A former student dressed in black walked onto the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire on a packed science class Thursday, killing five students, wounding 16 and setting off a panicked stampede before committing suicide.
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Police say they have no motive for the rapid-fire assault, carried out by the gunman who fired indiscriminately into the crowd with a shotgun and two handguns as students dove to the floor and ran toward the exits. At least two of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.

“I kept thinking, `Oh God, he’s going to shoot me. Oh God, I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead,’” said Desiree Smith, a senior journalism major who dropped to the floor near the back of the auditorium.

“People were crawling on each other, trampling each other,” she said. “As I got near the door, I got up and I started running.”