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Jolie Rouge
03-21-2005, 08:49 PM
RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) - A high school student went on a shooting rampage Monday, killing his grandparents at their home and then five people at his school on an Indian reservation. The gunman himself was later found shot to death, authorities said. It was the nation's worst school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999.

Before the shootings at Red Lake High School, the suspect's grandparents were shot in their home and died later.

Four students were killed and two others critically wounded. Also killed were a teacher and a security guard, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said at a news conference in Minneapolis.

One student described the gunman grinning and waving at a student his gun was pointed at, then swiveling to shoot someone else. ``I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when I hid,'' Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji.


McCabe declined to talk about a possible connection between the suspect and the couple killed at the home, but Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately said they were the grandparents of the shooter. Stately told several media outlets that the grandfather was a police officer whose guns may have been used in the shootings.


Students and a teacher at the scene, Diane Schwanz, said the shooter tried to break down a door to get into a room where some students were. ``I just got on the floor and called the cops,'' Schwanz told the Pioneer. ``I was still just half-believing it.''


Hegstrom said students pleaded with the gunman to stop shooting. ``You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?'' Hegstrom said, using the name of the suspected shooter.


Ashley Morrison, another student, took refuge in a classroom. With the shooter banging on the door, she dialed her mother on her cell phone. Her mother, Wendy Morrison, said she could hear gunshots on the line. ``'Mom, he's trying to get in here and I'm scared,''' Ashley Morrison told her mother.

Schwanz was the teacher in that room. She said, ``I just got down on the floor and (said), 'Kids, down on the ground, under the benches!''' She said she called police on her cell phone.

All of the dead students were found in one room. One of them was a boy believed to be the shooter, McCabe said. He would not comment on reports that the boy shot himself and said it was too early to speculate on a motive.

Fourteen to 15 other students were injured, including two critically, McCabe said. The school was evacuated after the shootings and locked down for investigation, McCabe said. ``It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together,'' he said.

It was the nation's worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.

The last apparent fatal school shootings involving a student also happened in Minnesota in September 2003, when two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring. Classmate John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, awaits trial in the case.

That shooting was the first major incident reported since 2001.

Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, has about 300 students, according to its Web site. The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20050321/2110815704.htm


On the Net

Red Lake High School: http://www.paulbunyan.net/rlschools/hs.htm



03/21/05 21:10

Jolie Rouge
03-21-2005, 08:57 PM
Slightly different info provided here

Officials: Student's rampage leaves 10 dead
Witness describes gunman grinning, waving
Monday, March 21, 2005



(CNN) -- A student on Monday killed two of his grandparents, then went on a shooting rampage at his Minnesota high school, killing seven people and wounding as many as 13 others before killing himself, officials said.

FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe told reporters the dead include a female teacher, a male security officer and four students at Red Lake High School. "We believe that one of those students is the shooter," McCabe said.

The FBI office in Minneapolis later said two more wounded students had died.

The school, about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities, was evacuated and locked down, McCabe said. "At this time, we believe he was acting alone," he said, refusing to comment on a possible motive, adding, "It's far too early in the investigation."

The slain students were shot in one room, he said. "Apparently, he walked down the hallway shooting and then he entered a classroom, he shot several students and a teacher, then himself," said Roman Stately, with the Red Lake Fire Department, who arrived at the high school moments after the shootings.

Authorities discovered about an hour later that the boy had shot and killed his grandmother and grandfather, a veteran of the police force, Stately told KARE-TV. Stately said the boy used his grandfather's police-issued weapon in the school rampage.

Witness Sondra Hegstrom described the gunman grinning and waving, according to The Pioneer of nearby Bemidji, Minnesota. "I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when I hid," she told the newspaper.

Teacher Diane Schwanz told The Pioneer that the shooter tried to break through the door to her classroom. "I just got on the floor and called the cops," Schwanz told the paper. "I was still just half-believing it."

