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New Details About the Northern Illinois University Shooting; Witnesses Tell Their Story; Awaiting the Verdict in Bobby Cutts Trial
Aired February 15, 2008 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look now at the time line. The gunman opened fire at 3:00 in the afternoon, local time. Campus police were on the scene within three minutes. Twenty minutes later, the alarm was sounded across campus. The message, there is a gunman on campus, stay where you are. Make yourself as safe as possible. By 4:00, police had determined there was only one gunman and that he was dead.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen in for Heidi Collins today.
HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. You'll stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the run down. The Northern Illinois University shooter identity confirmed moments ago. Live this hour. New details about the shooting and the gunman.
NGUYEN: The students inside the Cole Hall, a scene that is seared into the minds forever.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been very difficult for myself, just trying to get any sleep. As soon as I close my eyes trying to get to sleep all I hear is the gun blast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Also the victim, six killed, 15 in the hospital. Their stories today, Friday, February 15th. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
NGUYEN: A killer's rampage on yet another American campus. The death toll grows at the Northern Illinois University. Here are the latest developments at this hour. Just moments ago, a law enforcement source close to the investigation identified the gunman as Steven Kazmierczak. He was 27-years-old and a former student. The gunman shot 21 people, 6 of them have died. Authorities say Kazmierczak died after shooting himself. We are expecting more details this morning. One of the major questions, of course, is why did he do it. The school has scheduled a news conference for right now.
As soon as that takes place, of course, we'll bring that to you. Also want to let you know the hospital will follow with a news conference at noon Eastern. And we will carry both of them live. CNN crews have spanned out to bring you the angles of this developing story. Don Lemon is on the NIU campus. Ed Lavandera is at the hospital where victims were taken and Brianna Keilar is on the campus school of Virginia Tech. She's going to look at the tragic lessons learned from that school shooting spree just 10 months ago.
HARRIS: The university's news conference once again due to begin any moment right now. CNN's Don Lemon is on the NIU campus.
And Don, good to see you, we are finding out more about the shooter, a name just moments ago. What more can you tell us?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, well, you know, Tony, we had that name last night. A lot of media organizations had that name last night. That was going around sort of students who knew him when he was on campus. But police wouldn't confirm the name because they said they wanted to do more testing on his body. So that name now just coming out.
Steven Kazmierczak, 27-years-old, lived in a community very close to this university in Dekalb, Illinois. I just want to show you again, a fairly good student here, supposedly, won the Dean's Award of Sociology back when he was a student here in 2006-2007. You can see the folks here.
This is off Gayle Hall and they're going into this hall. On the second floor is where they have set up for the media to give this press conference. This is the most activity we have seen on campus all day. We've actually seen some students going in because they want to know what's going on. So, it's a hall, auditorium-type situation.
I have to tell you on a very personal note here, when I was interviewing one of those students this morning she didn't want to go in. We wanted her to go into the building to stay warm until we put her on television. She sat out in the hall where it was a little bit colder because she didn't want to go into that auditorium because it was an auditorium similar to the one where she saw the shooter and then two of her friends died after the shooter went on that shooting spree.
Earlier today on AMERICAN MORNING, we spoke with the university president who is going to be part of this press conference and we asked him about Virginia Tech, if that played into how they upgraded their security and emergency response situation here at the school. And he talked to us about that and he talked to us also about how he feels his police and emergency workers responded here yesterday.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN PETERS, PRESIDENT, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: I was pleased that our preparation and our planning and our emergency plan worked well as far as I understand the police were there within minutes, and, of course, it was a situation where we had a lone gunman who burst in and fired volleys of shots and then took his own life, and then it was over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You can imagine, you can only imagine being in that classroom, about 100 students. Then you witness this. Many of them said they thought it was staged or they couldn't believe it was real. Well, Zach Seward is one of those students. I think he's a junior here. He immediately knew that it was real. And I asked him if he felt safe on campus? Is he going to come back and how he felt about it?
Tony, he had something very interesting to say about ever going to another classroom here again, especially a classroom in an auditorium situation. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZACH SEWARD, WITNESS: Feel safe, that's really up in the air. I mean, any time I sit in an auditorium I'll look at the side door and just remember that moment. So, I think if certain measures are taken at school, you know, to prevent certain things like this from happening or just measure taken, I'll feel safer. But right now I really don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So every time he says that he goes to another classroom, an auditorium situation, that moment is going to come back to him and haunt him every single time he thinks now. But again, you heard how he feels about the response. And now folks are brimming into this building for this press conference. And hopefully we will learn more about 27-year-old Steven Kazmierczak -- Tony.
