Redrum
03-22-2005, 09:38 AM
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151116,00.html
High School Rampage Leaves 10 Dead
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
http://www.foxnews.com/images/foxnews_story.gif
•
Families Wait Outside Minn. Hospital (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151121,00.html)
•
Previous Fatal School Shootings (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151119,00.html)
•
High School Shooting Spree Leaves 10 Dead (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151085,00.html)
•
Red Lake Reservation Rife With Poverty (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151097,00.html)
BEMIDJI, Minn. — Ten people were dead and at least 14 others wounded after a heavily armed student opened fire at a high school while waving and smiling at his potential victims. The student apparently then turned one of his guns on himself.
Witnesses said the alleged shooter at one point stopped during the mayhem to ask one of his victims whether he believed in God. Before unleashing the gunfire on the school, the shooter allegedly shot and killed his own grandfather and his elder's wife, as well as a school security guard.
The rampage at the Red Lake Indian Reservation (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Red%20Lake%20Indian%20Reservation%27%29;)) in far northern Minnesota was the nation's worst school shooting (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27school%20shooting%27%29;)) since the Columbine High School (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Columbine%20High%20School%27%29;)) massacre in 1999 that left 13 people dead and shocked a nation.
"There's not a soul that will go untouched by the tragic loss that we've experienced here," Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, told WCCO-TV of Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Tim%20Pawlenty%27%29;)) said a crisis team that included grief counselors were working with the small, tight-knit community. The Department of Education was also in touch with school officials, the governor said in a late-morning news conference.
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"It is our intent to have our day or days of remembrance for the victims of this shooting and their families," he said.
Pawlenty said that officials were waiting for input from victims' families, and indicated that state buildings may lower flags. Local tribal officials were organizing a memorial service for 3 p.m. EST.
A hospital news conference was scheduled set for 11:30 a.m. EST and a news conference at the Red Lake Detention Center at 1 p.m. EST.
Law enforcement officials did not identify the shooter but several students, tribal leaders and school officials said he was identified as Jeff Weise, a 17-year-old student. Weise had been placed in the school's Homebound program for some violation of policy, said school board member Kathryn Beaulieu. Students in that program stay at home and are tutored by a traveling teacher. Beaulieu said she didn't know what Weise's violation was, and wouldn't be allowed to reveal it if she did.
Beaulieu said school was canceled Tuesday, but plans hadn't been made for the rest of the week.
Reggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Red%20Lake%20High%20School%27%29;)), said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school's entrance, killing a guard.
Then, in a nearby classroom, he heard the gunman say something to his friend Ryan: "He asked Ryan if he believed in God," Graves said. "And then he shot him."
When the rampage was over, 10 people were dead, including the gunman's grandfather; a woman who may have been his grandfather's wife or girlfriend; a school security guard; a teacher; and five other students. At least 14 others were wounded, officials said.
Police said the gunman killed himself after exchanging fire with officers.
During the rampage, teachers herded students from one room to another, trying to move away from the sound of the shooting, said Graves, 14. He said some students crouched under desks.
Some pleaded with the gunman to stop. "You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?'" Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji.
Student Ashley Morrison said she heard shots, then saw the gunman's face peering though a door window of a classroom where she was hiding with several other students. After banging at the door, the shooter walked away and she heard more shots, she said.
"I can't even count how many gunshots you heard, there was over 20 ... there were people screaming, and they made us get behind the desk," she said.
FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said the gunman exchanged gunfire with Red Lake police in a hallway, then retreated to a classroom, where he was believed to have shot himself.
All of the dead students were found in one room, including the teen believed to be the shooter. Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately said the gunman had two handguns and a shotgun. The shooter may have obtained his weapons from his grandfather, who was a long-time police officer in the area.
Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who usually wore black and was teased by other kids. Relatives told the newspaper his father committed suicide four years ago, and that his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident.
The alleged shooter believed he was the "angel of death" and a Neo-Nazi. School officials reportedly were afraid he would do something violent in April 2004, which was the month of Adolf Hitler's birthday.
Some of the injured were being cared for in Bemidji, about 20 miles south of Red Lake. Authorities closed roads to the reservation in far northern Minnesota while they investigated the shootings.
One reporter on the scene told FOX News that three people were taken to that nearby hospital. One 14-year old boy was shot in the chest but is expected to survive. The condition of the other two are unknown. Two other wounded individuals are reportedly in a Fargo, N.D., hospital.
Police officers were posted at the hospital Monday night to discourage reporters from entering. When a reporter approached three men walking across a hospital parking lot, one broke down in tears, and the others said they had no comment.
The school was evacuated after the shootings and locked down for the investigation, McCabe said.
Jourdain called it "without a doubt the darkest hour" in the group's history. "There has been a considerable amount of lives lost, and we still don't know the total of that," Jourdain said.
The rampage in Red Lake was the second fatal school shooting in Minnesota in 18 months. Two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring in September 2003. Student John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time, awaits trial in the case.
Red Lake High School has about 300 students, according to its Web site.
The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state. According to the 2000 census, 5,162 people lived on the reservation, and all but 91 were Indians.
