NIU Tragedy Continues-- Shivers and First-Hand Account

Yesterday, we found out that the killer stayed at the TraveLodge on Lincoln Highway. We used to stay here a lot when it was Motel 6 so this kind of sends the shivers up the old spine. Did we stay in the same room the killer did at a later date?

We no longer stay there because they have let the place go. I like cheap places, but they have to be clean. I wouldn't recommend it.

Our Illinois Lincoln Highway State Director, Kay Shelton, is a librarian at NIU. She posted on the ILHA e-mail group.

She said she was interviewing a new library dean at the library which is located across a parking lot from Cole Hall, where the shootings took place. A guard came in and they had to relocate to another building farther away, where they continued the interview.

At first, Kay thought this was just one student getting mad at another and shooting, but, "I did not know until I got home that it was Columbine and Virginia Tech all over again."

On another post, she said that she didn't know the shooter, but seems to remember seeing him around campus. However, "there was nothing suspicious about him at all."

Part of Kay's job at NIU is to answer e-mails. The enormity of the tragedy struck her when "I received a message from a librarian from Virginia Tech offering to help me do my job answering e-mail questions."

Kay and others in the group would like to have Cole Hall torn down and turned into a park or memorial for those slain.

To view the discussion http://groups.google.com/group/ILHA?hl=en