Posted on 03/21/2005 8:10:27 PM PST by neverdem
CHICAGO, March 21 - A high school student went on a shooting rampage on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota on Monday, killing his grandparents, five fellow students, a teacher and a security guard, as well as himself, the authorities said.
A dozen other students were injured in the barrage, which erupted at the 300-student Red Lake High School about 3 p.m., officials said. The grandparents were apparently killed at their home earlier in the day, and the authorities were investigating whether the murder weapon was a revolver taken from the grandfather, an officer on the tribal force.
Neither shooter nor victims were identified by the authorities, but the Red Lake Net News, a Web site affiliated with the tribe, named the gunman's grandfather as Daryl Lussier, as did several people in the community in telephone interviews.
"It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," Paul McCabe, an F.B.I. spokesman in Minneapolis, told reporters at a briefing. "It's still a very fluid investigation. Right now there's still a lot of work to do."
Mr. McCabe did say that "we do have evidence that we believe that the shooter is dead," and that "we believe he was acting alone."
The shooting was the worst at a school since the one in 1999 at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colo., where 15 people were killed.
Roman Stately, director of the Red Lake Fire Department, told The Associated Press and local television stations that the police found the bodies of the grandparents an hour after the school shooting, and that the young man used his grandfather's service weapon in the rampage.
"Apparently, he walked down the hallway shooting and then he entered a classroom," Mr. Stately told KARE-TV, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul. "He shot several students and a teacher, then himself."
Mr. McCabe said the victims at the high school were all found in one room. The dead teacher was a woman, he said, the security guard a man; four students, including the gunman, died at the scene and two more later at the hospital.
"A teacher pulled the kids down on the ground, under the benches," Molly Miron, the editor of the nearby Bemidji Pioneer newspaper, told a radio station after interviewing a teacher who was in the room when the shootings occurred.
The Red Lake reservation, about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities and about 120 miles south of Canada, is home to a band of about 5,000 Ojibwa Indians, commonly called Chippewa. The tribe operates three casinos and other tourist attractions on some half-million acres.
Clyde Bellencourt, founder of the Minneapolis-based American Indian Movement, said he could not "remember anything as tragic as this happening" on a reservation.
"Everyone in the Indian community is feeling really bad right now, whether they're a member of the Red Lake or not, we're all an extended family, we're all related," he said. "Usually this happens in places like Columbine, white schools, always somewhere else. We never hear that in our community." Mr. Bellencourt and his brother Vernon, another longtime American Indian leader, said that the shooter's grandfather had been on the local police force for perhaps 35 years, and belonged to one of the tribe's most prominent and respected families.
"No one would ever think that that type of violence would visit itself in our communities," Vernon Bellencourt said.
"But our young people are not exempt from the same problems young people have across the country," he added, "so our communities are now being victimized by this same kind of violence."
Reporting for this article was contributed by Mikkel Patesfrom Fargo, N.D.; Kermit Patterson from Minneapolis; and Gretchen Reuthling in Chicago.
"Usually this happens at...white schools..."
Holy crap! Imagine if...white was replaced with...ANYTHING else!
What a tragedy!
Prayers going up for all those involved.
He injured twelve people in a burst with a pistol?
Why didn't people charge him, or something else? I never get that.
Subdivision 2. Penalty. Any Indian, other than a law enforcement officer who has authority to make arrests, who carries, holds or possesses a handgun in a motor vehicle, snowmobile or boat, or on or about his clothes or person, or otherwise in his possession or control in a public place without first having obtained a permit to carry the handgun from the Red Lake Law Enforcement Program is guilty of a gross misdemeanor, and the handgun involved may be confiscated.
Subdivision 4. Grounds for Denial of Permit. A permit to carry a handgun shall not be granted to the applicant if applicant: a) Is under the age of 18 years.
That said, this will no doubt be used by the anti-gun nuts to further their agenda. With this one and the recent one in WI, this will certainly give them more supporters.
"A teacher pulled the kids down on the ground, under the benches,"
This hide like a bunny thing isn't working. Run away if you can. If the shooter is blocking the exit, better to all run at him and over power him.
Why didn't people charge him, or something else? I never get that.
At the Wind River Indian Reservation in my state law enforcement remains the exclusive domain of the tribes, to handle as they see fit. IRC, treaties bar federal troops from even setting foot on the reservation. Several years ago a man shot up his entire family. One of his wounded relatives phoned the tribal police, who in turn waited at the perimeter while everyone to bled to death. The man finally committed suicide. American Indians look at death as part of life.
Today is a good day to die for all the things of my life are present. - Crazy Horse
Wife and I taught in a village school and the child abuse, alcohol/drug abuse, and social dysfunction was pervasive; half the younger people died before the age of 25.
Probably 75% of village members were alcoholics and yet the remaining 25% practically killed themselves trying to stop the flow of booze into their communities. Seemed like the state liquor board, white lodge/bar owners, and most of the natives themselves wanted the booze to flow.
No joke, every family had lost half of their family to booze. Imagine burying 3 or 4 of your kids.
All the probs go right back to alcohol. The time we spent in native land sure opened our eyes to the scope of the problem. Pretty good people if they could just get a handle on the booze.
All the probs go right back to alcohol.
Now that you mention it, IIRC, alcohol played a role in the incident cited in my previous post.
and it is hardly on the news at all. Is this because they can't get reporters and cameras to the scene?
Blame the white man. Everybody else does.
Tragic. Prayers for the dead.
The school had metal detectors. The guards were unarmed. The presense of metal detectors presumes the possibility of hostile weapons. Having the guards unarmed simply puts the situation at the complete discretion of the hostile.
Two guards. Unarmed. Had they been armed (and trained and competent) he might have taken one, but not both. Instead many are dead and crippled. What the hell are people thinking? Unarmed security guards involved in weapons interdiction is an exercise in bureaucratic asininity, a public experssion of rhetorical nonsense.
Liberals kill.
These things only seem to happen in gun-free zones.
Well, the guards probably did a fine job of keeping dangerous drugs like Tylenol out of the school.
I grew up in Minnesota and lived near the Souix reservation...I have nothing but honor and respect for the American Indian...my prayers goes out to all effected by this tragedy....life on the "res" can be pretty difficult if not hopeless...
He dressed in black and was a loner. Hellloooooooo!!!
Not surprised to hear him contribute his typical spew.
I heard this morning that the kid was a whacked-out goth. Nothing to see here, I guess.
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