Northern Illinois University

DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) - A gangster was dressed in black behind a curtain at the head of a large auditorium on Thursday, Northern Illinois University, and shot dead 22 people, four killed, then killed himself, authorities said. Rescue workers carry a victim of Cole Hall Thursday after a gangster shot dead 22 people during a geology class. 1 of 3 Four of the injured were in critical condition, eight in stable condition, and six in fair to good condition, a hospital website said. The shooting came shortly after 3 pm (4 pm ET) and Cole Hall.

The class will be from 2 pm to 3:15 pm, University President John Peters said. "It started and it stopped very quickly," said Police Chief Donald Grady. The gangsters, whose identity has not been revealed publicly, was not a student at the NIU campus in DeKalb, west of Chicago, but "may have been a student elsewhere." Police do not have an obvious motive now says Grady. Kevin McEnery, he said in class when a man dressed in a black shirt, dark trousers and black hats burst in the implementation of the shotgun. "He joined the door open, just started shooting," said McEnery, in the class was at the time. "All I really heard was people screaming, screaming out. ... Close to 30 shots were fired." Watch McEnery describe the chaos at the scene " There are about 162 students enrolled in the class, which gathered in a large auditorium. "Witnesses say someone dressed in black appeared from behind a screen in the front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun," said Peters.

The gangsters fired from a stage at the front of the classroom, said Grady. At 3:03, NIU police responded, and four minutes later was appointed campus in a lock-down situation, "he said. At 3:20, an all-campus warning went on the campus Web site, e-mail, voice-mail, the campus crisis hotline, the media and various alarm systems, he said. "The message was basically: It is a gangster on the campus, stay where you are, do it as safely as possible," he said. Rosie Moroni, a student at the school, told CNN she was outside Cole Hall in the vicinity of King Commons at 2:30 pm (3:30 pm ET), when they heard shots from the classroom, she had to give.

The shot was followed by "a lot of people screaming," then people ran, the doors screaming, "He's got a gun, call 9-1-1," she said. "It was complete chaos ... it is very scary here." By 4 pm police had swept the area and determined there was only one gangster, "and that he was dead. Grady said the three gangsters guns used during his rampage - a shotgun, a Glock and a small-caliber pistol - and was still at the stage where he is one of the weapons themselves. The small-caliber gun was not recovered, he said. He said the shooter began with a shotgun, then switched to a pistol. It appears that he acted alone, said Grady.

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