Published in Connecticut Post (Bridgeport, CT) - March 22, 2005

Minn. killing spree ends in teen's apparent suicide

RED LAKE, Minn. — 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.

Published in Philadelphia Daily News (PA) - March 22, 2005

10 die in shooting rampage, Student killed grandparents.

A high school student went on a shooting rampage on this Indian reservation yesterday, killing his grandparents at their home and then seven people at his school, "grinning and waving" as he fired, authorities and witnesses said. The gunman was later found shot to death. It was the nation's worst school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999. Students pleaded with the gunman to stop shooting.

Red Lake High School

Published in Grand Forks Herald (ND) - March 22, 2005

TEEN DESCRIBED AS 'GOTH,' 'LONER'.

BOY'S FATHER COMMITTED SUICIDE FOUR YEARS AGO MOTHER LIVES IN NURSING HOME

Jeff Wiese, the 15-year-old named by several reservation residents as the gunman, was a quiet, withdrawn loner who was teased about his appearance. A Red Lake School District employee said Wiese was teased about his towering height and being a "Goth kid" who wore a dark trench coat to school year-round. Another school worker described Wiese as "a mixed-up kid who seemed lost in life. He wasn't into normal things that kids should be.

Published in Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA) - March 22, 2005

SHOOTING REGION IS POOR AND REMOTE

The Indian reservation where 10 people died in a shooting spree Monday is located in a remote area of northern Minnesota, and is home to one of the poorest tribes in the state. About 5,000 people live on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, almost all of them American Indians. The Red Lake Chippewa Tribe itself has about 9,400 enrolled members. The reservation is about 240 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, and the town of Red Lake is about 75 miles south of the Canadian border.

Published in The Smoking Gun, March 23, 2005

School Killer's Animated Terror

Minnesota teen posted bloody Flash film late last year

The Minnesota teenager responsible for Monday's high school shooting spree last year created a violent, blood-soaked video that included an animated character shooting four people and blowing up a police car before committing suicide, The Smoking Gun has learned. Using the alias "Regret," Jeff Weise, 16, last October posted online a 30-second animation entitled "Target Practice." Click here to view Weise's crudely animated Flash production.

Weise posted a second short, "Clown," several weeks after uploading "Traget Practice" to a popular multimedia web site. The 50-second "Clown" ends with one character apparently being strangled by the clown.

In a brief bio accompanying his Flash animations, Weise described himself as "nothin but a Native American teenage-stoner-industrialist," whose favorite movies included "Dawn of the Dead," "Thunderheart," and "Lakota Woman." His favorite recording artists included Korn, Marilyn Manson, Rammstein, and John Lennon. The web page with links to Weise's two Flash animations includes his photo (seen above) and an e-mail address (decemberofthesoul@hotmail.com) that the teen used when posting 34 comments on the web site nazi.org, where Weise used the handles "nativenazi" and "todesengel," which translates to "angel of death" in German.

Published in The Age, March 23, 2005

School shooter 'admired Hitler'

A neo-Nazi teenager who called himself the Angel of Death killed his grandfather and then stole his weapons and police car before embarking on a bloody shooting spree at a United States school.

Jeff Weise, 16, who openly admired Adolf Hitler, massacred nine people before finally turning the gun on himself on a remote Indian reservation in Minnesota.

FBI special agent Michael Tabman said Weise had gone to the home of his grandfather, a police officer, killing the man and his wife before jumping behind the wheel of his police car and heading for the school where he killed seven more people.

Armed with a police-issue pistol, shotgun and wearing a bullet-proof vest, he killed a security guard before pursuing two teachers into a classroom and opening fire.

He then went on the rampage through the school, killing randomly, before exchanging gunfire with police and eventually shooting himself. The entire incident yesterday lasted no more than 10 minutes.

At one point, Weise was captured on videotape in the school corridor. One student 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?"' said student Sondra Hegstrom.

During the rampage, teachers herded students from one room to another, trying to move away from the sound of the shooting, witnesses said.

Weise was caught on camera in the corridor, but no shootings were.

Reggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School, said he was watching a film about Shakespeare in class when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school's entrance, killing a guard.

In a nearby classroom he heard the gunman speak to his friend.

"He asked Ryan if he believed in God," Graves said. "And then he shot him."

All of the dead students, including the killer, were found in one room.

Published in Sign on Sandiego, March 24, 2005

Red Lake shooting survivor says he tried to reach out to gunman

BEMIDJI, Minn. – A teenager wounded in the Red Lake High School shooting said he reached out to gunman Jeff Weise before the attack because the boy seemed to have no friends.

"He looked like a cool guy, and then I talked to him a few times," 15-year-old Cody Thunder said Thursday. "He talked about guns and shooting people.

