Worst School Shooting Since Columbine Claims Ten Lives

By Linda Orlando

In the worst U.S. school massacre since the tragedy in Columbine, a high school student in Redby, Minnesota, shot and killed both of his grandparents, a school security guard, a teacher, and five other students before killing himself. At least 14 others were wounded in the rampage at the Red Lake High School on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, two with life-threatening injuries. The shooter was a 17-year old student, Jeff Weise, wielding two handguns and a shotgun. According to the FBI, Weise's grandfather was a veteran of the reservation's police department, and his police-issued weapon was used in the rampage. Weise had been placed in the school's Homebound program, where students stay at home for schooling and are tutored by a traveling teacher. Students are put into the Homebound program for some violation of school policy, but it is unknown what violation Weise committed. Family members and other students at the school described Weise as a loner who wore black clothes and was teased by other kids. His father committed suicide four years ago, and his mother lives in a Minneapolis nursing home because of brain injuries she suffered in a car accident.

Reggie Graves, a student at the high school, was watching a movie about Shakespeare with the rest of his class when the gunman began shooting his way past the metal detector at the entrance to the school, where he claimed his first victim, a school security guard. A few moments later, Graves heard the gunman in a nearby classroom talking to his friend Ryan: "He asked Ryan if he believed in God," Graves said. "And then he shot him." As soon as the shooting started, teachers began herding students from one room to the next to move away from the gunshots. Some students crouched beneath desks; some pleaded with the shooter to stop, some begged him to leave them alone or asked him why he was doing this. In one classroom where several students were hiding, the gunman peered through the window, banged on the closed door, then walked away. An FBI spokesman said the gunman exchanged fire with Red Lake police in a hallway at the school and then retreated into a classroom, where he was believed to have shot himself. That room also contained the bodies of the other dead students and a teacher.

The Red Lake Indian Reservation, where the shootings occurred, is located near the Canadian border about 240 miles north of St. Paul, and is home to the Chippewa (Ojibwa) Tribe. The area is one of the poorest in the state, and the reservation is home to just over 5,000 people, all but 91 Native Americans. Floyd Jourdain, chairman of the Red Lake Ojibwa Nation, said he knows practically all the people involved in the shootings, and the community is reeling from shock and disbelief that this would happen in their close-knit community. "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."