The shootings occurred about 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), in Red Lake High School, a school of 300 students that is on a sovereign Indian reservation near the Canadian border. Tribal authorities closed the reservation after the shootings, The Associated Press reported.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty expressed his condolences and offered comfort. "We ask Minnesotans to help comfort the families and friends of the victims who are suffering unimaginable pain by extending prayers and expressions of support," his office said in a statement.

Sen. Norm Coleman said: "Laurie and I send our heartfelt prayers and sympathies to the family and friends of those lost and injured today in Red Lake and to all those touched by this tragedy."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/21/school.shooting/index.html

YankeeMary
03-22-2005, 05:26 AM
The news channel here said he killed 9? Such a shame. He called himself the "Angel of Death". Didn't this draw any attention to him? I can't wait to find out what made him do this, not that any reason would be acceptable, just so said that someone so young would be able to kill others as well as himself. I pray for all those affected by this tragidy.

Jolie Rouge
03-22-2005, 11:03 AM
Teen who killed 9 reportedly admired Hitler
Other students said he was picked on and that he'd made threats
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 1:19 p.m. ET March 22, 2005

BEMIDJI, Minn. - A troubling profile of the teenager who shot dead nine people emerged on Tuesday — one of a Native American who described himself as a "NativeNazi" and who other students said was regularly picked on for his odd behavior.

The teenager, identified as 17-year-old Jeff Weise, stormed into Red Lake High School on Monday afternoon, shooting dead a guard, a teacher and five students before apparently killing himself. At least 14 other students and teachers were wounded in the nation’s worst school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999 that killed 13 people.

Before the school shootings, Weise shot dead his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend at the home he shared with them.

Weise had been placed in the school’s Homebound program for some violation of policy, said school board member Kathryn Beaulieu. Students in that program stay at home and are tutored by a traveling teacher. Beaulieu said she didn’t know what Weise’s violation was, and wouldn’t be allowed to reveal it if she did.

Student Sondra Hegstrom, 17, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Weise was into goth culture, wore "a big old black trench coat," drew pictures of skeletons, listened to heavy metal music and "talked about death all the time."

A couple of his friends had said he was suicidal, she added, and they said they were watching a movie once when he said, "That would be cool if I shot up the school."

"They didn't think anything of it," Hegstrom said, but "he got terrorized a lot" by others who called him names.

Relatives of Weise told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise's father committed suicide four years ago, and his mother lives in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident, the relatives said.

Online postings about 'racial purity'

Weise was also found by the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper to have posted several comments last year on an online forum frequented by neo-Nazis. He used the pen names Todesengel, German for "angel of death," and "NativeNazi."

"I guess I've always carried a natural admiration for Hitler and his ideals, and his courage to take on larger nations," Weise wrote in one session.

He shared the Nazi goal of racial purity, saying that when he talked in school about that for his own Chippewa tribe, "I get the same old argument which seems to be so common around here. 'We need to mix all the races, to combine all the strengths.'"

"They (teachers) don't openly say that racial purity is wrong," he added, "yet when you speak your mind on the subject you get 'silenced' real quick by the teachers and likeminded school officials."

"When I was growing up, I was taught (like others) that Nazi's were evil and that Hitler was a very evil man," he said in another posting. "Of course, not for a second did I believe this. ... They truly were doing it for the better."

He also wrote that he planned to recruit high school students to join a neo-Nazi movement he hoped to start on his reservation. "The only ones who oppose my views are the teachers at the high school, and a large portion of the student body who think a Nazi is a Klansman, or a White Supremacist thug," he wrote. "Most of the Natives I know have been poisoned by what they were taught in school."

Students describe ordeal

The school, which is on the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe reservation, has metal detectors but Weise reportedly shot an unarmed guard to get past the station. Student Reggie Graves said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard Weise blast his way past the metal detector.

Then, in a nearby classroom, he heard Weise say something to his friend Ryan: “He asked Ryan if he believed in God,” Graves said. “And then he shot him.”

During the rampage, teachers herded students from one room to another, trying to move away from the sound of the shooting, said Graves, 14. He said some students crouched under desks.

Student Ashley Morrison said she heard shots, then saw the gunman’s face peering though a door window of a classroom where she was hiding with other students. With Weise banging on the door, she dialed her mother on her cell phone. “’Mom, he’s trying to get in here and I’m scared,”’ Morrison told her mother.

