Steve Kazmierczak: the Secret Life

In a week where reports of killings were so frequent and senseless that at any moment we expected the moldering, rigored corpse of Western civilization to tumble from an open doorway, the most puzzling case was that of Steve Kazmierczak, who, on Thursday, February 14, during a geology lecture class at his alma mater, Northern Illinois University, stepped from behind a screen onto the stage and fired on the students, killing five before taking his own life. He had graduated from the university about 10 months earlier.

On the surface, the behavior is baffling. He was a smart student, well-regarded by teachers and schoolmates. Unlike teen rampage shooters, (he was 27) he did not occupy the lowest rung of the social ladder at his school, he did not conspire with a small group of peers, he did not brood and plan for a period of time, or alert friends to his plan, and he did not have a record of arrests for antisocial behavior.

Here is what little we do know the day after the shooting:

According to AP, he spent more than a year at the Thresholds-Maryhill House in the late 1990s, an alternative high school program for children suffering from mental illness. His parents sent him there because he was "unruly."

After he graduated in 1998, he underwent a year of psychiatric hospitalization at the insistence of his parents because he refused to take his meds and was cutting himself, a behavior often associated with the B or "dramatic" cluster of personality disorders, such as borderline and narcissistic.

In September of 2001 he enlisted in the army but was "administratively discharged" in February 2002, six months later -- for psychological problems, he told a friend.

He probably started college at Northern Illinois University the following September (2002) and graduated, an academic and social success, in 2007. He had served as a teaching assistant, co-authored an academic paper, and won a dean's award. In September of the same year he started Social Work School at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. According to the New York Times, he dropped out of his HBSE (Human Behavior in the Social Environment) class in the fall, which means that he dropped out of school, since HBSE is a keystone course required for full-time students. He told his professor, Jan Carter-Black, that he was taking a full-time job at a prison. Around the end of the month he arrived for training at the Rockville Correctional Facility, but after two weeks, according to Randy Koester, chief of staff, as reported in the New York Times, he simply stopped coming. No explanation.

Sociologist Katherine Newman writes of school rampage shooters that they "fly below the radar," referring to their skill at concealing their mental illness and suicidal and homicidal rage. Steve Kazmierczak's parents were well aware of his mental illness, as was the local school system (the referral of a teen to an alternative high school program is never made capriciously) but such matters are kept confidential. The world is hard enough for a young man to negotiate without "schizophrenia" stamped on his permanent record card.

And as long as he stayed on his medication he was apparently high functioning, smart and motivated. A problem solver. He would discover why he cut himself by writing a paper about self-injurious behaviors. He would cure his psychiatric problems by attending social work school, and understand his antisocial impulses by working as a corrections officer.

From 1998 to 2008, Kazmierczak appears to have struggled to establish a vocational identity for himself: he tried the army, social work, prison guard, and failed at every attempt. Neighbors report that he had a girlfriend. Did he fail in his relationship with her too? Did all this, seen through the distorted lens of his mental illness, make his life seem damaged beyond repair?

A few years ago, Park Dietz, a well-known forensic psychologist, speaking of John Hinckley, said in an interview "When somebody has so little to lose, so that it all seems meaningless to them, then they're likely to consider revenge as having considerable value. They may think of suicide as an escape from it all. That's a terrible combination, being suicidal and wanting revenge. That's at the heart of most of the workplace and school mass murders of the last 20 years" (The Hook, 12/4/03).

We will doubtless learn more about Kazmierczak's secret life in the months to come.

Comments

[fcsakes]

I read somewhere that the laptop they found was missing its hard drive. That bothers and intrigues me. Why did he remove it? I mean, if he was going to end up dead anyway after killing as many people as he could, why try to hide whatever was on that hard drive? This seems like such a departure from other mass shootings - like he's trying to hide his motives, his thoughts. Or maybe I'm just so pissed that after the horribleness of what has happened, we are all left stunned by the brutality, senselessness, and no answers. none.

