While Kazmierczak was a well-liked student, he had committed such a heinous crime before killing himself at the end. Colleagues and faculty members described 27 year old Steven P. Kazmierczak as someone who was well-liked by many. It is also said that he was an award winning student as well.
Many school websites revealed that Kazmierczak was the head of a criminal justice group at NIU along with being an award-winning student majoring in sociology. But, what he did was a complete 180-degree turn. Kazmierczak had brought over a guitar case with a shotgun concealed inside. He had three guns underneath his coat.
His behavior and mental health had no red flags. He had no violent behavior in the past. That could be the one thing that made Steven P. Kazmierczak different from Cho Seung-hui, the Virginia Tech shooter who had killed at least 30 people before taking his own life.
Cho’s mental health had set off numerous red flags. But, his records were concealed and did not register during a background check when he had purchased two handguns.
“I found Steven to be a very committed student, extremely respectful to me as an instructor and adviser,” according to Jan Carter-Black, who works as an assistant professor at the Champaign’s School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana.
Chris Larrison, who is another associate professor, said he also knew Kazmierczak. He only had positive things to say about him. Larrison had called Kazmierczak good to work with. He said he was surprised to see what had happened.
There were many things that made him different from Cho Seung-hui. The type of person that Kazmierczak was before the shooting is considered just as shocking of the acts of murder he had committed at an NIU lecture hall.