Tag: Red Lake High School

School Shooter Left Trail Of Clues On The Internet:

According to this article from MTV.com, Jeff Weise left even more clues on the internet…

In December 2003, on a site called the Writer’s Coven, Weise posted a story about a shooting spree that featured a character dressed in black and a teacher with a Hitler-like mustache, according to The New York Times. Like Monday’s shootings, in which Weise shot and killed an unarmed guard at the school (see “FBI: Minnesota Shooter Acted Alone, Chose Victims At Random”), one of the fictional victims was a school security guard, whose throat had been “ripped out, replaced by a bloody mass of torn tissue.” He also wrote that, “in the distance, somewhere else in the school, the sound of a blood-curdling scream echoed through the hallways.

They also bring up a very valid point that even though Jeff Weise was on the internet, most of the people on his reservation could not afford to be on the internet. Which in turn made it more difficult to prevent this tragedy.

The Smoking Gun has a screenshot of his MSN Profile.

But getting back to the surprisingly informative MTV article, they had this blurb printed at the bottom of the article…

If you ever see a student carrying a weapon or hear talk of plans for violence, you can anonymously call (866) SPEAK-UP toll free and the tip will be forwarded to the proper local authorities.

This number should be put on all articles relating to school violence. As a matter of fact, it will be a permanent fixture on my site sometime tonight.

Allegedly, this is another one of Jeff Weise’s Yahoo profiles.

Jeff Weise: A mystery in a life full of hardship:

(Log in Info) More details of Jeff Weise’s life have been divulged…

Gurneau attributes some of Weise’s troubles to his beleaguered life. His father, Daryl Lussier Jr., known to relatives as “Baby Dash,” committed suicide in July 1997 following a police standoff that lasted for more than a day, Gurneau said. Not even Lussier’s father, Red Lake officer Daryl Lussier, could negotiate a peaceful ending. The senior Lussier was one of Weise’s first victims Monday.

Years later, Joanne Weise suffered brain damage in a car accident after she and a friend had been drinking, Gurneau said.

It explains a lot but doesn’t excuse anything. I couldn’t care less if he had red-hot pokers shoved up his ass on a repeated basis. It doesn’t matter how hard your life was, it doesn’t give you an excuse to kill 9 innocent people.

But the “blame society” mindset that some people have will allow them to rationalize the situation by blaming jocks, or bullies, or the school when ultimately we are all responsible for our own actions. Unfortunately, the number of people who see it that way is dwindling.

Red Lake Investigation Continues:

The victims’ names have been released…

The five students were identified by the FBI as Thurlene Stillday, 15; Chase Lussier, 15; Chanelle Rosebear, 15; Alicia Spike, 15; and Dwayne Lewis, 15.

The FBI identified the remaining victims as Daryl Lussier, 58, the suspect’s grandfather; Michelle Sigana, 32, Lussier’s companion; Neva Winnecoup Rogers, 52, a teacher; and Derrick Brun, 28, a security officer.

Separate sources have identified six injured students: Jeffrey May, 15; Steven Cobenais, 15; Jeffrey Green; Cody Thunder, 15; Lance Crowe, 15; and Ryan Auginach.

A victims’ fund has also been established…

Friends and family established a fund for the victims and their families. Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank to The Red Lake Band of Chippewa Memorial Fund.

Again, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by this tragedy.

Father of Columbine Victim: America ‘Callous’ to School Shootings:

Darrell Scott, the father of Columbine victim Rachel Scott, has said that there hasn’t been enough coverage of the Red Lake shooting in the mainstream media…

“One of the things that concerns me … is that I noticed there wasn’t [much] exposure in the media to what had happened [in Red Lake],” Scott observes. “When Columbine’s tragedy happened, there was massive coverage for months, and [now with] the second-largest shooting in American history in schools, it was like the third and fourth story in different places that I looked.”

Scott says the anemic media coverage of this most recent incident indicates that Americans have become “callous” toward such things. He says what he told congressional leaders in 1999 still rings true.

You know what kids? He’s right. I didn’t find out about the shooting until 4 hours after it happened, and someone had to e-mail me about it. And when I did turn on the major news channels, it was barely a blip on their coverage. All the news channels were talking about was Terri Schiavo. Nine people are killed by this scumbag and all the news can talk about is a woman who, by all rights, is still alive.

Now, this part may cost me some readers and friends, but I don’t care. It’s not just the mainstream media, either, it’s also the “blogosphere”. Out of all the blogs that I frequent, only two made any mention of the Red Lake shooting. No mentions of the shooting, no thoughts or prayers for the families of the victims. The worst school massacre since Columbine, and all you all can talk about is Terri Schiavo. Which leads me to believe one of two things. You either are deferring to me as the authority on this subject, which I doubt since I am far from an authority, or you just don’t care. Have we become so jaded since Columbine?

Classmates say there may have been warning signs that school shooter was troubled :

Parson Graves says Jeff Weise’s (weesez) artwork might have been a red flag. Graves says one of Weise’s pictures, which was hanging in class, was of a skeleton wearing a helmet with a swastika on it. It bore the words “march to the death song ’til your boots fill with blood.”

Weise also is said to have joked that he thought it would be cool to shoot up a high school. Classmate Ashley Morrison says nobody took Weise seriously — but now she wishes they had.

This is why I get upset when people say that schools and police overreact to situations like this and dismiss it as “artistic expression” or “kids being kids”. I’d rather there be an overreaction than an underreaction.

Columbine on the reservation:

Here’s how it went down…

What is known at this time is that Weise shot his grandfather and his grandfather’s companion before he drove to the school. His grandfather, Daryl Lussier, was a police officer with the Red Lake police department.

According to Michael Pabman, FBI, Weise took his grandfather’s bullet-proof vest, his police car and multiple weapons, and drove to the school.

Weise first encountered school security guard Derrick Brun, who was unarmed. Weise drove up to the school, confronted Brun and shot him before he entered the school.

He then proceeded down the hallway, saw teacher Neva Rogers, 62, and some students, and fired shots in their direction. Rogers and the students rushed into a classroom; Weise pursued them into the classroom and opened fire, killing Rogers.

He said police officers arrived while the shooting was in progress and entered the school. Weise shot at the officers and one returned fire. It is not known whether one of the shots fired by an officer injured Weise.

Weise then went back into the classroom and continued firing on the students.

The entire rampage took about 10 minutes, but there is an abundance of damage to the school, Pabman said. He was not sure how many rounds were fired. He said one of the weapons was a 22-caliber and that may have been the weapon that Weise used to kill his grandfather.

The authorities don’t know what happened at the grandfather’s house.