After banging, the shooter walked away and she heard more shots. “I can’t even count how many gunshots you heard, there was over 20 ... there were people screaming, and they made us get behind the desk,” she said.

Hegstrom said her classmates pleaded with Weise to stop shooting. "You could hear a girl saying, ’No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?” she told The Pioneer of Bemidji.

Hegstrom described Weise grinning and waving at a student his gun was pointed at, then swiveling to shoot someone else. “I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that’s when I hid,” she said.

Grandfather's guns used?

Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately identified the shooter’s grandfather as Daryl Lussier, a longtime officer with the Red Lake Police Department, and said Lussier’s guns may have been used in the shootings. Stately said Weise had two handguns and a shotgun. The teen reportedly drove up to the school in his grandfather's squad car. “After he shot a security guard, he walked down the hallway shooting and went into a classroom where he shot a teacher and more students,” Stately told Minneapolis television station KARE.

Students and a teacher, Diane Schwanz, said the gunman tried to break down a door to get into her classroom. “I just got on the floor and called the cops,” Schwanz told the Pioneer. “I was still just half-believing it.”

All of the dead students were found in one room.

Martha Thunder’s 15-year-old son, Cody, was being treated for a gunshot wound to the hip. “He heard gunshots and the teacher said ’No, that’s the janitor’s doing something,’ and the next thing he knew, the kid walked in there and pointed the gun right at him,” Thunder said, standing outside the hospital in Bemidji.

‘Darkest hour' for tribe

Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, called it “without a doubt the darkest hour” in the group’s history.

It was the nation’s worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.

The rampage in Red Lake was the second fatal school shooting in Minnesota in 18 months. Two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring in September 2003. Student John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time, awaits trial in the case.

Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, has about 300 students. The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state. According to the 2000 census, 5,162 people lived on the reservation, and all but 91 were Indians.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7259823

Jolie Rouge
03-22-2005, 01:53 PM
School gunman stole police pistol, vest
Student kills 9 before turning weapon on himself
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Posted: 3:09 PM



http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/US/03/22/school.shooting/story.jeff.weise.kare.jpg
Jeff Weise, the 16-year-old shootings suspect, apparently visited a neo-Nazi Web site.


RED LAKE, Minnesota (CNN) -- A student who authorities said killed seven people at a northern Minnesota high school drove to the school in his grandfather's police car. FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Tabman said Tuesday that Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather, Daryl Lussier, and his grandfather's girlfriend, Michelle Sigana, with a .22-caliber gun Monday before going to Red Lake Senior High School.

Tabman said authorities believe Weise stole his grandfather's police-issued pistol and a shot gun as well as a bulletproof vest. Authorities said he had three guns in all. At the school, Weise shot and killed 28-year-old Derrick Brun, an unarmed security guard, then saw teacher Neva Winnecoup-Rogers in the hall, Tabman said.

According to Tabman, Weise, wearing the police vest, followed Rogers into her classroom where he shot and killed five students -- Thurlene Stillday, 15; Chase Lussier, 15, Chenelle Rosebear, 15, Alicia Spike, 14, Dwayne Lewis, 15.

FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe would not say if Chase Lussier was related to Daryl Lussier, age 58.

Tabman said there was a videotape shot in the school during the shooting but that it only showed Weise in the hallway and not in any classroom.

Tabman said after four police officers arrived, Weise retreated to the first classroom, where he shot himself. FBI agents would not confirm reports that Weise had posted on neo-Nazi Web sites.

Floyd Jourdain, chairman of the Red Lake Ojibwa Nation, said he "knew practically all the people involved" in the shootings on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. The community is dealing with "shock and disbelief," he said. "This is a small community," he said. "There will not be one soul who isn't touched by this tragedy here in Red Lake."

"It still hasn't sunk in," he said.

About 5,000 members of the Ojibwa tribe live on the reservation. The Ojibwa are also known as the Chippewa.

McCabe said Monday that the FBI thought Weise had acted alone.