HARRIS: And Don, I'm just curious, we all recall that after the Virginia Tech massacre, what was so helpful to all those students were those gatherings, those events where the young people could come together. And I know there was a vigil last evening. Any word of any other events on the schedule so far, where, you know, groups of young people can come together and sort of, you know, sort of commiserate with one another?
LEMON: Well, the school has put some resources out there, including the local community. They've got some grief counselors. And anyone who wants to get help, can go to the school. And also FEMA is here as well to help out and several other emergency response teams. But that vigil last night, nothing scheduled like that. But many times, as you know, you've covered these scene scenes, lots of those scenes are impromptu. So students sort of get together on their own and take care of each other and the school will ask them to reach out to the school if they indeed need some help themselves.
HARRIS: OK. Don, again, we're waiting for the press conference scheduled to start any moment now where we will hear from the University president and others. Don Lemon for us this morning. Don, appreciate it. Thank you.
And again, moments away from this news conference. The university president John Peters, the police chief on campus there expected to speak as well as others. When it begins, we will bring it to you right here in the NEWSROOM. NGUYEN: In the meantime, we have learned some information about the victims. One was just 19-years-old, another in her 30s. We have learned the names of four of the people killed in the Northern Illinois University shootings. They are identified as 20-year-old Daniel Parmenter of Westchester, Illinois, Catalina Garcia, 20-years- old from Cicero, Illinois, Ryanne Mace, 19 of Carpenter's Ville, Illinois, and 32-year-old Julianna Gehant of Meridian, Illinois. Now, we don't yet know the names of the other two people killed.
And some of the wounded are in critical condition this morning. We should learn more during a hospital news conference in about two hours. CNN's Ed Lavandera is at the hospital in Dekalb this morning.
Ed, have you learned any more about those that have been taken there?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, many of the students that were initially brought here had to be the ones that were in the most critical condition, had to actually be -- landed here, they were stabilized and they had to be quickly be flown to other area hospitals so they could continue their critical treatment. There were several students that remain here. Many of them -- several of them have been treated and released.
There is two left here at this hospital here at Kishwaukee Community Hospital. One is in fair condition, the other is in good condition. So, there is a kind of a split here as to just how many students are in the most critical condition and others seem to be recovering well from the wounds that they suffered.
We spoke a little while ago with the emergency room director who described yesterday as some of the gunshot wounds, mostly that were being treated were to the abdomen area and to the face and to the head. Those are some of the wounds and the areas that the surgeons were most preoccupied with when these students were first brought here.
As soon as this code alert disaster call had gone out, there was a team of more than two dozen doctors, physicians, radiologists, all types of medical staff that came rushing into the emergency room to help out with this call. Some close to 20 students were brought here to this emergency room. And they also described what it was like then those six that were in critical had to be airlifted out of this hospital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL KULISZ, KISHWAUKEE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: We mobilized the trauma pod, which would be Rockford, we sent two patients to two facilities in Rockford as well as east of here, which is Good Samaritan Hospital. So everybody was on a higher level. They knew they were going to receive that many patients.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: So, those critical patients had to be taken to other area hospitals because the level of trauma care that they are receiving, have received overnight and will continue to receive was better at those other locations. Betty, we hope to learn some more about the other students taken to other area hospitals here in the next couple of hours.
NGUYEN: Yes, we do.
All right. Ed Lavandera, that news conference is going to be taking place at noon Eastern. And, of course, we will bring that to you live. Thank you, Ed. Tony.
HARRIS: And we're just getting news, breaking news into CNN that a jury in Canton, Ohio, has reached a verdict in the trial of, I believe it's Akron police officer Bobby Cutts Jr. As you know, Bobby Cutts Jr. is accused of killing Jessie Davis who was pregnant with their unborn child. The charges again, aggravated murder in the deaths of Jessie and her near full-term fetus.
If convicted, Bobby Cutts could receive a death sentence. Cutts testified that he accidentally killed Davis with an elbow to her throat as he was trying to leave her home last June. He said he had been panicked and dumped her body in a park. Again, we understand that a jury had reached a verdict there in Canton, Ohio. We expect an official announcement of that jury decision in the next 30 minutes. Of course, once we have that we will bring that to you right here in the NEWSROOM.
