8A - Monday, February 18, 2008
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 4
Shooter called girlfriend
before killing 7 students
As trash violations pile up, many students say
city officials unfairly target their houses
4
Kazmierczak said
'Don't forget about
me' on tragic day
WONDERLAKE, Ill. (AP) - The
girlfriend of the man who killed
five people and himself at Northern
Illinois University said Sunday that
he called her early on Valentine's
Day, the day of the shooting, to say,
goodbye.
Steven Kazmierczak "called me
at midnight and told me not to for-
get about him," Jessica Baty, 28,
told CNN from her home. She said
she had no indication he was plan-
ning anything.
Investigators still haven't deter-
mined why Kazmierczak, 27,
opened fire in a lecture hall at his
and Baty's alma mater, and she shed
no light on a motive yesterday.
"The person I knew was not the
one who went into Cole Hall and
did that," Baty told CNN. "He was
anything but a monster. He was
probably the ... nicest, (most) caring
person ever."
The day of the shooting or the
day after, Baty received a package
from Kazmierczak containing two
textbooks, a cell phone and what
she characterized as a "goodbye
note."
"You've done so much for me,"
the note said, according to Baty.
"You will make an excellent psy-
chologist and social worker some-
day."
Another package contained a
gun holster and ammunition. She
confirmed that he had stopped tak-
ing an antidepressant about three
weeks ago because "it made him
feel like a zombie," but she denied
that his recentbehavior was unusu-
al.
"He wasn't erratic. He wasn't
delusional. He was Steve; he was
normal," said Baty, who had turned
down Associated Press requests by
phone and in person for an inter-
view.
TRASH From Page 1A
of the officer issuing the ticket.
To avoid a citation, all trash
needs to be stored for collection
in bins provided by the city. Addi-
tional bins cost $75.
If the property is a rental, land-
lords have the choice of taking
ticket prices directly from a ten-
ant's security deposit or collecting
the fees before the lease ends. If
the fees are not paid, the property
owners will be taxed by the city.
This has angered some city land-
lords.
Copi Properties manager Sam
Copi, who rents out about 20
houses around the city, including
some on East University Avenue,
said the trash code is "bad public
policy."
"It seems to target areas that
are known to be tailgating,
when there are no complaints
from neighbors," he said. "I'm
not saying it's never justified.
But you can park 10 cars in your
lawn on a football Saturday with
no interference from the city,
and if you have 20 red cups, the
city will come by and cite you.
It seems to counter the football
spirit."
The fact that ticket prices vary
and citations are issued on a com-
plaint basis confuses many stu-
dents.
"There's no one on this street
that would call in," said LSA
senior Greg Goldring, who lives
with Wicker. "Everyone's having
a party."
Ann Arbor resident Cynthia
Nixon, who chairs the Oxbridge
Neighborhood association - an
area that includes Zeta Beta Tau, a
house that received13 trash tickets
in 2007 - said the neighborhood
has a watch system that keeps
trash under control.
"The city is very responsive,"
she said. "That's why there's more
violations, the city has given peo-
ple a vehicle to complain."
Nixon said neighbors regularly
monitor the cleanliness of the stu-
dent houses in the neighborhood
and call the city when they find
trash.
"We just don't feel that young
boys can maintain a historic
house," she said.
Engineering senior Joseph Lee
has lived at Lambda Phi Epsilon,
also part of the Oxbridge Neigh-
borhood, for the past three years.
He said he was surprised to hear
about the messy reputation of Zeta
Beta Tau, because the house is far
from the road and is surrounded
by trees.
"You really have to go in there
to see if they're, like, trashed or
something," he said.
Lee and his 12 housemates were
ticketed eight times in 2007. He
said the house decided to split the
cost of a dumpster with neighbors
after the repeated tickets - which
he and his fraternity brothers
paid for themselves - got "really
annoying."
"We got ticket after ticket
because our yard was 'not cleaned
up enough,' " he said. "Usually,
small bits and pieces you couldn't
pick up by hand."
Lee agreed with other students,
saying his house might have been
under surveillance.
"I've always thought they put
us like on watch or something, tar-
geted our house out of nowhere."
he said.
Lee said his house hasn't
received a ticket since buying the
dumpster in April of last year.
IFC spokesman Ryan Spotts
said the IFC has tried to reduce
the number of citations written
to IFC fraternities by bringing in
Community Standards supervisor
Mike Rankin to speak to campus
chapters.
He said that one problem is that
fraternity leaders often don'tthink
to pass on the city's trash regula-
tions during officer training.
"I predict it willbecome less of a
problem," he said. "We are always
eager to fix things that are detri-
mental to the community."
Wicker said he and his house-
mates hosted football pre-parties
in the first three weeks of the sea-
son, receiving trash citations for
all of them.
"We deserved it," he said. But
when the guys started making
an effort to be cleaner, he said, it
didn't seem to make a difference so
they stopped hosting parties alto-
gether.
After Wicker and his house-
mates received a fine the weekend
of the Ohio State game, they fought
the ticket in court and the charges
were dropped thanks to photos
they took that day as evidence. The
debris in their yard consisted of
two pieces of a pumpkin, a red cup,
and a newspaper in a bag.
Despite resident complaints of
targeting, Hieftje said he hasn't
heard negative feedback about the
program.
"Things look 1,000 percent bet-
ter than they did in some neighbor-
hoods,"he said.
4
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