The Northern Illinois University shootings have left a lasting impact on our community. But we still don't know much about what caused the rampage. Now a new article in Esquire Magazine sheds some light on the killer's troubled life.

In the five months since Stephen Kazmierczak opened fire in an NIU classroom, killing five people and himself, little information has surfaced about the shooter and surviving victims are left wondering what went wrong?
"We're never going to find out exactly why he did this but we can, at least, find out what his life was like and what could have driven him to that point," says Tyler Cabot.
Cabot edited the article, "Portrait of the School Shooter as a Young Man," appearing in the August issue of Esquire Magazine.
Cabot and writer David Vann interviewed Kazmierczak's friends and mentors and combed through police reports and mental health records.
"Stephen had been troubled for a very, very long time and so it wasn't that he just suddenly snapped. It was that he kinda kept everything inside for a very long time and he couldn't deal with it anymore," says Cabot.
The article details Kazmierczak's strained relationship with his family and feelings of isolation from his peers. As a teenager, he had minor brushes with the law and attempted suicide several times.
After high school, he spent a long time in a group home and was heavily medicated. Then he joined the military, but was kicked out when they learned about his mental history.
Then at NIU, Kazmierczak found a passion for studying and excelled.
"You almost have this amazing story of a guy who had so much trouble growing up, and succeeds and at the very end it kind of all fell away again," says Cabot.
Cabot adds Kazmierczak started spiraling downward when he transferred away from Dekalb to the University of Illinois. He went on and off his medication and started acting more erratically.
Kazmierczak apparently planned his killing spree, because he bought multiple firearms in the days before February 14th and said goodbye to friends and family. But it seems no one imagined he was capable of such devastation.

The article also goes into Kazmierczak's fascination with killers. He frequently talked about Hitler and other famous murderers and he expressed admiration for the way the Virginia Tech killer chained the doors of a classroom to keep his victims from escaping.

There were warning signs of Kazmierczak's instability, but people didn't seem to take them seriously and just thought it was part of his personality. Kazmierczak was not on any warning lists at school.
Cabot and Vann do not pinpoint any reason for the killing spree, nor why Kazmierczak chose to return to NIU to carry out his plans. Those are questions that will likely never be answered.

The article will be in Esquire's August addition, hitting newstands in the coming days.