NGUYEN: In the meantime, one student said he normally sits up front in the lecture hall but he over slept and he was late to class, sat in the back and that may have saved his life. He's among the witnesses telling their stories.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEWARD: Around 3:00, we have lecture as normal, it's just PowerPoint presentation. All of a sudden the side door on the stage opens. Average height, male, Caucasian comes out, draw a shotgun, pumps it and fires the first round on the first couple of rows. After that, everybody ducked down, started screaming, going toward the door. On the way out I heard shots still being fired. So everybody was screaming and running out of the room. It was chaos.
LEMON: You were close enough. You said, you saw the flash?
SEWARD: Oh, yes, you could see that thing from a mile. In that auditorium, I mean that loud boom and that flash of the muzzle, I'll never forget it.
STEFANIE MILLER, WITNESSED NIU SHOOTING: I knew two other people that are deceased. I knew at least 40 people that were in the class. Just -- I'm in shock right now. I'm at that stage where I've gotten the phone calls. I know what's happened, but I don't want to believe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: Students say they are still having problems wrapping their minds around this horrible tragedy. We do expect to learn some more information. A news conference is expected to take place any minute now. And we are hoping to hear more about the shooter and the victims throughout the morning.
We're looking at a live picture of where that news conference will be taking place on the campus at NIU. The school has scheduled one. And also a briefing by hospital workers. That's going to follow. That takes place at noon Eastern. And we will carry both of these news conferences live just as soon as they happen right here on CNN. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: What a morning here at the CNN NEWSROOM. Breaking news to us just moments ago. We understand in Canton, Ohio, a jury has reached the verdict and the trial of a former police office, Bobby Cutts, Jr. accused of killing Jessie Davis who was pregnant with their unborn child, the mother of another child of theirs as well. Bobby Cutts Jr. could receive a death sentence if he is convicted of aggravated murder in the deaths of Davis and her near full-term fetus.
And it was Monday that Cutts testified that he accidentally killed Davis with elbow to the throat, as he says he was trying to leave her house last June. He said at the time on the witness stand that he panicked and dumped her body in a park.
Now, prosecutors maintained throughout that Cutts strangled Davis over child support payments and hid her body to cover up his involvement. That jury decision expected to be in. We will be able to report that, we believe, in the next 20 minutes or so. When we get that verdict from the jury we will of course, bridge that to you here in the NEWSROOM.
NGUYEN: Right now, there were eight deadly rampage on campus and by all accounts NIU officials handled that crisis well in those first critical hours. Let us take a closer look. CNN's security analyst Mike Brooks. And when you look at this time line, when of course, the first 911 calls came in. It seems like police were on the scene in less than five minutes.
MIKE BROOKS, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: It was a very good response in applying their notification system there went out over their website, over e-mail, there was even speakers on campus to tell people to take shelter, to stay where they are.
NGUYEN: Stay in place.
BROOKS: We call shelter in place, if you will, and to stay away from a certain area. It sounder their response went extremely well. I think a lot of campuses Betty has learned a lot after Virginia Tech. We started off going back to Columbine on the way we do things. Law enforcement, emergency responders. And I think in this particular case, their plan -- they drill all the time, they practiced, it worked well.
How can you prevent something like this. The question today is what was the motive, why did he come on campus? This was a former student and he didn't come on campus just to shoot, you know, himself or maybe one other person. He came loaded with a lot of ammunition, several guns, and he shot 21 people killing 6. And then you've got to add himself to that.
BROOKS: Exactly. But that's the big question. What is the motive? What was his mental state when all this happened? What led up to this? How long had he been planning this? These are all things that investigators are going to be taken also being looking at. It's very, very tough. This is almost like a small city ever 700 acres, 25,000 students. It's like a small city.
You know, how do you lock down, if you will, a small city like this. I think the police, with the campus police, the sheriff's office, state police, they did what they could at the time to go ahead and respond to it. Can you just totally lock the place down? Everybody saying, well, maybe they should have metal detectors. It's not feasible from what I can see to have metal detectors going to every lecture hall. You have live people lined up. And cost prohibitable also.
NGUYEN: And when you look at this person, this 27-year-old former student, he didn't even go to that university, graduated from it. He was currently attending a different one. When you talk to your sources, any idea as to why?
BROOKS: Not -- not at all yet. Not at all. And that's one thing, we're going to go back and look at his computer. What were some of the writings maybe he was doing before this.
NGUYEN: Well, some of his writings were awarded by the Dean. You know.
