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Red Lake shootings

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Red Lake High School massacre
File:Red Lake High School-aerial color.jpg
Aerial photograph taken during the aftermath of the school massacre.
LocationRed Lake, Minnesota, United States
DateMonday, March 21, 2005
TargetRed Lake High School
Attack type
School shooting, mass murder, murder-suicide, massacre, spree killing
WeaponsGlock 17, handgun, shotgun
Deaths10 (including the perpetrator)
Injured6
PerpetratorsJeffrey Weise
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The Red Lake High School massacre was a school massacre that took place on Monday, March 21, 2005 in which Jeffrey Weise, a student at Red Lake High School in Red Lake, an unincorporated section of Beltrami County, Minnesota, killed seven people including a teacher and a security guard before committing suicide. He had also killed two others before shooting at the school.

Weise had previously killed his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier, a police officer, while he was sleeping. He also killed Lussier's girlfriend and police partner, Michelle Sigana, at home before going to school to commit the massacre. Seven others were wounded. When police cornered Weise inside the school, he shot and killed himself. Another student, Louis Jourdain, believed to be involved in planning the event was arrested one week after the shootings. 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 he pled guilty to transmitting threatening messages through the Internet. Jourdain was the son of Floyd Jourdain Jr., the Tribal Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Native Americans.

March 21 massacre on Red Lake reservation

Despite its commonly being referred to as the Red Lake High School massacre, two of the victims died in their home on the reservation.

Killings at home

The incident began on the afternoon of March 21 when Weise shot his grandfather, Daryl "Dash" Lussier, with a .22 pistol while Lussier was sleeping. It is not known how Weise got the pistol, but he is believed to have possessed it for as long as a year before the shooting.[citation needed]

Weise then stole Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a 9 mm Glock and pump-action shotgun. He shot Michelle Sigana, Lussier's girlfriend and police partner, when she returned home.

Shooting at Red Lake High School

Weise then drove his grandfather's squad car to school, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. Central Standard Time (19:45 UTC). Passing through the building's main entrance, he encountered unarmed security guard Derrick Brun, who was manning the school's metal detector. Weise fatally shot Brun, and then proceeded down a hallway firing at students, killing five students and a teacher (Neva Rogers) and injuring seven others. Witnesses say he smiled and waved as he shot at people. In an incident reminiscent of the rumours that spread after the events that took place during the Columbine High School massacre, one witness said that he asked a victim if he believed in God, before killing him.[1]

Brief shoot-out with police

FBI special agent Paul McCabe stated that at some point, Weise returned to the entrance where he had opened fire and engaged in a brief shoot-out with the police, which ended when he retreated to the classroom having been wounded in the hip and leg by at least two bullets.[2] None of the officers were hit.[3]

Weapons

Weise was armed with the following during the shooting:

  • .22 handgun - Unknown where Weise got this weapon from, may have possessed it for up to a year before the shooting.
  • 9 mm Glock 17 - Stolen from Daryl Lussier (police issued weapon).
  • Shotgun - Also taken from Lussier's home. Possibly police issued, presumably 12 gauge.

Victims of the school shooting

There were a total of eight fatalities and 14 injuries on the school campus.

Faculty

Staff

  • Derrick Brun, 28, an unarmed security guard. Brun had tried to block Weise from entering the door, but was fatally shot. Due to this, he was considered to be a hero by some.[5] Brun's funeral was attended by senator Mark Dayton. [6]

Students

  • Dewayne Lewis, 15.
  • Chase Lussier, 15. Despite his last name, he is not related to Daryl Lussier, another one of Weise's victims. He was rumored to have tried to save another student.
  • Chanelle Rosebear, 15, a freshman.
  • Thurlene Stillday, 15, a freshman.
  • Alicia White, 14, a freshman.

Injured

  • Ryan Auginash, 14, gunshot wound to the chest.
  • Steven Cobenais, 15, a sophomore. [7] Cobenais was shot in the forehead, airlifted to Fargo, North Dakota.
  • Lance Crowe, 15, received a gunshot wound to the hand and chest.
  • Jeffrey May, 15, a sophomore, tried to wrestle shooter and attack with a pencil, and was shot in the neck. Like Brun, May was considered to be a hero by many [8] and was featured in Reader's Digest. [9] [10]
  • Cody Thunder, 15, a sophomore, received a gunshot wound to the hip.

Other deaths

Killed prior to the shooting

  • Daryl Lussier, 58, Weise's paternal grandfather, was killed by several .22 shots to the torso.
  • Michelle Sigana, 32, was Lussier's girlfriend and police partner and was killed by at least one 9 mm shot to the chest.

Suicide

Aftermath

  • Red Lake High School had installed metal detectors and had hired a security guard in 1995.
  • 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.
  • 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. [12] 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. [13]

Internet activities

According to The Smoking Gun, Weise created a 30-second Flash animation called "Target Practice" and another, 50-second animation called "Clown" weeks before the shooting. He posted both animations at the newgrounds.com Web site. "Target Practice" depicts a character shooting four people and blowing up a police car before committing suicide; "Clown" ends with one character being strangled by a clown.[14]

At Weise's MSN profile, he described himself as "16 years of accumulated rage suppressed by nothing more than brief glimpses of hope, which have all but faded to black."[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://guardian.co.uk/usguns/Story/0,2763,1443322,00.html
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/22_ap_redlakevictims/
  5. ^ http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/23_ap_survivorstories/
  6. ^ http://www.rlnn.com/ArtMar05/ForeverAHeroBrun.html
  7. ^ http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412299
  8. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/24/national/main682915.shtml?source=search_story
  9. ^ http://wcco.com/redlake/local_story_063104635.html
  10. ^ http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:8nmqDgndLIcJ:www.in-forum.com/News/articles/112374&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us
  11. ^ http://rlnn.com/ArtMar05/BucksStatement.html
  12. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/30/national/main683990.shtml
  13. ^ http://www.ktvotv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=3126813
  14. ^ Editors (March 23, 2005) "School Killer's Animated Terror." Smokinggun.com
  15. ^ Editors (March 24, 2005) http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0324051weise1.html (Screen capture of Weise's MSN Profile Page)] Smokinggun.com

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