The shootings occurred about 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Red Lake High, a school of 300 students that is on a sovereign Indian reservation near the Canadian border about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/22/school.shooting/index.html

schsa
03-23-2005, 06:03 AM
He was a teenager with a romantic view of the Nazi's. His father is dead and his mother is in a nursing home. Goodness only knows what his life has been like. I don't condone what he did but someone should have gotten this kid into therapy a long time ago.

Jolie Rouge
03-23-2005, 09:51 PM
Tribe leader opposes Columbine-like funerals in Minnesota shootings
Wednesday, March 23, 2005


RED LAKE, Minnesota (CNN) -- A tribal leader in an American Indian community where a shooting rampage left 10 dead said Wednesday he was opposed to public funerals like "another Columbine," urging that families of schoolchildren and other victims be allowed to mourn in private.

Floyd Jourdain Jr. said his tribe will comply with an FBI request to aid the investigation by delaying funerals. Tradition requires a tribal funeral be held two days after a death.

All 10 of the dead -- including the suspected teen gunman -- were undergoing autopsies after a shooting spree Monday at Red Lake High School on a reservation about 240 miles north of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

It was the nation's worst school shooting since two students killed 12 classmates, a teacher and themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, in April 1999.


Mourners held a prayer service Tuesday night on the steps of the state Capitol in St. Paul to honor the victims and show support for Red Lake.

About 5,000 members live on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, home to the Ojibwa, or Chippewa, tribe.

The shootings shocked the tight-knit community.

Red Lake High, which has about 300 students, remained closed Wednesday, but teachers and staff met while the FBI continued to investigate the crime scene.

Authorities also collected evidence Wednesday at the home of 16-year-old Jeff Weise -- who police said opened fire at the school after killing his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend.

The grandfather, Daryl Lussier, 58, and his girlfriend, Michelle Sigana, 32, died at home after being shot with a .22-caliber handgun, FBI agent Michael Tabman said Tuesday.

Lussier was a tribal police sergeant, Tabman said. Weise took Lussier's .40-caliber handgun, a .12-gauge shotgun, a flak jacket and his police car, and drove to the high school.

Tabman said Weise killed unarmed security guard Derrick Brun, 28, at the school. The boy then chased a teacher and students into a classroom before opening fire. The slain teacher was identified as Neva Rogers, 62.

Seven people were killed at the school before Weise shot himself in the head, police said. Seven others were wounded, including two who were shot in the head.

Authorities declined to speculate publicly on possible motives for the attack. Red Lake High principal Chris Dunshee said Wednesday that additional information was "coming to light" but wouldn't elaborate. "I'm sure these things will be coming out as the investigation proceeds," he said, declining comment on whether Weise had undergone treatment for mental or emotional issues.

Weise kept largely to himself and often didn't make eye contact with others in the halls, students said. They said he was the target of teasing and produced "messed-up" drawings of "people dying" and Nazi swastikas.

Among the leads authorities were following were postings -- attributed to Weise -- on a neo-Nazi Internet site. The postings professed admiration for Adolf Hitler and decried interracial mixing on the reservation.

Authorities said Tuesday they could not confirm whether Weise wrote the passages, but a group that runs the site -- the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party -- issued a statement saying the author and the suspect were the same.

A 2004 posting apparently from Weise said: "As a result of cultural dominance and interracial mixing, there is barely any full-blooded Natives left. Where I live, less than 1 percent of all the people on the reservation can speak their own language, and among the youth wanting to be black has run ramped [rampant]. We have kids my age killing each other over things as simple as a fight, and it's because of the rap influence. ... Under a National Socialist government, things for us would improve vastly."

