Tag: school shooting

Witnesses describe smirk, careful aim by McLaughlin:

(Log in info)
More testimony from Tuesday on the Rocori High School shooting…

Jade Schmitt, a freshman at the Cold Spring high school at the time of the shootings in 2003, testified that McLaughlin walked out of the locker room for gym class that day a few steps behind Bartell. Schmitt said he saw McLaughlin pull a .22-caliber pistol from his gym bag and raise it in a two-handed grip, then heard a shot and saw Bartell grab his side.

Another witness, reading instructor Louise Hopfer, said she also saw McLaughlin clasping the gun. Hopfer said he was aiming carefully, though she couldn’t see his target.

“I could see the smirk on his face – I knew he knew what he was going for,” Hopfer said.

Ross Kasparek, then a freshman, testified that he was walking up stairs to the gym ahead of Bartell. He saw McLaughlin walk toward Bartell with the gun, raising his arm as he approached.

Without saying anything, McLaughlin held the barrel of the gun a couple of inches from Bartell’s forehead and fired, Kasparek said.

A smirk on his face and a two-handed grip. And somehow we’re supposed to feel sorry for this kid. I don’t think so.

Testimony begins in Rocori court case:

Yesterday testimony began in the trial of John Jason McLaughlin, who is charged with shooting and killing two of his classmates, Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins, at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota.

I can’t do the article justice, so please read the entire article.

Basically, what it comes down to is, the prosecution is saying that McLaughlin was teased to the breaking point about his acne and suffered from some kind of mental illness.

In my opinion, the only mental disorder that he had is that he’s a psychopath. According to reports, he shot Seth Bartell once in the side then followed him up a flight of stairs then shot him once more through the forehead. Here’s a chilling quote about that…

Much of McGee’s testimony Tuesday was set against the backdrop of a projection screen that showed autopsy pictures and other images, including Bartell’s last school yearbook photo. In the picture, Bartell is wearing a hat that his mother said he talked school staff into letting him wear for the picture, something that normally would be prohibited under school rules, she said.

That was the kind of boy Seth was, she said: able to get his way with a dose of charm. The Bartells saw that hat again Tuesday, only this time it was in McGee’s hands. He used it to show a half-inch hole in the brim, the spot through which McLaughlin fired his final, fatal shot.

All because of acne. The thought processes of some of these kids are downright frightening.

Teen waives jury trial in Cold Spring killings: (Log in info)

In an unusual turn of events for these kinds of cases, John Jason McLaughlin has waived his right to jury trial for the second-degree murder charge in the death of Aaron Rollins. The article doesn’t give too much information outside of that, but I’m assuming that he will still face a jury in the charge of first-degree murder in the death of Seth Bartell. In case you forgot from yesterday…

McLaughlin allegedly shot Bartell in a basement hallway in front of other students, wounding him superficially in the chest, then fired a second shot that missed Bartell but hit Rollins in the neck. Bartell fled up some stairs. McLaughlin pursued Bartell into the gym and shot him in the forehead, prosecutors say.

The defense is trotting out the usual…

Attorney Dan Eller has said McLaughlin only intended to wound Bartell, who he thought had been teasing him, and that Rollins was not his intended target.

Again, not a valid reason to shoot an unarmed person in the chest, chase him up a flight of stairs and shoot him in the head. If he was just trying to wound him, he wouldn’t have shot him through his skull.

And the myth continues to perpetuate.

It just goes to show you that I am not the authority on the subject, nor am I omniscient. This is a story that has eluded my notice for the past year and a half.

On Sept 24, 2003, 15-year-old John Jason McLaughlin shot two of his fellow students at Rocori High School in Cold Spring, Minnesota. The victims were Aaron Rollins, 17, who was shot in the neck and died later that day in the hospital and the intended target Seth Bartell, 14, who was shot in the chest and head. Bartell held on for 16 days before passing away.

Here’s how the suspect was originally described back in 2003…

But lately, those who know McLaughlin said, he began to change. He seemed more withdrawn and didn’t want to come out to play. Some described him as intensely shy and self-conscious about his severe acne.

“It really was this summer that things seemed different,” Jess Phillips, 12, who lives about a block away, told the Star Tribune.

Neil Wackwitz, 15, who was perhaps his closest friend in the neighborhood, also told the newspaper said McLaughlin seemed to withdraw this summer.

Sullivan said she noticed lately that he didn’t seem to have many other friends. She wondered whether his small size or his acne played a role.

“Kids would tease him about that,” she said.

Wackwitz said he and McLaughlin used to play video or computer games or hang out. But lately, McLaughlin usually said he didn’t want to. He also started walking home after school instead of riding the bus.

Wackwitz said he felt bad but didn’t think anything was seriously wrong. He said McLaughlin never mentioned that anything or anyone was bugging him. In particular, he said, McLaughlin never complained to him that kids at school were picking on him.

Sullivan said that McLaughlin had mentioned to her that people were picking on him but that he didn’t seem too concerned about it.

But she said there were signs that something was amiss. During one of their long chats, she recalled, McLaughlin told her that he was being tested this summer for a split-personality disorder. She said he never mentioned it again.

Others also said that teasing may have been the motive behind the shooting. However…

If Jason McLaughlin brought a gun to school because he was tired of the teasing, classmates say they can’t figure out why he targeted Seth Barthell and Aaron Rollins.

Those two boys, according to Richter, were not among the kids who teased McLaughlin.

“I think his main target was some other kid,” he says.

In July 2004, McLaughlin pleaded not guilty under the defense that he did not intend to kill Seth Bartell and that his mental state was in question at the time. Previously, a grand jury had determined that Aaron Rollins was shot accidentally by McLaughlin.

McLaughlin was to be tried as an adult. His attorney appealed, but in November 2004, the appeal was denied. (Log in info)

And after almost two years, the trial is finally starting to get underway.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.

If anyone has any more information that I missed, please let me know.