expressing their grief and to join evening "remembrance prayers" everyday, Dard told the news service.

"The crosses have become a huge witness to this community," she said.

On Thursday at around 3pm, Steven Kazmierczak, who was armed with three handguns and a pump-action shotgun, opened fire on a geology class. He had stepped out from behind a screen on stage at the lecture hall and killed five students before turning the gun on himself.

Kazmierczak had been a graduate student in sociology at Northern Illinois as recently as spring 2007. He was described as a successful student by his professors and also received a dean's award as an undergraduate at the university.

He was not an outcast, reports say.

Many who knew him were baffled by Thursday's attack.

The only signs of trouble from Kazmierczak came in the weeks leading up to Thursday's shooting. The 27-year-old had become erratic after he stopped taking his medication. What the medication was for, law enforcement authorities would not say.

In the latest reports, however, a former employee at a Chicago psychiatric treatment centre told The Associated Press that Kazmierczak was placed there after high school by his parents. She said he used to cut himself and had resisted taking his medications.

Last September, he worked as an officer at the Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana. But after two weeks, he failed to show up on the last day of training and never returned. He was also in the army for about six months in 2001-02, but he told a friend he'd gotten a psychological discharge, according to AP.

As more investigation is underway, six white crosses have been placed on a snow-covered hill around the center of the NIU campus. The crosses bear the names of the five victims - Daniel Parmenter, Ryanne Mace, Julianna Gehant, Catalina Garcia and Gayle Dubowski - and the gunman.

"Let me say that their (families of victims) response, as you can imagine, is heart-rending, but I was impressed with their internal strength," NIU president Dr John Peters said Friday. "They will get through this with our help and the help and prayers of a lot of individuals across this country and the world."

The campus remains closed and a reopening date will be announced, Peters said.

"But first, we really have to deal with this healing process," he said. "Let me say to our community, to the NIU community, parents, victims and students, faculty and staff, we will get through this together."

Candlelight prayer vigils have lit the campus in the evenings, with Christian students seeking to have a presence on campus during a time of grief.

"We are deeply saddened by such events on our American campuses," said InterVarsity president Alec Hill, "and we ask God to guide our [InterVarsity Christian] Fellowship in bringing the life of Jesus Christ to colleges and universities."