The writer introduced himself as "Jeff Weise, from the Red Lake 'Indian' Reservation" and assumed two user names: NativeNazi and Todesengel, which means angel of death in German.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/23/school.shooting/index.html


RED LAKE FATALITIES

Derrick Brun, 28

Dwayne Lewis, 15

Chase Lussier, 15

Daryl Lussier, 58

Neva Rogers, 62

Chanelle Rosebear, 15

Michelle Sigana, 32

Alicia Spike, 14

Thurlene Stillday, 15

Suspected gunman Jeff Weise, 16

Jolie Rouge
03-26-2005, 12:58 PM
Bush Praises Slain Minn. Security Guard
By NEDRA PICKLER

WACO, Texas (AP) - President Bush on Saturday praised Minnesota high school security guard Derrick Brun for saving countless students by bravely confronting the teenage gunman who shot and killed him. ``Derrick's bravery cost him his life, and all Americans honor him,'' Bush said in his first public comments about Monday's shootings on Minnesota's Red Lake Indian reservation.

Brun, a former police officer, was working at the doors of Red Lake High School when 16-year-old student Jeff Weise approached with a loaded shotgun and other weapons. ``Although he was unarmed, Derrick ignored the pleas of a colleague to run for his life,'' Bush said in his weekly radio address. ``By engaging the assailant, he bought vital time for a fellow security guard to rush a group of students to safety.''

Besides Brun, Weise shot to death five students and a teacher, before killing himself. Earlier, he shot to death his grandfather and the man's girlfriend.

Bush said he and the first lady are praying for the victims and that the federal government is helping the community. He said the FBI and Department of Justice are coordinating with other authorities to provide counseling, help with funeral arrangements and offer other assistance. ``As we help the families in this community, we must do everything in our power to prevent tragedies like this from happening,'' Bush said. ``Children benefit from a sense of community, and the support and involvement of caring adults. To keep our children safe and protected, we must continue to foster a culture that affirms life and provides love, and helps our young people build character.''

Some American Indians have complained that Bush did not respond publicly to the shooting for four days. His first communication with the community came Friday morning in a five-minute telephone call to Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.

In contrast, President Clinton publicly expressed his condolences within hours of the shootings that left 15 dead at Columbine High School in 1999. He also proposed new gun control measures and school safety projects in a radio address a few days later.


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-main-9-l3&flok=FF-APO-1151&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050326%2F1337168752.htm&sc=1151


On the Net:


White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov



03/26/05 13:36

Jolie Rouge
03-26-2005, 01:27 PM
Minnesota School Shooter Bright But Troubled Teen

ST. PAUL, Minn. (Reuters) - A Chippewa Indian boy who carried out the deadliest U.S. school shooting in six years was a bright youngster beset by family tragedy who rebelled in both the clothes he wore and a fascination with neo-Nazi beliefs, according to details emerging Wednesday.

The poor Red Lake Indian reservation in northern Minnesota where Monday's shootings occurred remained shut to most outsiders as investigators tried to find out what prompted 16-year-old Jeff Weise to kill nine people and himself in a rampage that left two other youngsters grievously wounded.

"He's had a lot of tragedy in the past eight years," his aunt, Kim Desjarlait told MSNBC Wednesday. She said she had not seen him since 2001, and was devastated by the news.

Weise's father killed himself and his mother was severely injured in an automobile accident that left her disabled. While a snapshot of Weise at age 9 shows a chubby kid with a black mop of hair, he had become a tall, stocky teen-ager who favored dark clothes, wore a black trench coat and drew pictures depicting death, various media reports have said.


He was a "goth" who talked little and had no friends, a 14-year-old acquaintance told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Another teen-ager quoted by the newspaper said Weise "fits the profile of a Columbine shooter," a reference to the Colorado school massacre that killed 15 in 1999.


The FBI has said it cannot yet discuss a motive for Monday's tragedy.


Weise identified himself as an "angel of death" and a "NativeNazi" in online postings, according to the Texas-based Libertarian National Socialist Green Party Web site.


One of Weise's postings talked about the cultural and genetic dilution of native Americans and said, "It's hard though being a native American National Socialist -- people are so misinformed, ignorant and closed-minded it makes your life a living hell."


Monday, Weise went to the home of his grandfather, Daryl Lussier, a sergeant with the Red Lake police department, where he shot him and a woman who was his companion, the FBI said.


He put on his grandfather's bulletproof vest and drove his squad car to Red Lake High School where he overpowered, shot and killed an unarmed security guard.