[duggie]

Why do I get the feeling that the facts will never be available for shootings of this type? It's all rumour and opinion from people who obviously don't have a clue - parents, girlfriend, media, bystanders, therapists, the schools.

Where is history on this? What happened 50, 100 years ago to young men with psychiatric problems? What happened to this young man during 1 YEAR in a hospital? What was the diagnosis? A cluster of disorders? What the hell is that? Which meds were prescribed?

Somebody dropped the ball here: the "doctors" who diagnose and treat patients ought to be held responsible, just like surgeons and other doctors. Then maybe we'd have better treatments for brain disorders. Has the medical community ever thought that testosterone abnormalities might contribute to which young men become violent?

Do you ever hear corrections / legal professionals say, Well, we told him to get back in his jail cell, but he didn't want to: that's why he walked out, bought a gun and killed his wife. Oh yeah... I've heard that!

[chocco]

I haven't noticed anyone mentioning Kazmiercsak got his guns on the internet. In many states, a bottle of wine cannot be purchased online and delivered to an individual, however, guns can be purchased on the internet. We are a society awash in guns--and not guns that are used for hunting--guns that are to be used only for killing humans.
Of course, how is one to know when we are dealing with someone who is mentally ill? Obviously, we will not be able to force a person who is mentally ill to seek help, however, we can and should do something about selling anyone with a record of mental illness a gun. Clearly, a country who is being run by the NRA is subject to more of these kind of events. And when Americans say the answer to this problem is to arm everyone...including students, teachers, even clergy....we are a country sinking into anarachy.

[StealthisBlog]

You haven't noticed that because it is not true. He bought the guns live in person at a gun shop. He also bought some ACCESSORIES online. A couple magazines for the Glock and a holster. It is creepy that he bought from the same online retailer as the sick bastard that committed the VaTech assault.

[pithy]

His actions don't seem puzzling to me at all.

He wanted to commit suicide, was afraid he couldn't go through with it, and did something so heinous just to force himself to kill himself (or, preferably, get shot by a cop in the process.)

I live with someone who has mental illness - when he doesn't have his medication, he's as out of whack as a diabetic who appears "drunk" when their insulin is off.

This person takes medication almost religiously - but when he forgets, perhaps three times a year, it's obvious within hours that something is drastically wrong - obvious to EVERYONE BUT HIM.

For some reason, his denial mechanism kicks in and he's absolutely positive that HE'S FINE and everyone around him is nuts.

I really object to the idea of mandatory hospitalization - but gun control is long overdue.

A blind person can't use a gun safely - and neither can a person with certain kinds of mental illness.

[rroy]

I noticed,until Yellowcat's post,very little mention was made of the fact that Mr.Kazmierczak,just like all of his predeccessors,had extremely easy access to firearms.If they werent available from near relatives they were readily purchasable,even to the extent,as in Littleton,of an aquaintance could purchase them for the perpetrators.
I haven't made any real research on the subject,but based solely on what I hear read or see in the news,these mass murders occur in other parts of the world(excluding things like acts of terrorism),but no where near the frequency of the United States.Why??
The answer,at least to me ,is obvious!It is the preposterously scandalous way people,sane or not ,have such easy access to firearms,coupled with the gun love fettish of so much of the American public!
We have reached the point where some gun advocates are recomending armed teachers and guards in our hallowed halls of education.

It makes one ask,who is nuttier,the Kazmierczeks of the world or the American public?

[Steamboater]

There's nothing puzzling about this. The guy needed his medication--prozac--and he stopped taking it. Simple. His girlfriend admitted it. Why didn't she do more to convince him him he needed it? She also said she knew he had a shotgun and some other gun but didnt know about the other one or two. Didn't that pop red flags for her, a boyfriend who's on prozac and stops taking badly needed meds and has guns around the his place? This tragedy was bound to happen considering his emotional problems and his refusal to take his medication or ask his doctor for something else. He wasnt a dummy so something tells me, whether prozac or some other med, he just didn't want to take any medication.