BROOKS: Right. Everybody saying this is the last person you would ever think would be involved in any kind of incident like this, whereas opposed to the Virginia Tech shooter, where he had the videos and all these signs. But the question is, were there any signs with this particular guy?
NGUYEN: No criminal record.
BROOKS: No criminal record. Just seemed to be a clean-cut kind of guy. And now this. And that's the question everyone's asking, why?
NGUYEN: Absolutely. When we look at the guns, there were three different types of guns, a shotgun, a glock, and then ...
BROOKS: Right. Two handguns, a shotgun, a pump-action shotgun and two handguns. Don't know the caliber of the glock. And then apparently a small caliber handgun. Students, witnesses there say he shot at least 30 rounds. So, and with a shotgun, you can really hurt a lot of people with very few rounds with a shotgun. NGUYEN: And some of the witnesses said a lot of them were shot as they were leaving in the back.
BROOKS: Exactly.
NGUYEN: Yes, it's devastating. Mike Brooks, thank you. As soon as you get more information, please do let us know.
BROOKS: Definitely will.
HARRIS: And once again, we are expecting to learn much more about the shooter. His name, Steven Kazmierczak, 27-years-old. At a news conference that is scheduled to begin this hour. We will also learn more about the victims as well, plus, we are waiting on the verdict in the Bobby Cutts trial back in Canton, Ohio. We'll take a break. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Take a look at the market today, see if they're any better than yesterday because they lost a lot of points. Not so much for the Dow so far. Still in negative territory. Minus 50 this morning. And the Nasdaq, let me take a quick look, it is down 13 points as well. Of course, a lot of this comes in light of the fact that the current Fed chief and the former Fed Chief both talking about the "R" word, that being recession. We'll stay on top of the markets for you today.
HARRIS: All right. Once again, let's give you a live look now. We're awaiting the news conference to begin where we expect to learn so much more about the shooter there, Northern Illinois University is the location. We will learn more about Steven Kazmierczak, the young man, 27 years old, took so many lives, injured so many others, and then ultimately killed himself. And we will learn more about the victims. That's coming any moment. When that news conference begins, we will bring it to you in the NEWSROOM.
Inside the lecture hall, pictures here, scared for their lives. Witnesses still horrified, shocked this morning. CNN's Don Lemon talked to one witness who got a direct look at the gunman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE GAYNOR, WITNESS THE NIU SHOOTING: When I looked up, I saw him enter the room. He just walked in, no expression on his face. But seemed like he had intent and knew what he was going to do. And I didn't know what to think when it happened.
LEMON: I've spoken to some folks about the sound. They said they could hear him when he cocked that rifle, the clicking of that and then the boom of the explosion from shooting from off that rifle, what did you hear when that all happened?
GAYNOR: As soon as I saw that, heard, saw it, saw the gunfire and heard that boom, I was just in shock at what was going on. And I feared for my life. LEMON: Some people didn't think it was real in the beginning. They thought it was staged. But did you think that or you thought it was very real, you knew right away?
GAYNOR: When he first walked I didn't understand what was going on. I didn't understand if this was real or what was happening until the gun actually went off. And everyone just started screaming.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Boy. That student George Gaynor, said despite the shooting he still feels safe on the campus. And we've heard this a lot. He commends police for their quick response.
NGUYEN: Well, we do want to show you i-Reports that have been sent in by some of you. This picture showing one of the shooting victims being wheeled away on a gurney. Sent in by Eddie Brewer, a senior at NIU. Brewer says he took the video in a building directly next to the shooting. He says, emergency responders were coming through the building bringing gurneys in and then taking wounded people out.
Show you this picture now, snapped by a camera phone. You can see the yellow tape marking the crime scene. Christian Lee, a freshman chemistry major sent it in as soon as the police gave the OK for people to venture outside. Well, you too can become part of our reporting if you see breaking news happen right in front of your eyes, just pull out your camera around take a picture and send it in to us at cnn.com. and click on i-Report.
HARRIS: Six dead, 15 wounded, each one of these people has a family and a story. We're not going to lose sight of that. In-depth coverage of the campus shooting throughout the day on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A strange and busy morning here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
NGUYEN: Yes. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Campus rampage. Within the past hour, we can confirm the identity of the gunman behind the deadly shoot at Northern Illinois University.
Here's the latest for you. A law enforcement source briefed on the investigation identifies the shooter as Steven Kazmierczak. He opened fire in a lecture hall shooting 21 people. Six of the victims have died. The gunman also dead after shooting himself.