High School Rampage Leaves 10 Dead
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
http://www.foxnews.com/images/foxnews_story.gif
•
Families Wait Outside Minn. Hospital (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151121,00.html)
•
Previous Fatal School Shootings (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151119,00.html)
•
High School Shooting Spree Leaves 10 Dead (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151085,00.html)
•
Red Lake Reservation Rife With Poverty (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151097,00.html)
BEMIDJI, Minn. — Ten people were dead and at least 14 others wounded after a heavily armed student opened fire at a high school while waving and smiling at his potential victims. The student apparently then turned one of his guns on himself.
Witnesses said the alleged shooter at one point stopped during the mayhem to ask one of his victims whether he believed in God. Before unleashing the gunfire on the school, the shooter allegedly shot and killed his own grandfather and his elder's wife, as well as a school security guard.
The rampage at the Red Lake Indian Reservation (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Red%20Lake%20Indian%20Reservation%27%29;)) in far northern Minnesota was the nation's worst school shooting (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27school%20shooting%27%29;)) since the Columbine High School (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Columbine%20High%20School%27%29;)) massacre in 1999 that left 13 people dead and shocked a nation.
"There's not a soul that will go untouched by the tragic loss that we've experienced here," Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, told WCCO-TV of Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Tim%20Pawlenty%27%29;)) said a crisis team that included grief counselors were working with the small, tight-knit community. The Department of Education was also in touch with school officials, the governor said in a late-morning news conference.
http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/pagead/imp.gif?client=ca-foxnews_440x100&event=noscript
"It is our intent to have our day or days of remembrance for the victims of this shooting and their families," he said.
Pawlenty said that officials were waiting for input from victims' families, and indicated that state buildings may lower flags. Local tribal officials were organizing a memorial service for 3 p.m. EST.
A hospital news conference was scheduled set for 11:30 a.m. EST and a news conference at the Red Lake Detention Center at 1 p.m. EST.
Law enforcement officials did not identify the shooter but several students, tribal leaders and school officials said he was identified as Jeff Weise, a 17-year-old student. Weise had been placed in the school's Homebound program for some violation of policy, said school board member Kathryn Beaulieu. Students in that program stay at home and are tutored by a traveling teacher. Beaulieu said she didn't know what Weise's violation was, and wouldn't be allowed to reveal it if she did.
Beaulieu said school was canceled Tuesday, but plans hadn't been made for the rest of the week.
Reggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School (search (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:siteSearch%28%27Red%20Lake%20High%20School%27%29;)), said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school's entrance, killing a guard.
Then, in a nearby classroom, he heard the gunman say something to his friend Ryan: "He asked Ryan if he believed in God," Graves said. "And then he shot him."
When the rampage was over, 10 people were dead, including the gunman's grandfather; a woman who may have been his grandfather's wife or girlfriend; a school security guard; a teacher; and five other students. At least 14 others were wounded, officials said.
Police said the gunman killed himself after exchanging fire with officers.
During the rampage, teachers herded students from one room to another, trying to move away from the sound of the shooting, said Graves, 14. He said some students crouched under desks.
Some pleaded with the gunman to stop. "You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?'" Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji.
Student Ashley Morrison said she heard shots, then saw the gunman's face peering though a door window of a classroom where she was hiding with several other students. After banging at the door, the shooter walked away and she heard more shots, she said.
"I can't even count how many gunshots you heard, there was over 20 ... there were people screaming, and they made us get behind the desk," she said.
FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said the gunman exchanged gunfire with Red Lake police in a hallway, then retreated to a classroom, where he was believed to have shot himself.
All of the dead students were found in one room, including the teen believed to be the shooter. Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately said the gunman had two handguns and a shotgun. The shooter may have obtained his weapons from his grandfather, who was a long-time police officer in the area.
Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who usually wore black and was teased by other kids. Relatives told the newspaper his father committed suicide four years ago, and that his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident.
The alleged shooter believed he was the "angel of death" and a Neo-Nazi. School officials reportedly were afraid he would do something violent in April 2004, which was the month of Adolf Hitler's birthday.
Some of the injured were being cared for in Bemidji, about 20 miles south of Red Lake. Authorities closed roads to the reservation in far northern Minnesota while they investigated the shootings.
One reporter on the scene told FOX News that three people were taken to that nearby hospital. One 14-year old boy was shot in the chest but is expected to survive. The condition of the other two are unknown. Two other wounded individuals are reportedly in a Fargo, N.D., hospital.
Police officers were posted at the hospital Monday night to discourage reporters from entering. When a reporter approached three men walking across a hospital parking lot, one broke down in tears, and the others said they had no comment.
The school was evacuated after the shootings and locked down for the investigation, McCabe said.
Jourdain called it "without a doubt the darkest hour" in the group's history. "There has been a considerable amount of lives lost, and we still don't know the total of that," Jourdain said.
The rampage in Red Lake was the second fatal school shooting in Minnesota in 18 months. Two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring in September 2003. Student John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time, awaits trial in the case.
Red Lake High School has about 300 students, according to its Web site.
The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state. According to the 2000 census, 5,162 people lived on the reservation, and all but 91 were Indians.