He then chased a teacher and a group of students into a classroom, killing the teacher and five students before taking his own life after exchanging gunfire with police.


Seven students were wounded, including two 15-year-old boys who remained in critical condition Wednesday.


At the still-closed school where the shootings occurred, teachers were meeting with mental health counselors.


Paul Fleckenstein, who works for the American Red Cross and has provided help after a number tragedies worldwide, told Reuters he and others were going to make their presence known in a low-key fashion.


They were to go door-do-door to offer help, he said, in order not to trample on traditional beliefs. "There are many cultural issues," he said. "Probably the biggest is privacy, and a dependence on family and tribal relationships."



03/23/05 13:52


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0002/20050323/1353954869.htm&ewp=ewp_news_0305school_shootings

Jolie Rouge
03-28-2005, 02:22 PM
Juvenile Arrested in Minn. School Shooting
By STEVE KARNOWSKI

RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) - A juvenile has been arrested in last week's shooting rampage on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, federal authorities said Monday. They would not say how the juvenile was believed to be connected to the attack, which left 10 people dead, including the 16-year-old gunman.

U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger said the juvenile was arrested Sunday, but declined to give any details, including the age and gender of the juvenile. Heffelfinger said federal law required him to withhold the details.

The gunman, Jeff Weise, a student with a history of depression, shot to death his grandfather and the man's girlfriend last week, then went to school and killed seven others and himself.

Investigators had said last week that Weise acted alone in the rampage.



03/28/05 16:40

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050328%2F1640296841.htm&sc=1110

Jolie Rouge
03-28-2005, 08:41 PM
Juvenile arrested in Red Lake school attack
By Kevin Johnson and Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY

RED LAKE, Minn. — The investigation into the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history has netted an arrest amid clues that the rampage may have been part of a broader conspiracy, a federal official said Monday.
A juvenile was in federal custody in connection with the shooting at Red Lake High School in Minnesota, where 16-year-old Jeff Weise killed five students, a teacher and a security guard on March 21. Weise, who had fatally shot two others earlier in the day, killed himself as police stormed into the school.

The juvenile, who was arrested Sunday, was not identified, and Minneapolis U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger refused to answer questions about the suspect. But a government official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said the arrest was part of a wider probe to determine if Weise had discussed or planned the attack with others.

Investigators were looking into e-mail and other communications involving Weise, said the official, who has been briefed on details of the case.

Weise's computer use has been one focus of the inquiry. He is believed to have posted entries on neo-Nazi Web sites under the name Todesengel,' German for "angel of death."

The official said the investigation had produced possible evidence of an attack plan that others might have known about.

On Monday, Heffelfinger sought to clarify previous statements about whether Weise acted by himself. News accounts from a press conference the day after the killings reported that Michael Tabman, the FBI's agent in charge in Minnesota, said Weise appeared to have acted alone.

"Having been present when Agent Tabman said that, what he was commenting on was whether there was an indication of more than one shooter," Heffelfinger said Monday. "Based on the evidence available at that time, Mr. Tabman accurately stated there was only one shooter."

Heffelfinger said that the Red Lake case "continues to be very actively investigated as of this moment."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-28-red-lake-arrest_x.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno

Jolie Rouge
03-29-2005, 02:53 PM
Tribal chairman's son arrested in probe of school shooting
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

RED LAKE, Minnesota (AP) -- The chairman of the Red Lake band of Chippewa confirmed Tuesday that his son was arrested in connection with last week's deadly school shootings but maintained that the teen is innocent.

"My heart is heavy as a result of the tragic events that unfolded here at our nation," Floyd Jourdain Jr. said in a statement. "But it is with optimism that I state my son Louis's innocence. He is a good boy with a good heart, who never harmed anyone in his entire life."

"I know my son and he is incapable of committing such an act," Jourdain said.

The younger Jourdain, 16, was arrested by federal authorities on Sunday.

Jeff Weise, 16, killed nine people in an attack on the reservation on March 21 before taking his own life. Five of the dead were students, killed at the high school. It was the worst U.S. school shooting since the attacks by a pair of students at Columbine High in Colorado.

