David Vann estimates he has almost 1,500 pages of documents regarding the February 2008 shooting at Northern Illinois University.

But earlier this month, the writer said the opening section of his August 2008 Esquire magazine story profiling gunman Steven Kazmierczak included actions he was asked by his editor to “imagine” the shooter might have done in his room at the DeKalb Travelodge and in his vehicle before entering NIU’s Cole Hall the afternoon of Feb. 14, 2008, where he killed five and injured 21 others before killing himself.

Vann’s story described, among other things, the shooter sitting on his bed, picking up guns and looking at his tattoos.