Red Lake massacre

Red Lake massacre
Location	Red Lake, Minnesota, United States
Date	March 21, 2005 (2005-03-21) 2:49–2:58 p.m. (UTC-5)
Target	Red Lake Senior High School
Attack type	School shooting, murder-suicide, massacre, spree killing
Weapon(s)	.40 caliber Glock 23 pistol, Ruger .22 caliber pistol, Remington 12 gauge shotgun
Death(s)	10 (including the perpetrator)
Injured	5
Perpetrator	Jeffrey Weise

The Red Lake massacre was an incident of spree killing that occurred in two places on the Red Lake reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota, United States. The first murders began on the morning of March 21, 2005, when 16-year-old Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend. He later drove his grandfather's police vehicle to Red Lake Senior High School, where he shot and killed seven people on the school campus, comprising five students, one teacher and an unarmed security guard, and wounded five others. The shooting ended when Weise committed suicide.

March 21, 2005: the massacre

At noon, Weise retrieved a .22 caliber pistol from his bedroom, and fatally shot his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier, Sr.(a Sergeant with the Red Lake Police Department), two times in the head and ten times in the chest as he was sleeping. It is not known how Weise obtained the pistol, but according to his friends, it is believed he may have possessed it for as long as one year. Weise then stole Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .40 caliber Glock 23 pistol and a Remington 12 gauge pump-action shotgun. He then fatally shot Michelle Leigh Sigana, Lussier's girlfriend, two times in the head as she was carrying laundry up the stairs.

Weise then drove his grandfather's squad car to Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. Central Standard Time (19:45 UTC). As he entered the school through the main entrance, he encountered two unarmed security guards who were manning a metal detector. Weise shot and killed security guard Derrick Brun, while the other security guard managed to escape without injury. Weise then proceeded through the main corridor of the school. He later began shooting into an English classroom,^[1] killing three students and one teacher, and wounding three students. Jeffrey May, a 16-year-old sophomore, attempled to wrestle Weise inside the classroom, and had managed to stab him in the stomach with a pencil.^[2] This allowed students to evacuate the classroom to safety, however Weise retaliated by shooting May two times in the neck and one time in the jaw, leaving him injured but managed to live. Another student, Chase Lussier (no relation to Daryl Lussier), was rumored to have jumped in the line of a shotgun blast to save another student.^[3]

Witnesses say Weise smiled as he was shooting at people. One witness said that he asked a student if he believed in God,^[1] a link commonly believed to be reminiscent of the events that took place during the Columbine High School massacre.

At around 2:52 p.m. Weise returned to the main entrance where he killed two students and wounded two others. FBI special agent Paul McCabe stated that Weise had engaged in a shoot-out with the police that lasted for about four minutes. Weise eventually retreated to a vacant classroom after sustaining one gunshot wound to the abdomen and one to the right arm.^[4] None of the officers were injured.^[1] Weise then lay against a wall in the classroom, put the shotgun barrel in his mouth, and fired, instantly killing himself.

Aftermath

• Buck Jourdain, Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, stated that the shootings were "one of the darkest and most painful occurrences in the history of our tribe."^[5]
• This shooting is the fifth deadliest school massacre in the United States, only behind the Columbine High School massacre, University of Texas shooting, the Virginia Tech massacre and the Bath School disaster.
• Louis Jourdain, the son of Tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr., was arrested in connection with the shootings on March 28, 2005 and charged with conspiracy. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder based on several email messages he exchanged with Jeff Weise which involved plans for the Red Lake High School massacre. The conspiracy charge was eventually dropped, though Jordain pled guilty to transmitting threatening messages through the Internet.
• Jeffrey May, a sophomore who was injured during the massacre, was considered to be a hero by many for attempting to attack the gunman, and was featured in the Reader's Digest^[6][7][8] and the New York Times.
• President Bush praised security guard Derrick Brun on March 26, 2006. He said "Derrick's bravery cost him his life, and all Americans honor him. Although he was unarmed, Derrick ignored the pleas of a colleague to run for his life by engaging the assailant; he bought vital time for a fellow security guard to rush a group of students to safety."
• The massacre was briefly blamed on the 2003 film Elephant which is about a school shooting and was watched by Jeffrey Weise 17 days prior to the shooting.^[9] A friend of Weise said that he brought the movie over to a friends house and skipped ahead to parts that showed two students planning and carrying out a school massacre, although they talked about the film afterwards Jeffrey Weise said and did nothing to make anyone suspect what he was planning.^[10]
• On July 21, 2006, the Red Lake school district had reached a settlement with the families of the massacre victims. The school district agreed to pay $1,000,000 total to 21 of the victims' families, the maximum amount allowed by Minnesota law. Of the settlement, $900,000 will immediately be granted to the families, and the remaining $100,000 will be set aside for future distribution.

