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NIU to mark 16 years since 2008 mass shooting killed 5 students

By Shaw Local News Network
Northern Illinois University students cross the bridge on campus Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, after the remembrance ceremony at the memorial outside Cole Hall at NIU for the victims of the mass shooting in 2008. Tuesday marked the 15th year since the deadly shooting took place on campus which took the lives of five people.

Northern Illinois University students cross the bridge on campus in this Shaw Local file photo on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023, after the remembrance ceremony at the memorial outside Cole Hall at NIU for the victims of the mass shooting in 2008. (Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.com/Mark Busch - mbusch@shawmedia.co)

DeKALB – Northern Illinois University will mark a somber occasion Wednesday: 16 years since a gunman killed five students and injured nearly two dozen others during a mass shooting on campus Feb. 14, 2008.

The community is invited to attend the “Forward, Together Forward: Moment of Reflection” at 3 p.m. outside of Cole Hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb Wednesday.

Bells will chime five times outside Cole Hall at 3:06 p.m., one chime for each of the five NIU students who were killed after a former NIU grad student opened fire inside a lecture hall in the building.

Catalina Garcia, 20, Daniel Parmenter, 20, Ryanne Mace, 19, Julianna Gehant, 32 and Gayle Dubowski, 20 were shot to death.

In the years since the shooting, which has shaped the character of NIU’s and the greater DeKalb community, the university has established multiple Forward, Together Forward scholarships to help honor those who died. The memorial scholarships are awarded to enrolled students.

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