Posted on 03/22/2005 10:08:12 AM PST by Brian328i
The teen who allegedly killed nine people before turning the gun on himself has been described as a "towering loner" who had expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and claimed to have been investigated for a school shooting plot last year.
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the shooter has been identified by fellow Red Lake Indian tribe members as Jeff Weise, who had reportedly posted on an online nationalist forum last April that police investigated him after learning of plans to "shoot up the school on 4/20, Hitlers [sic] birthday." He later claimed in the forum that he had been cleared in the investigation.
Weise is reported to have used names such as "Todesengel" — German for "angel of death" — or "NativeNazi" when identifying himself online.
Weise, a student at Red Lake High School in northern Minnesota, went on a shooting rampage Monday, killing his grandfather and the man's girlfriend at their home and seven people at his school before turning the gun on himself. As many as 15 others were also wounded in the incident, which took place at Red Lake High School around 3 p.m., according to the FBI.
Five students, a female teacher and a male security guard were among those killed at the school, according to an FBI spokesperson. The shooting is the deadliest at a U.S. school since the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado on April 20, 1999, in which 14 students, including the two killers, and a teacher died.
Weise's grandfather, Daryl "Dash" Lussier and his girlfriend, were reportedly shot before the school shootings and died of their injuries at a hospital later in the day. Lussier was a veteran police officer, and police said Weise used his shotgun and two handguns in the shootings.
A student told the Pioneer Press that Weise drove to the school in his grandfather's police vehicle, parked the squad car near the front door and fired two shots at a pair of security guards.
Red Lake police, who were alerted by students on their cell phones, exchanged gunfire with Weise, described by witnesses as "grinning and waving," before he raced into a classroom and shot himself, authorities told Reuters. All of the students who died, including the gunman, were found in the same classroom.
"At this time, we believe he was acting alone," said FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe, who would not comment on a possible motive, saying, "It's far too early in the investigation."
One of the students who hid in a locked classroom adjacent to the one in which most of the bodies were found told the Pioneer Press that shots rang out for nearly a half-hour. The unidentified student said she'd once shared a class with Weise, who had not been attending school recently and was viewed as "weird" by other students. She said she never heard the "anti-social" Weise speak about Nazis, but that he would draw pictures of people with "little hats with Nazi signs on them."
Approximately 300 students attend Red Lake High School, which is located about 240 miles from Minneapolis on the Red Lake Indian Reservation.
Authorities put the school under lockdown following the incident. "It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," McCabe said. There are security cameras both inside and outside the school, and students must go through a metal detector to enter.
Relatives told the Pioneer Press that Weise was teased often at school and that "he snapped." His father committed suicide four years ago, and his mother suffered brain injuries in a car accident and lives in a nursing home in Minnesota.
According to a preliminary investigation, FBI sources said Weise died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
MTVNews.com will continue to update this story as information becomes available.
If you ever see a student carrying a weapon, you can anonymously call (866) SPEAK-UP toll free and the tip will be forwarded to the proper local authorities.
Are you a Red Lake High School student with a story to share about this incident? Do you have thoughts and insight to share about your community? Please let us know what you'd like to share, and please include your age, hometown and contact information.
This story was originally published at 7:02 pm ET.
— Gil Kaufman, with additional reporting by Corey Moss
Well, he'll meet his idol in the bowels of hell.
Why does MTV have news? Aren't they supposed to be playing videos?
Three odd things in the story: The school had a metal detector but it didn't stop the shooter. The school had a guard but he wasn't armed. In one class they were actually studying --- Shakespeare!
Where's the love for Stalin?
Bet the guard had a radio and was shaking it in a threatening or distubing manner at the boy...[/rolling eyes...
LOL - Good Ol' MTV news - probably more credible than Dan Rather (which is not saying much.)
BTW - I wonder where all the warning signs were. The kid sounds so normal.
Well MTV and cBS are both owned by Viacom.
Oh yeah - I had forgotten that. Well it makes sense now.
Then he must have also "admired" Judge Greer, and our judicial system.
Yes, Had the guard or the teachers been armed they might have been able to shoot the little bastard before he killed as many as he did. Lord how I wish we would look into why kids want to kill and focus less on the method. Tragic in every sense. It bothered me that the teachers could only cower behind or under their desks and wait for the police.
Shades of Columbine.
Approximately 300 students attend Red Lake High School,
Why does a school with only 300 students have at least two security guards on duty? Are they usually expecting some kind of trouble?
Silly. From what I hear he was Native American. What made him think Nazis would even accept him if they met him? Most of these neo-nazi types would have been killed were they around when Hitler was in power. They think joining some silly nazi web forum and/or shaving their heads qualifies them, but Hitler and his cronies would still have culled most of them. Ridiculous!
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