US | Illinois NIU Shooting Victims Profiled Loved ones remember young lives cut short By Rob Quinn Posted Feb 16, 2008 2:08 PM CST Copied This combination of five photographs shows the victims of the Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008 shooting at Northern Illinois University. Top row, from left (Associated Press) An Army Corps of Engineers vet who wanted to be a first grade teacher. A violinist who knit for fun. A rugby player and frat man who worked for the student newspaper. The Chicago Tribune profiles the five students gunned down in their oceanography class Thursday at North Illinois University, while police are still searching for the killer's motive. All of the victims—four of them women—had Illinois hometowns. One family said they'd urged their daughter, who served in the Army in Bosnia, Laos and Tonga, to leave the military and return to college; as the Iraq war escalated, they feared for her safety and wanted her near home. Others remembered kindnesses, talents, hopes. "She was ten thousand times better than the best parts of each of us," one girl's family said in a statement. "Our hearts are broken." Read These Next New Fox star, 23, misses first day after car troubles. Man accused of killing his daughters might be dead. Iran's supreme leader makes first public comments since ceasefire. White House rolls with Trump's 'daddy' nickname. Report an error