Real cause of the Red Lake tragedy [Oh, Dear]

WHAT COULD drive a child to kill? That’s the question residents of the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota are asking after 16-year-old Jeff Weise shot to death his grandfather and grandfather’s partner, before killing seven people at Red Lake High School--including a teacher, security guard and five classmates--and finally turning the gun on himself.

This is the worst school shooting since the killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999.

The media focused on the strange blend of neo-Nazi politics that Weise, an Native American, seemingly embraced. But the real source of such a desperate and terrible act--the systematic racism and poverty directed at American Indians--was barely mentioned.

The deck was stacked against Jeff Weise from an early age. His mother was an alcoholic and, according to Jeff’s grandmother, would lock him out of the house. In 1997, when he was just 8, Jeff’s father committed suicide after a standoff with police on the Red Lake reservation. Months later, his mother was left with major brain damage following a car accident, and Jeff was sent to live with relatives.

Internet postings show that Jeff became attracted to the idea of “racial purity” and expressed admiration for Hitler. Following his own suicide attempt, he was placed on the anti-depressant Prozac--which studies suggest can cause an increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children. He had stopped attending Red Lake High School twice in the past school year because he became severely depressed.

Like much of the reservation system, Red Lake suffers from high rates of poverty, lack of funding and social problems. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, in 2004, four out of five students at the high school lived in poverty according to official government standards. Although poverty levels at Red Lake declined somewhat during the 1990s, more than four out of 10 Red Lake residents are unemployed.

This kind of poverty and systematic racism clearly took a toll on Weise. In Internet postings, he described the reservation as a place where people “choose alcohol over friendship,” and where he could not escape “the grave I’m continually digging for myself.”

Ojibwa Nation tribal elders have been understandably reluctant to allow the press to dissect reservation life. But as Sister Sharon Sheridan, principal of St. Mary's Mission School on the Red Lake reservation, told the Washington Post: “You can’t condone what happened here, but you sure can understand it.”

Ironically, the FBI says it has more than $200,000 in funds available for the “victims of mass violence” for those at Red Lake. Where were the government resources before this tragedy occurred? Native Americans have been the victims of “mass violence” for centuries--at the hands of a government that systematically sought to exterminate and imprison them on reservations.

George Bush gave new meaning to the word hypocrisy last week, as he used the media to talk about the need for a culture of “life” in the Terry Schiavo case. Yet it took him a full four days before he bothered to call Ojibwa tribal elders to express his condolences. Where was his concern for the lives of the children at Red Lake?

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/nation/11270304.htm

Posted on Wed, Mar. 30, 2005
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Gunman was wounded twice before taking own life, account says

BY RUBEN ROSARIO AND DAVID HANNERS

Knight Ridder Newspapers

ST. PAUL, Minn. - (KRT) - Teen gunman Jeff Weise took his own life with a shotgun after being wounded twice in the leg by a Red Lake tribal police officer, according to an account of last week's school shooting spree written by a deputy sheriff.

The deputy, James Goss of the Polk County Sheriff's Department, wrote an e-mail to four friends and relatives after being given a tour of the northern Minnesota reservation school by an FBI agent.

(snip)

Goss wrote that Weise drove his dead grandfather's SUV squad vehicle up the school's sidewalk toward the front door and jumped out; the vehicle hit the double doors outside the main entrance.

Weise was met by security guards Derrick Brun, 28, and Lee Ann Grant, 20, who were unarmed. Grant ran and "removed a group of children from the building while screaming at the male guard to run," Goss wrote.

"The male guard moved to the door and was met by the shooter who shot him in the chest with a 12-gauge slug," Goss wrote. "He turned to run and was again shot in the back where he fell and died."

Weise continued around a corner and saw teacher Neva Rogers pushing "a large copying machine or something" down the hall. He fired at her from about 20 yards away with the shotgun, but missed. She ran to her room, but was followed by Weise.

"He entered her room and began shooting with the shotgun ... killing the teacher and wounding some students," Goss wrote. "He then dropped the shotgun and started shooting with a Glock 40. He walked around the room shooting students in the head while they attempted to hide."

Weise then left the room, Goss said, and began shooting through the doors of other rooms.

"He shot out the glass of one room, then placed his arm through the glass and shot blindly into the room," the deputy said. "He cut himself when he pulled his arm out, then crossed the hall and reloaded."

Weise then saw students running outside, and saw a police car drive up, Goss wrote. The gunman turned and started heading back the way he came, but as he turned a corner, "he was met with gunfire from a tribal officer with a .223," the deputy said.

"They exchanged gunfire until the shooter was hit in the hip and leg by the officer," the e-mail continued. "The shooter then re-entered the classroom where the students were killed and picked up the shotgun. He placed it under his chin and pulled the trigger."

Goss then interjected his personal feelings.

"I came out of the school more confused than before," he wrote. "How could a person cause this carnage in such a short time."

Weise was "cold and calculated" as he strode through the hallways and classrooms of his high school during his bloody shootout, according to a law enforcement official who has viewed the school's surveillance videos.

His methodical actions were described as being eerily similar to those of fictional characters in "Elephant," an award-winning 2003 movie about a couple of students who shoot up their suburban high school.

Weise watched the movie on DVD with some friends less than three weeks before the March 21 shootings. Among the friends who watched the film was Jourdain.

As federal authorities continued their investigation Wednesday, they were trying to confirm details of links between Weise, Jourdain, and other youths. Sources with knowledge of the investigation said Wednesday that while other youths may have had some sort of knowledge about the plans, they weren't active participants and probably will not face charges.

Those sources have said Weise and Jourdain discussed who should be shot. They discussed shooting Weise's grandfather, tribal policeman Daryl "Dash" Lussier Sr., 58. Lussier and his female companion, Michelle Sigana, 32, were the first two people Weise is believed to have killed before going to the school.

Weise, who had been prescribed the anti-depressant Prozac, left no notes explaining his actions. In frequent contributions to online chat rooms, though, he spoke constantly of being depressed, and many of his writings contained violent imagery.

Some of Weise's movements were caught on the school's surveillance cameras. In e-mail exchanges between Weise and Jourdain, the two allegedly discussed the placement of the cameras. Their aim was not to avoid being filmed, but rather to make sure the cameras captured the shooting spree, said one source, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used.

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