Campus shooting witnesses describe chaotic scene

The shooting was over in a few minutes, but the horror won’t go away for the students who were in a Northern Illinois University lecture hall when a gunman walked on stage with a shotgun on his hip and started shooting.

“The image of the man opening the door and just firing a round into the audience — I can’t escape that image,” student John Giovanni told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer from the school’s DeKalb campus on Friday.

“I had a hard time sleeping last night because the images kept playing back in my head. I’m still in shock. I still can’t believe it happened,” Giovanni said.

“I don’t think I’ve slept more than two hours since,” added classmate Shane Pope as both stood in the frigid Illinois predawn, shaking more from the memory of what had happened than the cold.

The two were sitting a few seats apart toward the rear of the theaterlike lecture hall among more than 150 students attending a geology lecture shortly before 3 p.m. when a man walked on stage with a shotgun and a pistol and began the killing spree that has taken at least seven lives, including that of the gunman, a former grad student.

At least 15 more were injured, some critically.

“The door opened up — the emergency-exit door on the stage. He came in with a shotgun on his hip and just opened fire right into the crowd,” Pope said. “From that point on I just went into panic mode and quick turned and ducked down and ran out of there as soon as I could, hoping everybody else could get out, too.”

“I was on the aisle seat,” said Giovanni. “It was 2:50, the door swings open. A man carrying a shotgun steps out on stage. I thought it was some drill that they were trying to do. As soon as I saw the muzzle flare and I heard the gunshot, I knew it was real.”

At that point, the only thought was to get out, and Giovanni and Pope were among the first couple of dozen people who managed to scramble outside to safety.

Slide show   Deadly campus attack A gunman at Northern Illinois University opens fire in a crowded lecture hall. more photos

“If I stayed there, I didn’t know if there was going to be multiple gunmen, so I got out of there,” said Giovanni, adding that his friends had told him not to go to class on Thursday. “I was five feet from the door when the second shotgun blast went off. Once I ran out, I heard kids following me that weren’t too far behind me saying that they were bleeding.”

The terror didn’t stop outside.

“I didn’t know if there was somebody waiting to pick people off as we were exiting the building,” Giovanni said.

Pope said they ran out of the building across a bridge and over a small hill toward the law building.

“When I got over there, I passed people and they didn’t know what was going on. They were kind of wondering why 20 to 25 people were just running down the street,” he told Lauer. “I got in front of the law building and I just froze because I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to go inside in case there was another shooter, if I should stay outside or if there might be somebody on top of the building.”

Classes at the school have been canceled for the weekend, and neither student was looking forward to the resumption of classes.

“I don’t think I’m going to be comfortable sitting in a classroom and not looking over my shoulder,” said Giovanni. “I didn’t think it was going to happen to me the first time. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?”

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