[blastocyst]

25,000 souls crammed into that College. What is being taught there?
I'd compare this Diploma mill to that slaughterhouse they just busted for the beef recall. Defective handling of product across the board.

[newunderground]

Yeah, blame the victim. You don't know a damn thing about the college, its students or faculty. SHouldn't you be posting at free republic or something?

[lhsouthern1988]

as log as we have a health care system where access to proper mental health treatment will accessable to the few, we will always be dealing with situations like this.

[cylindar]

The biggest problem today is that the mental health community does not want to lock up dangerous types and they have this Alice In Wonderland idea that the community should take on the burden and be victimized by the mentally ill. A good case for the damage done by the mentally ill allowed to roam society freely is that of George W. Bush. He was probably the shooters inspiration.

[PrairieDog]

What gives me the creeps is that I live maybe 5 minutes from the NIU killer's apartment. He could have done it here instead & killed someone I know. I may have passed him in a grocery store. I might have even taken his FOID card photo. This is way too close to home. I have yet to hear from my brother who lives in DeKalb. His wife just retired from NIU. So much of this just doesn't make sense...yet. Too sad, too troubling & way too close.

[Ferlonda]

Has no one noticed that most, if not all, of these shooters have been taking SSRI medications? Sometimes more than one, sometimes in very high dosages, or they have recently stopped taking them without a doctor's supervision. Just thought I'd mention it.

[DemandTruth]

So someone who had a record of violent and destructive behavior, mental instability and psychoses was not only admitted into the military, he was hired as a prison guard!? Great! Just great places for a violent sociopath to lead a stable and productive life. Just great.

[jeffepops]

Millions of people in the United states suffer from severe organic brain disorders, through no fault of their own. We only seem to care about the mentally ill when one the infinitesimally small number of them commits a heinous crime. The one exception is celebrity mental illness -- which has become a form of mainstream media entertainment.

Mentally ill individuals are more likely to become victims of violent crimes than commit them -- a mentally ill person is six times more likely to become a murder victim. Every major study in every nation has concluded that mental illness is a "negligible" contributor to violent crime. On the other hand, the link between alcohol use and violent crime... http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/ac.pr.

There unfortunately exists a wide gap between the medical and legal fields in this area -- definitions and diagnoses often conflict. In Los Angeles, where I live, the largest institution for housing the mentally ill is the L.A. County Jail system, where individuals arrest for minor infractions often do not receive their prescribed medication do to the lack of coordination with medical practitioners.

The largest percentage of mentally ill who commit violent crimes do so shortly after quitting taking needed medication, as the symptoms of severe brain disorders -- paranoia, auditory and visual hallucinations -- become extremely pronounced and amplified. In some other countries, such as Spain, systems have been developed to support the mentally ill (and their beleaguered families) to ensure that medication compliance occurs.

We will save more innocent lives by properly caring for all mentally ill individuals than we will by trying to ferret out the small handful who might become violent. Keep in mind that the vast majority of violent crimes and murders are committed by individuals who do not have mental illness. And to keep things in further proportion -- without detracting from the horror and pain caused by the killings at NIU -- more than 17,000 U.S. citizens died last year due to improperly prescribed drugs and medically unnecessary surgical procedures.

[Merlin7]

Illinois -- and every state -- should have a data base of those certified to have serious mental problems, and being listed on that roll should automatically disqualify anyone from owning, possessing or buying a firearm. It's such an obvious step to take. How many more people will have to die before it's taken?

[SamThornton]

By all accounts, Steve Kazmierczak was one of the very few people with severe psychiatric disorders in this country to receive anything approaching adequate attention and care. And yet his ultimate actions still led to this unnecessary and tragic outcome.

It's been reported that Steve possessed a state-issued gun owners permit, despite his psychiatric history, and used it to obtain the weapons he used. If the overwhelming bulk of our fellow citizens can't understand that this represents a social insanity as grave as Steve's personal condition, then we've passed the possibility of reasonable social and political behavior.