'I was prepared for that to be my last moment'

Attacker fired wordlessly into a mass of students

By Josh Noel, James Kimberly and Robert Mitchum | Tribune staff reporter

1:26 AM EST, February 15, 2008

About 15 minutes were left in Geology 104: Introduction to Ocean Science, and junior Dan Sweeney was checking the time when the door beneath the lecture hall's clock flew open.

In strode a thin young man dressed in black, a dark knit cap atop his head, a shotgun in his hands.

Time stopped. There was no fear, no panic in the half-full room—only an icy moment of bewilderment.

"Nothing seemed out of place," said junior Doug Quesnel, 22. "It was weird he walked through there, but nothing seemed wrong until the shots went off."

Many who witnessed the rain of gunfire in Cole Hall told a common tale: A tranquil afternoon of class was brought to a bloody end by a gunman who appeared suddenly and fired wordlessly into the mass of students.

Five people died along with the shooter, who took his own life seconds after opening fire, police said. Those who survived were left with searing memories of an instant when the unthinkable became real.

"It was just surreal," said Sweeney, 22. "Even when the first shot was fired I couldn't believe it was happening. It didn't seem to register with anyone."

The topic of the day was the properties of the ocean floor, and as always, instructor Joseph Peterson was doing his best to keep his 100-plus students engaged.

He was standing on a stage at the front of the 300-seat auditorium, clicking through a PowerPoint presentation, when a side door on the stage opened with a violent tug.

The face of the young man who entered was void of expression. There was a baffling, agonizing pause. Then he started shooting.

"It didn't even sound like I thought a gun would sound like," said Desiree Smith, a senior from Bolingbrook studying journalism. "It sounded like a cork coming out of a champagne bottle."

The gunfire threw the room into screaming chaos.

"I dropped to the ground under my seat, and could see another girl down there," Smith said. "We just stared at each other. I grabbed her leg and was squeezing it for about five seconds. Then we moved all of a sudden. Everyone was army-crawling toward the back of the auditorium on the floor."

"As soon as I reached the door, I got halfway hunched over, and then started to run as soon as I got outside. I just ran. Everything went quiet around me and I felt I wasn't running fast enough. I remember thinking, 'He's gonna shoot me, he's gonna shoot me.' "

The aisles leading to the exit were choked with a mad scramble. Some students fell to the floor and were stepped on, while others tried to hurdle the crush.

"I was prepared for one of the bullets to hit me in the back," said junior Shane Pope, 21, who was sitting toward the back. "I was prepared for that to be my last moment."

Harold Ng, 21, a junior in communications, said the danger didn't register even after the firing started .

"I was still in the dream state and I didn't think it was reality. It was like a video game," he said.

It wasn't until the other students in the class began to run in a panic that he too began to run, leaving his book bag and jacket on the floor of the auditorium as he fled. While running, he was shot in the back of the head.

"I didn't feel any pain or anything," he said. "I just swiped the back of my head with my hand, and then when I looked at my hand it was all bloody."