Federal authorities had announced an unidentified juvenile's arrest on Monday, and a law enforcement source speaking on condition of anonymity had identified the boy to The Associated Press as Louis Jourdain. The source said the arrest was part of an investigation into a potentially wider plot.

Authorities began to suspect that Weise may not have plotted the attack by himself after examining his computer and e-mails he exchanged with Jourdain, this official said.

The law enforcement official said FBI behavioral analysts brought into the case also doubted that Wiese acted alone, based on personality traits they identified.

More arrests are possible, said this official and the law enforcement official.

In announcing the arrest Monday, U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger had declined to provide any details on Louis Jourdain's role in the case.

The Washington Post, citing two unidentified law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation, reported Tuesday that Louis Jourdain was suspected of helping Weise plan the assault and had expected to take part.

Red Lake High School principal Chris Dunshee said Louis Jourdain was not a discipline problem and didn't seem to be part of Weise's circle of friends.

"He's one of those kids that I didn't have a lot of contact with, because he really wasn't a discipline problem. He was a pretty good student, to tell you the truth," Dunshee said.

The principal said he felt sorry for Floyd Jourdain: "My heart goes out to him, he's such a good guy. If it could happen to his son, it could happen to anybody, because Buck is a good parent."

Dunshee said the district's two elementary schools would reopen Monday but the high school complex, which includes the middle school, might be closed for the rest of the school year.

Floyd Jourdain was 40 when he was sworn in last summer as Red Lake's youngest-ever chairman. On his Web site, he writes about post-college work counseling people in alcohol recovery and celebrating his own 20 years of sobriety in June last year. Among the issues he pledged to address is the concerns of young people.

At a news conference in the days after the shooting, he spoke of tribal members keeping track of their kids: "This is a wake-up call to us all. We need to spend more time with one another and paying more attention to our young people and what they're doing and what they are saying."

On Jourdain's personal Web site, a collection of family photos includes one of him and Louis with the caption: "My pride and joy Louie who always shares his school achievements with me."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/29/school.shooting.ap/index.html

Jolie Rouge
04-01-2005, 03:37 PM
Minn. Tribal Chairman Says He Won't Resign
By PATRICK CONDON

RED LAKE, Minn. (AP) - The Red Lake tribal chairman said Friday he would not resign unless the public urges him to leave and again proclaimed his son innocent of any involvement in a deadly shooting spree on the Indian reservation. ``The only thing my son is guilty of is being friends with Jeff Weise,'' said Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, referring to the 16-year-old who authorities say killed nine people March 21 before shooting himself at the community's high school.

Jourdain said his son's story would be told at some point. ``It's a story that has a lot of twists and turns and tragedies and hope and messages. And that story will unfold eventually, and it will be a story everyone can learn from,'' he said, speaking at a meeting of the Red Lake School Board to discuss when classes would resume.


Several media outlets have reported his 16-year-old son, Louis Jourdain, was charged in federal court with conspiracy. Federal authorities have not confirmed the reports, citing his juvenile status.

Jourdain said he has taken time off from his job since his son's arrest, but remains in contact with staff every day. He said he's gotten support from the tribal council and the community, including about 300 e-mails mostly encouraging him to remain on the job. ``If the people of Red Lake determine it's time for me to move on, then I will,'' he said. ``Right now, I'm not getting that feeling from the majority of people out there.''


04/01/05 17:33

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-main-9-l1&flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050401%2F1734624201.htm&sc=1110

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Jolie Rouge
04-02-2005, 11:49 AM
Students knew of rampage plot, officials say
[/i]As many as four believed to have helped plot attack
By Dana Hedgpeth and Dan Eggen

Updated: 2:07 p.m. ET April 2, 2005[/i]

RED LAKE, Minn., April 1 - As many as 20 teenagers may have known ahead of time about plans for the shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of 10 people on the Indian reservation here March 21, tribal and federal officials said Friday.

Capt. Dewayne Dow of the tribal police told a group of parents, teachers and staff at a three-hour school board meeting that authorities believe as many as 20 students were involved.

