Families criticize teen’s penalty:
Louis Jourdain’s sentence hasn’t been made officially public, but according to the article, he will spend less than one year in a private treatment center for children. Jourdain pleaded guilty to making threatening interstate communications in connection with the Red Lake shootings. And the families of the victims are none too happy about it…
“It doesn’t seem like enough,” said Rose Rosebear, whose 15-year-old granddaughter Chanelle Rosebear was among those killed. “He got the easy way out, I guess.”
Adding to the frustration, though, is that many in the community do not know Louis Jourdain’s actual role — if any — in the events leading up to the March 21 shootings. And they may never know.
Jourdain’s juvenile status in the proceedings means court records are sealed.
Victims’ families say they are frustrated. They are left to speculate about whether Jourdain, who was Weise’s cousin and rumored to have exchanged e-mails and text messages with him regularly, thought Weise might kill his grandfather and take his gun to wreak havoc in the halls of Red Lake High.
One of the bullets Weise fired struck then-freshman Cody Thunder in the hip. Cody survived but has not gone back to school. A bullet remains lodged somewhere in the teen’s body, says his grandfather, Al Thunder. The lack of detail about Jourdain’s trial and involvement, he said, grates on him.
“We’re the people that got hurt. Not him,” Al Thunder said. “Now, it seems like he’s the one getting the best deal.”
Francis “Chunky” Brun still chokes up when he talks about his 28-year-old son, Derrick. Derrick Brun worked as a security guard at the school and was the first person Weise encountered when he stormed the school. Brun, who was lauded for trying to stop Weise, was shot to death.
Seeing justice done helps ease the minds of those who’ve lost a loved one, Francis Brun said. But there are many who suspect the penalty doled out to Louis Jourdain does not fit whatever role the teen might have played, he said.
“I can’t prejudge the boy,” he said. “I know he’s going to have to live with this thing, and it’s going to haunt him the rest of his life, just like it’s caused so much grief and sorrow for my family and all family members of people who were killed.”
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