Now, the lingering question is this, why. Well, there's still no word on a motive. A campus news conference is about to get under way.
And we're also waiting to learn more about the conditions of the wounded. A hospital news conference is scheduled for noon eastern and, of course, we will bring that to you live.
HARRIS: You know, we have been down this road before. Northern Illinois University beefed up security and updated its alert system after last year's massacre at Virginia Tech.
Our Brianna Keilar who spent so much time on that campus in April of last year live there now in Blacksburg. Brianna, what are students there saying about the shooting in Illinois?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, some words of advice and also support from Virginia Tech students here who, as you said, have unfortunately been through this before.
And something Virginia Tech students said that happened here back in April, that they're expecting will also happen at NIU is a tremendous outpouring of support both from other schools as well as other communities. And they -- a lot of students told us that that really meant so much to them. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very important. Not just as a school but as a country because what happened to us, a lot of schools, tons of schools sent us stuff, supporting us. I'm sure they'll get the same support, especially from us since we've been there.
KEILAR: And it made a big difference to you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yeah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Now, you'll recall there was also a tremendous outpouring of what was called hokey spirit because the mascot here is the hokie. There was a convocation (ph) that was scheduled. There were campus vigils. There were church services here on campus.
But talking to Virginia Tech students, they said the thing that really helped them so much was just reaching out to that person on their dorm floor that maybe they didn't know before; all of them maybe going out to lunch together, just these informal gatherings of students.
Now, it should be said that Virginia Tech is different from NIU. NIU is much more a commuter school. Virginia Tech is much more residential. But even when you talk to the students here about this, they say, you know, the students at NIU really need to understand that they should ban together and make sure that's a priority because they found that to be so helpful in the wake of this tragedy in April. Tony?
HARRIS: Hey Brianna, have the officials there at Virginia Tech reached out at all to the officials at NIU?
KEILAR: They have. They've called. They've left phone messages. They say it's kind of understandable that they haven't really been able to really breakthrough the chatter. In fact, one of the university relations officials here told me that on the first day of the shooting, he got 350 requests for interviews. So he said there's so much going on. They're so inundated there at NIU but he said he started getting really good advice on day three or four. He says, looking back he really could have used it on day one or two. So we're expecting today a letter is actually going to go out from President Steger here to President Peters at NIU. They're really willing to help, Tony.
HARRIS: CNN's Brianna Keilar there on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. Brianna, good to see, you thank you.
NGUYEN: Well response to the shooting at Northern Illinois University was very quick. The school updated security and its alert system after last year's massacre at Virginia Tech.
We want to give you a look at the time line. The gunman opened fire at 3:00 in the afternoon local time. Campus police were on the scene within three minutes. 20 minutes later the alarm was sounded across campus. Here was the message. There's a gunman on campus. Stay where you are. Make yourself as safe as possible. Now, by 4:00, police had determined there was only one gunman and that he was dead.
HARRIS: Let's take a closer look now at the campus where the shooting happened. The school is located 65 miles west of downtown Chicago, 45 minutes southeast of Rockford, Illinois. The main campus covers about 755 acres. The school has an enrollment of more than 25,000 students. Now according to the website, 91 percent of the students are from Illinois. 46 percent are male and 54 percent are female. 26 percent of the students are described as ethnic minorities.
NGUYEN: The NIU president praises police for their quick response. He says the school has procedures in place for coping with a tragedy like this but there's only so much that can be done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN PETERS, NIU PRESIDENT: I was pleased that our preparation and our planning and our emergency plan worked well as far as I understand. The police were there within minutes and, of course, it was a situation where we had a lone gunman who burst in and fired volleys of shots and then took his own life and it was over by the time the police got there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I spoke to you earlier I asked you about Virginia Tech because many universities and colleges around the country and schools as well, high schools, elementary schools, junior high schools, looking at their response and their safety procedures on campus, did you revamp that? Did you take a look at your procedures after that happened?
PETERS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you improve them?
PETERS: We had good procedures and we had a committee look at the report and study and work on communications and I believe that paid off. It's really a sad thing to say that you have to learn from an event like that, but we had knew how we wanted to communicate and we sort of have some messages prearranged and we got out there fairly quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you about the gunman because people are, of course, concerned about the victims and the families. But people want to know about this gunman and whether or not he -- there were any signs that he may do something like this.
