Emergency response ‘swift,' ‘well-executed'

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DeKALB - Shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen saw officers at the DeKalb Police Department running out the door, he said. Officers from the DeKalb Police Depart-ment were among the dozens who filled the campus of Northern Illinois University on Thursday after a shooting in an NIU lecture hall that left six people dead, including the gunman, and 16 injured. Within 20 minutes of the shooting being reported, the campus was filled with law enforcement officers, emergency medical technicians and firefighters from throughout DeKalb County, and many other areas in Illinois. NIU students, faculty and staff, as well as people across the country with a variety of connections to the university, have struggled since Thursday to make sense of an attack that came without warning. NIU Police Chief Don Grady has repeatedly said that no level of preparedness could have prevented Steven Kazmierczak, 27, from storming into Cole Hall and opening fire on students and the instructor. However, the emergency response to the shooting has been described as swift, thorough and well-executed, according to several emergency supervisors in and out of DeKalb County. “This is one of the hardest things we've had to confront,” DeKalb Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Harrison said Saturday. “But this community was ready in how it was managed. It was a collective effort with dozens of departments from out of the area cooperating with us.” Cole Hall - where the shootings occurred - was declared secure and surviving victims were being treated within a half-hour of the attack, thanks to emergency workers' incident management training and practiced emergency drills. Exercises such as a mass-casualty drill performed with a helicopter during the last homecoming weekend allowed for a high level of preparedness to help treat people injured in the attack, Harrison said. “Every situation like this is chaotic in its nature, especially the initial events,” DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott said Sunday. “But one of the things that's important is that officers and emergency personnel responded very quickly on Thursday.” “We'll review it to make it better and pray we never have to do it again,” Harrison said about Thursday's emergency response. Reporter Benji Feldheim can be reached at bfeldheim@daily-chronicle.com.