Northern Illinois University will hold a memorial this afternoon on the DeKalb campus to mark the third anniversary of shootings that left five students dead and more than a dozen others injured.
On February 14, 2008, Steven Kazmierczak, a 27-year-old former NIU student, stepped from behind a screen on the lecture hall stage, carrying four guns. He fired dozens of shots into the geology class before turning a gun on himself.
Killed in the rampage were Gayle Dubowski, 20; Catalina Garcia, 20; Julianna Gehant, 32; Ryanne Mace, 19; and Daniel Parmenter, 20.
The school will have a wreath ceremony at 3 p.m. Monday at a memorial garden near Cole Hall, where the shootings occurred. The building has been closed ever since. The Associated Press reports that NIU officials have started to renovate the building. The lecture hall will be replaced with an anthropology museum and computer lab.
"This event is a time to gather together to remember those whom we lost, reflect upon the tragedy that affected our campus, and continue the healing of the Huskie community," according to the NIU website.
Participants in the ceremony are asked to gather at 2:30 p.m. in the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commons.