Did you know anything about the gunman? Obviously he was honored by you, everyone is reporting that. Do you know anything about his history that might have led him to this?
PETERS: Well, what I know right now, what I've been told, of course, we will learn a lot in the next hours and days, he was an undergraduate here, graduating in 2006 in sociology; had a very good academic record, apparently according to the professors. He was a very good student.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Let's take you right now to Northern Illinois University as news conference is under way. We'll be listening in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to begin by introducing our president, Dr. John Peters, who will say a few words. And he will be followed by our board chair, Cherilyn Murer.
First, Dr. Peters to provide an overview.
PETERS: Well good morning, everyone.
On behalf of Northern Illinois University, I want to thank all the people, the police, law enforcement agents from the state and the nation, the paramedics, the hospitals, the doctors, and most importantly, our students and our staff who have participated in this professional response to this tragic incident.
And I was, as president, so pleased the last hours as I've seen our students and staff come together and deal with this tragedy and help the students, the victims and their parents and families deal with this and help each other deal with it. It's renewing and heart rendering. So thank you to all those individuals.
Let me just say, we had a plan in place for this sort of thing. Our university police had practiced that plan. They showed that yesterday in the speed and the professionalism of that response.
We were dealing with a disturbed individual who intended to do harm on this campus. We did everything we could to ensure the safety of this university and we are going to continue in that.
Now last night and this morning, I'm going to talk of me personally a little bit, I had been visiting with the victims in the hospital and their parents and speaking with family members and I've continued that this morning, including those who died. And just let me say that their response, as you can imagine, is heart rendering, but I was impressed with their internal strength and they will get through this with our help and the help and prayers of a lot of individuals across this country and the world, I might add.
From the beginning we've had multiple sites on campus with grief counselors to help people. I'm very, very pleased to say that we've had counselors come from area universities to help us out. And I'm very appreciative of that.
I've been touched by the strength of the families, as I said, that I've spoken to as they go through this horrible time.
Now, let me tell you right now what I'm most focused on. I'm focused on the NIU family, you out there, and our parents and our students, to begin the healing process, to deal with this tragic incident.
There's been an outpouring of support from around the country, as I said, and around the world. It has helped sustain me. And some day, I will thank individually the hundreds of individuals who took the time to e-mail me. We appreciate all those well wishes. We will get through this together as a community, I am sure.
Now, we're already discussing ways to memorialize the students that we lost. Last night, there were spontaneous vigils of students. Tonight, there is a candlelight vigil at Martin Luther King Commons at 9:00 p.m. and this afternoon there will be more details about the various activities and the ways in which individuals will be able to express their sympathy and there are many who want to do that and whom are doing that.
We will be announcing plans for our reopening at a later date. First, we really have to deal with this healing process.
Again, let me say to our community, to the NIU community, to the parents and the victims and the students here and the faculty and the staff, we will get through this together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
President Peters mentioned the tremendous outpouring of support that has come from outside the university family and certainly within the university family.
And I'd like to introduce a very important member of our university family to you now, Chairman of the NIU Board of Trustees, Cherilyn G. Murer.
CHERILYN G. MURER, CHMN., NIU BOARD OF TRUSTEES: Thank you, Melanie. I speak to you this morning as chairman of the board of trustees, the governance of this university. But I also speak to you this morning as a mother, as a friend to many of you.
There really aren't words that are adequate to be responsive to this type of tragedy. This is a national tragedy that happened on the Dekalb campus of Northern Illinois University.
The president, his vice presidents, the staff, the faculty, our incredible students, their support of parents did everything, everything possible to avoid future tragedies as we had seen at Virginia Tech. I can assure you that the plan was not something put on a shelf but truly a plan that had been put into action, that had been tried.
And you can see by the response that we had within seconds and the coordination and cooperation of the police, our campus police, the city police, the sheriff's office, the state police, we had that cooperation; we had a resolve to be responsive. We just didn't want to have a tragedy.
As the president has said, we will get through this but we will get through this together with the support of our community and with the support of the country. We thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. You see standing before you representatives from a number of law enforcement agencies who have participated in this investigation and who are here to help answer your questions.
I'd like to introduce them to you now. If you could, I don't know if you lined up in the same order so if you could just indicate as I read your name; Chief of Police from Sycamore, Don Thomas; Dekalb County Coroner, Dennis Miller; Dekalb County Sheriff, Roger Scott; Illinois State Police Commander, Leonard Stallworth; Assistant Special Agent in Charge from the FBI, William Monroe; you met last night our NIU Chief of Police, Donald Grady.