Fatalities

• Daryl Allen Lussier, age 58, police officer and Jeff Weise's grandfather.
• Michelle Leigh Sigana, age 31 Lussier's girlfriend.
• Derrick Brian Brun, age 28, security guard for Red Lake High School.
• Alicia White, age 15, student.
• Neva Jane Winnecoup-Rogers, age 62, English teacher.
• Thurlene Marie Stillday, age 15, student.
• Chanelle Rosebear, age 15, student.
• Chase Albert Lussier, age 16, student.
• Dewayne Michael Lewis, age 15, student.
• Jeffrey James Weise, age 16, student/perpetrator.

Possible motives

After the massacre, police investigators began searching for reasons why Weise carried out his violent actions. According to reports, Weise was often bullied in school by classmates for his appearance, however he usually did not respond to their taunts. He was considered an outcast by many of his fellow students, and remained withdrawn and alone. Weise was known to wear a black trench coat and other black clothing to school all-year round, and was labeled as a "Goth kid" by many of his classmates.^[11]

Weise allegedly had a history of troublesome behavior at school, including getting into fist-fights with students. On one occasion, he reportedly engaged in a fist-fight with another student whom he referred to as a "Communist". In April 2004, the faculty of Red Lake Senior High School suspected Weise of threatening to "shoot up" the school on April 20, the day the Columbine High School massacre occurred. Although Weise claimed that he was unfairly accused, he was expelled from public schooling, and was placed in a home-schooling program.

Weise grew up in a family which suffered troubles and parental separations. His parents were an unmarried couple who had separated before he was born. He wrote that his mother was an alcoholic who was sometimes abusive ^[12] His mother Joane Weise started dating Timothy Troy DesJarlait in 1992 and married with him in 1998. Jeffrey attended elementary school in Shakopee, MN. In 1997, Jeffrey's father Daryl Lussier, Jr. committed suicide via shotgun wound to the head, after a two-day standoff with the Red Lake Police Department in Red Lake. In 1999, Joanne Weise suffered severe brain damage in a car accident and was committed to a nursing home.^[13] Consequently, Jeff was placed in the care of his paternal grandmother Shelda Lussier in Red Lake. His mother divorced in February 2000. Jeffrey expressed frustration with living in Red Lake, and believed that his life was beyond his control. He attempted suicide in May 2004. He started taking Prozac in 2004. His medication dosage had been increased a week before the shooting, for 60 mg a day of Prozac.^[14]

Internet activities

Weise was discovered to have been active on the Internet, and to have listed numerous postings on many websites. According to The Smoking Gun, Weise created two violent Flash animations for the flash website Newgrounds, using the alias "Regret". One animation entitled Target Practice, depicts an individual who murders three people with an assault rifle, blows up a police car with a grenade, and kills a Klansman. The animation ends after 30 seconds when the shooter takes his own life. Weise had created another Flash animation entitled Clown, in which a clown kills a man by eating his head (that scene is shown for less than a second).^[15]

Weise also posted 34 messages on the Neo-Nazi Internet forum of the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party under the aliases NativeNazi and Todesengel (German for "angel of death"). The posts revealed an admiration for the ideas of Adolf Hitler, and interests in persuading other Native Americans as to the merits of those ideas.^{[citation needed]}

A LiveJournal account apparently created by Weise contained just three entries posted between December 2004 and January 2005. The weblog was customized to be rendered in black and white, and Weise expressed feelings in his few writings including a desire for change and salvation in his life.

See also

• List of massacres in Minnesota

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Ten dead in US school shooting | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited
2. ^ Tales Of School Shooting Bravery, Slain Security Guard, Wounded Student Saved Others From Teen Gunman - CBS News
3. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1042470,00.html?promoid=googlep
4. ^ New Header
5. ^ 17-year-old charged with triple homicide
6. ^ wcco.com - 'Reader's Digest' Readers Pick Hero From Red Lake
7. ^ 403 Forbidden
8. ^ Everyday Hero: Jeff May | Everyday Heroes | Reader's Digest
9. ^ Red Lake Shooting Conspiracy?, Officials Considering Charging Tribal Leader's Son As Adult - CBS News
10. ^ http://www.ktvotv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=3126813
11. ^ "Shooter is described as 'Goth kid'", Star-Telegram (subscription required)
12. ^ A Bloody Day on the Rez, Newsweek, April 4, 2005
13. ^ Signs of Danger Were Missed in Troubled Teenager's Life by New York Times (March 23, 2005)
14. ^ "had 'a good relationship' with the grandfather", by Chuck Haga,Minneapolis StarTribune(March 25, 2005)
15. ^ Editors (March 23, 2005) "School Killer's Animated Terror." Smokinggun.com

External links

• Red Lake Schools website
• Red Lake Net News
• Sota Iya Ye Yapi On-Line
• "The Depressive and the Psychopath", "Slate"
• "Target Practice", a violent flash animation that the perpetrator created 5 months before the incident

News articles

• "Ten killed in US school shooting", BBC News, March 22, 2005.
• Karnowski, Steve. "Shooting suspect apparently posted messages on neo-Nazi site", Duluth News Tribune, March 22, 2005.
• "Shooter is described as 'Goth kid'", Star-Telegram (subscription required)
• "Native Americans Criticize Bush's Silence", Washington Post, March 25, 2005.
• "Tribal leader's son charged with conspiracy", Star Tribune, March 29, 2005.