One law enforcement official said the FBI believes that as many as four students -- including gunman Jeff Weise and Louis Jourdain, a classmate arrested Sunday -- were directly involved in planning an attack on Red Lake High School, and well over a dozen others may have heard about the plot. "There may have been as many as four of these kids who were active participants in the plot," said the official, who declined to be identified discussing an ongoing investigation. "The question is, how many other kids had some knowledge of this or had heard about it somehow? We think there were quite a few."

Computers seized

FBI agents plan to perform forensic analysis on 30 to 40 computers seized Friday from the high school computer laboratory, FBI and school officials said. Investigators hope to learn more from the school computers, since much of the alleged discussion and planning among Weise and his friends occurred through e-mails and instant messages, the law enforcement official said.

Those developments capped a week in which daily funerals or wakes kept many members of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa in a state of stunned disbelief. "It still feels like it's a bad dream," Donald May, a member of the tribal council, said in midweek. "We're in shock."

The burial for the last of the 10 fatalities was scheduled for Saturday. "I went to a lot of these funerals these past few days, and I'm just numb," said Allen Pemberton, another tribal council member.

As the week passed in this isolated community, the FBI's continuing investigation was compounding the residents' ingrained distrust of outside authorities. "It used to be when you saw someone who's a non-Indian coming on the reservation, there's only one reason -- he's either an FBI agent or a Mormon," said Mike Fairbanks, a 40-year law enforcement veteran and a member of the Red Lake Chippewa.

Some of the distrust was cropping up between tribal members.

"I've been getting strange looks," said Cartera Hart, 16, as she left a grocery store on the reservation. Hart, who was dressed in black and wore a hoop through her lip, said she hangs out with about a dozen students who were friends with Weise and Jourdain, who is the tribal chairman's son. Friend Alyssa Roy, 15, said, "There's going to be more and more people tormenting us and thinking we're involved."


To cope with the attention, and with the shootings, some tribal members simply withdrew to their homes. As the weather turned warm and sunny on Thursday, basketball courts and parks were empty. A few younger children rode bikes around in their yards, close to their houses. "I stay in my house, and I don't want my kids to go outside," said Barbara Bedeau, 42, who said she has struggled to explain the shooting spree to her daughter, 8. "I want them to stay close, near me. It's made us all scared."

At two counseling centers set up on the reservation, a handful of the counselors who had been brought in from around the area sat, one afternoon, sipping donated sodas and waiting for someone to counsel. Some parents said that their teenagers had gone for counseling the first few days after the shooting, but that they would like to see the roughly 30 counselors come to their houses, because they are nervous and afraid.

On edge

Many tribal members said they felt more comfortable talking about their grief in private, with friends and family. Some people said they were on edge as FBI agents showed up at residents' houses, and teenagers were being taken to the detention center for hours of questioning. "It's hard to see your kids go through this," said the father of two teenagers at the Red Lake high school, who asked that his name not be used because he is afraid that if other students were involved, they would go after his children. "They don't listen to as much music anymore" he said. "They don't seem to like to watch as much TV. They're not on the Internet as much."

At the high school grounds, a few miles from the man's house, police cars and yellow tape blocked the entrance. Teddy bears, flowers, candles and signs offering condolences hung along a metal fence in the schoolyard. Inside the school, the sounds of drills could be heard as workers repaired the damage.

School officials said they plan to reopen the nearby elementary school April 11, but are unsure when the middle school and high school would reopen. Some students say they are ready to go back and move on; others are trying to transfer to other school districts.

"I don't want to go back," said Amanda Lussier, 16, whose boyfriend, Steven Cobenais, was wounded in the shooting. Cobenais, 15, was listed in critical condition at MeritCare Hospital in Fargo, N.D. "It will be too hard, knowing all that happened there," Lussier said.

Tribal chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr. appeared at Friday's school board meeting and defended his son. "I sincerely feel my son is a victim, just like everybody else's," Jourdain said. "He's equally traumatized as anybody. He's been more traumatized, because he was a friend of Jeff Wiese's. The only thing he's being guilty of is being a friend."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7363407/