From the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Supervisory Special Agent Kevin Cronan; also from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Dana Nichols; from the Dekalb Fire Department, Fire Chief Lanny Russell; and from the Dekalb Police Department, Police Chief Bill Feithen; to the left of Chief Feithen is our Vice President for Student Affairs, Brian Hemphill; and to his left, our Vice President and Provost, Ray Alden.
With that, I would like to turn it over to police -- NIU Police Chief Don Grady to make a few comments and to begin to answer your questions and provide whatever new information is available.
Chief Grady?
CHIEF DONALD GRADY, NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY POLICE: Good morning.
I'd like to start by sending our heartfelt condolences from all of the law enforcement community to those that were victimized yesterday in this tragic event.
I have to tell you that I'm really proud to have been selected to actually represent this absolutely stellar group of law enforcement professionals and first responders. Nothing of this magnitude that's addressed by a single agency with single purposes, but it has to be done in a unified effort. And I have to tell you that this is one of the most professional, most dedicated, diligent group of professionals that you will ever see anywhere in the United States of America.
Everybody walked in and checked their egos at the door, rolled up their sleeves, went to work and put together one of the most impressive responses to a tragic event that anyone could ever possibly see.
This event started at 3:06 yesterday afternoon. By 3:06:29, there were two NIU police officers already in the area of the scene. A minute and a half later, there were another eight police officers on the scene and the response was immediate and they went in immediately.
Within that short period of time, the shooter walked into the building, managed to begin a shooting spree and concluded before we were able to enter the building and stop it. It's an unfortunate set of circumstances that no one could possibly have predicted nor could they have been more responsive in getting the event to stop. Unfortunately these things happen.
HARRIS: OK, we are going to continue to monitor and bring you back to this news conference on the campus of Northern Illinois University in a couple of moments, but to the right of your screen, that's Canton, Ohio. A jury is back with a verdict in the Bobby Cutts trial. Let's listen in.
JUDGE CHARLES E. BROWN: Families are going to want to talk to the media. I know that the media are going to want to talk to the families. Therefore, with the cooperation of Stark County Sheriff's Department, I have made arrangements for both the families to be escorted out of the courthouse by sheriff's deputies so that they can make their way to the media in an orderly manner and so that the media will have access to them outside of the courthouse.
This has been explained to both of the families and it has also been explained to the media. They know they're not to be any interviews or any pictures taken inside the courthouse. And this is the way that everyone will be able to do those things which I'm sure they want to express or to gather the information, which is the responsibility of the media.
Counselor for the defendant, are we ready for the jurors to come in, state of Ohio?
As for the defendant? Very well. Mr. Davidson, Mr. Leslie, Mrs. Cook, would you please bring in the jurors?
HARRIS: We are in Canton, Ohio. The jury is entering the courtroom right now, having reached a verdict in the trial of former police officer Bobby Cutts, Jr. Who could receive a death sentence if he is convicted of aggravated murder in the deaths of Jessie Davis and her near full-term fetus.
Let's listen in.
OK. While we wait for audio again, we can tell you that Cutts, you may recall, testified on Monday of this week that he accidentally killed Davis with an elbow to her throat as he was trying to leave her house last June. That was his account of what happened on the witness stand on Monday. He then said he panicked and dumped her body in a park.
And Betty, prosecutors have long maintained in this case that Bobby Cutts, Jr. strangled Davis over mounting child support and actually hid her body to cover up his involvement and then denied any knowledge of the crime for I believe nine days before taking police to her body. That was on June 23rd. And again ...
NGUYEN: There were a lot of questions during that too, exactly where is she, where is the body, and we heard from the son there saying that she's in the carpet. So that led to a lot of questions ...
HARRIS: Son Blake, yeah.
NGUYEN: Exactly what happened here. And Bobby Cutts tearfully said that it was an accident. As you mentioned, that he accidentally hit her in the throat; didn't mean to kill her. But when it happened, we saw those bleach stains on the carpet. He said that he was using that to revive her. I don't know exactly how that works. But then confessed.
BROWN: I want to put on the record ...
NGUYEN: Let's take a listen.
BROWN: The fact that the jurors had a verdict, some of the jurors wanted to take a break. Some of them wanted to be able to smoke and so they were allowed to do that.
