The university police said the gunman was not a student at the school.
The gunman killed 4 students at the campus before killing himself.
Several people were taken away by ambulance at the scene. 3 to 4 victims have head wounds. (CBS2)
15 casualties at Northern Illinois Campus!
The AP reported:
DeKalb Police say a gunman who opened fired at Northern Illinois University is dead. Authorities say the gunman started shooting in a lecture hall on Thursday, injuring as many as 15 people as students frantically scrambled over desks for cover.
Kishwaukee Community Hospital said on its Web site up to 15 victims were arriving, including three to four with head wounds.
The shooting took place around 3 p.m. in Cole Hall near the King Commons, a central gathering place on the 25,000-student campus, according to the Web site.
DeKalb is located about 65 miles west of Chicago.
Campus police say the threat of danger has passed.
HotAir is following the tragedy.
Dekalb, Illinois is outside of Chicago, Illinois.
CBS2 had this on the shooter:
A viewer who e-mailed CBS 2 said that her brother was in the lecture hall where the shooting happened. “He says that the gunmen was a white male dressed in all black. He kicked the door in and opened fire. My brother dove under the desk, and popped his head up to see the gunmen was reloading. He grabbed his girlfriend’s hand and ran to the library where they been in lockdown since.”
Katie Wagner, a student who was inside the classroom, tells CBS 2 that there were 70 students inside room 101 at Cole Hall when the shooting happened. She said the gunman entered from a side door near the front of the lecture hall and started to fire shots.
The Kishwaukee Hospital is updating the news from Illinois.
UPDATE: 6 are dead.
The killer was a graduate student in sociology.