Related: Click here to see the report.
A new report detailing the 2008 shooting at Northern Illinois University is stirring up emotions on campus. The 300-page document contains everything from policy manuals to psychological profiles of the gunman, Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five students and injured 19 others.
NIU President John Peters played a large role in deciding what would go into the official report on the shooting. He says he now has a better understanding of Kazmierczak, who may have suffered from major depression and psychosis, but Peters doesn’t expect to ever know why the former student opened fire in a classroom.
PETERS: It’s strange for me given my commitment to young people, my love of the university and my own spirituality. I cannot find it in my heart to forgive him at this point.
Peters says the NIU shooting exposed the need for a public policy debate about trying to balance privacy and safety when it comes to people with mental illnesses.