In just a minute, I'm going to be asking the jurors questions in regard to what has happened during their sequestration in regard to this matter. But I do want to put it on the record that as everyone knows, the jurors have been sequestered during the course of their deliberations.
The jury has been sequestered under the guidance of my bailiff together with additional bailiffs from Judge Sinclair, and one of the young ladies who serves as a substitute bailiff here, also the sheriff's department. And they were performing those duties after they had received an oath from the Stark County Clerk of Courts, Ms. Nancy Reinbold.
The jurors' rooms were all checked to make sure they did not have television access, radio access, newspaper or anything else. And they were on a separate floor.
As has been previously indicated, the jurors were provided with information in regard to medical emergencies and things of that nature. When they did make telephone calls those phone calls were monitored.
Now I want the record to note that the alternate jurors are also in the courtroom at this time.
The first thing that I have is a question for all of the jurors, the deliberating jurors and also the alternate jurors. Have each one of you been sequestered during your deliberations at the trial level so that you can either affirmatively or negatively.
Let me do it this way. Have any of you not been sequestered during the deliberations at this trial level? If any of you have not been sequestered, please raise your hand. Let the record show there's is no affirmative response.
During that period of time, were any of you not free from outside influences which may have attempted to or did, in fact, in any way influence your deliberations in the phase -- the deliberations phase of this case? Were any of you -- did any of you have outside influences which attempted to or did, in fact, influence your deliberations in this matter? If any of you do, please raise your hand so I can note there is an affirmative response. There is no affirmative response.
Has any one of you associated with court, such as myself, the bailiff, the deputies, or has anyone had any one had any communication with you concerning your deliberations, the facts of this case or the law concerning this case at any stage of the proceedings or during your sequestering, except when you were here in open court on the record?
Have any of you had any contact with anyone in regard to any aspect of this case or have any of you received any information from anyone in regard to any aspect of this case since you've been sequestered? If anyone has, please raise your hand. Let the record show there is no affirmative response.
Again, has anyone except in the deliberation room, during deliberations, at any time or at any point in this case said anything, done anything, or in any way attempted to influence your verdict or that, in fact, did influence your verdict in any way? Any of you have an affirmative response to that question? Let the record show there is no affirmative response.
Final question, has anyone except the 12 main jurors participated in any way in your deliberations? That is obviously a question to the deliberating jurors. Has anyone, except the 12 of you, participated in any way in your deliberations? Anyone has affirmative answer, please raise your hand. It does not appear as though we have an affirmative answer to that. Let the record so reflect it.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a result of your deliberations, did you name a foreperson?
And who is that?
Very well. Let the record reflect that juror number 492, is that correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
BROWN: And Mr. Foreman, as a result of your deliberations, has the jury been able to reach verdicts in this case?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have, your honor.
BROWN: Mr. Davidson if you would please hand me the jurors' verdicts to me. And again, Mr. Foreman, I have 21 verdict forms, and are these the verdict forms which the jurors have completed in the appropriate cases?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are.
BROWN: And have all of the deliberating jurors been sequestered since you started your deliberations?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
BROWN: To the best of your knowledge has the jury been free of any outside influence in the jury room?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BROWN: Have only the 12 deliberating jurors participated in the deliberations?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
BROWN: Thank you.
NGUYEN: All right. We are still waiting to hear this verdict as it is being looked at by the judge in the case, the case being of Bobby Cutts, Jr. He's accused of intentionally killing Jessie Davis, his pregnant lover.
Now as you recall, a little bit earlier this week he testified that he accidentally killed Davis with a blow to the throat during an argument last June. And he pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and other charges. But we'll tell you, if convicted today of aggravated murder, Cutts could receive a death sentence.
HARRIS: I think, Betty, the only real question and Mike Brooks is here with us as well and Mike, I know you've done a ton of work on this case. I guess the only real question remaining here is whether he intended to kill. That's really the only question that has to be determined by this jury. And whether he committed a burglary.
I guess that is one of the other charges he is facing here by being in Davis' home when he caused the deaths. Is that about what we're trying to decide here since we have him admit that he administered the fatal blow here?
BROOKS: Right. He said that, you know, he hit her because she came at him, hit her in her throat. She fell, hit her head. HARRIS: Was this a self-defense? It didn't feel like a self- defense.
BROOKS: It didn't but I think he was just basically trying to lessen. The murder charge, if you will, if you can lessen a murder charge anyway. I think he's just trying to lessen but then the whole time investigators where asking him where the body was.
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