Elanso

The New York Post, not exactly a bastion for accurate and fair reporting, decided that "sick shooter" Steven Kazmierczak's interest in Counter-Strike three to four years ago made a better headline than the fact that he was off his medication when he decided to go on a rampage in an Illinois classroom.

The man who gunned down five people and wounded 16 in an Illinois classroom rampage was a loner who preferred studying to partying and was obsessed with an ultra-violent video game, dormitory mates said yesterday.

Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, played the wildly popular game Counter-Strike while studying sociology at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and 2004.

"He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud," said dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24.

What they failed to mention was what dorm mates likely told them next, or at least told the Northwest Herald, that just about everyone in the dorm played the game.

But both men said that if Kazmierczak seemed disconnected from the other students, it could have been because he was an older student living alongside underclassmen.

"I guess he was polite," Rice said. "He was just really quiet. I wouldn't have guessed he would do anything."

Kazmierczak often would play the video game Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, the roommates said, but they were quick to add that the game was nothing unusual for dormitory halls.

It's also worth noting that over the nearly 1,700 articles published about the shooting the only two that mention the game are the Northwest Herald and the New York Post. That didn't stop Thomposon for shooting out an email this morning crowing about getting it right. It's nice to know that he cares about what's important in this shooting, that a college student played video games at one point in his life, not that six people are dead and a country traumatized.

Our condolences go out to the families of those killed and to Kazmierczak's family.

COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME [New York Post]