Thunder said despite that, and even though Weise cultivated a dangerous appearance that included sculpting his hair into devil horns – "It looked like he was trying to be evil" – Thunder never thought Weise would shoot up their school.

At first, "I thought he was messing around, I thought it was a paintball gun or something," said Thunder, the first wounded student to describe the nation's deadliest school shooting since Columbine.

Weise, a hulking 16-year-old, shot to death five students, a security guard and a teacher Monday at the school on the Red Lake Indian reservation, then killed himself. Earlier, he shot to death his grandfather and the man's girlfriend.

Asked during a hospital news conference what kind of expression Weise had – some witnesses said he was smiling and waving during the attack – Thunder said: "It was a mean face."

"He was aiming at me," said Thunder, who was shot once in the hip.

Thunder said he had a few classes with Weise last year and spoke with him a few times. "Because no one talked to him. I just thought it would be nice to go talk to him, so I did," Thunder said.

Also at the news conference at North Country Regional Hospital was 15-year-old Lance Crowe, Thuder's cousin, who relatives said may have survived by playing dead after being shot. He declined to speak.

The wounded also included one 15-year-old in serious condition, and another in critical condition.

Published in USA Today, March 24, 2005

Shooter in Minn. school case chatted, blogged frequently

MINNEAPOLIS — "Overkill" and Adolf Hitler fascinated him, but the self-described "Native Nazi" was frustrated with teachers.

Internet chatter attributed to Jeff Weise, the Red Lake teenager who went on a shooting rampage at his high school, outlined his mental state in the months before he killed nine people and himself Monday.

"The only one's 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 posted under the name "NativeNazi" at a National Socialist forum. "Many of the Natives I know have been poisoned by what they were taught in school."

Published in San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2005

Kid who tried to befriend Red Lake shooter got hit
He said gunman outside the door 'was aiming at me'

Bemidji, Minn. -- Many students at Red Lake High School ignored Jeff Weise, with his weird hairstyles and his talk about guns. Cody Thunder, who is 15, was one of the few who reached out and tried to make a connection. Just ordinary conversation, he said, nothing too deep.

But on Monday afternoon, as Cody sat in biology class -- the usual spot at the front row, he said, near the door for a quick exit when the bell rang - - there was Jeff outside in the hallway, visible through a glass partition, armed with a pistol.

"He was aiming at me," Cody said. An instant later, a bullet crashed through the glass into Cody's hip.

For the survivors like Cody, who spoke to reporters on Thursday from the hospital where he is being treated, there is an added question: Why them? Cody said it seemed clear that the gun was not pointed randomly into the classroom, but specifically at him, a person who'd offered friendship.

"That school is always going to be a fear for me now," he said.

Lance Crowe, who is also 15 -- and Cody Thunder's cousin -- was wounded in the arm and the chest. His uncle, Dan Crowe, told reporters how Lance had "played dead," lying among those killed. It was from there on the floor, Dan Crowe said, that Lance watched as the shooter came back into the classroom and killed himself just a few feet away as the police closed in.

Published in The Dunn County New, March 26, 2005

Friend Says Minn. Teen Gunman on Prozac

Jeff Weise was taking the anti-depressant Prozac following a suicide scare last summer, said Sky Grant, 16, a friend of Weise's since sixth grade.

Grant and his mother, Gayle Downwind, said Weise was taken to a psychiatric ward in Thief River Falls last summer after Weise frightened another friend with suicidal computer messages. Grant said he didn't know how long Weise stayed at the hospital.

Grant, who was taking Zoloft, said he and Weise talked in detail about anti-depressants. He said Weise told him he was taking 40 milligrams a day of Prozac: 20 in the morning, 20 at night.

"He was a lot more quiet. I wouldn't say any better," Grant said.

In October, the Food and Drug Administration ordered that all antidepressants carry "black box" warnings of an increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children. Prozac is the only antidepressant found to be safe and effective for children.

In a number of online postings attributed to Weise, he wrote of depression and feelings of worthlessness. In a Jan. 4 blog posting, he wrote: "I should've taken the razor blade express last time around. ... Well, whatever, man. Maybe they've got another shuttle comin' around soon?"

Published in ABC New, March 29, 2005

Teen May Face Charges in Minn. Slayings

16-Year-Old Arrested in Minnesota School Shootings That Killed 10 May Face Charges, Source Says

Federal authorities refused to say what role Louis Jourdain may have played in the attack, but a government official who was briefed on the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity said prosecutors were contemplating charging the 16-year-old with conspiracy to commit murder. The official said authorities began investigating Jourdain after determining that he and the gunman, who were schoolmates, had exchanged e-mails.

The New York Times reported late Tuesday that the e-mails suggested Weise and Louis Jourdain planned an attack on the school, even walking through the building to discuss details of the assault.

An official who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity said it was not clear why Jourdain did not participate. Jourdain told investigators he never intended to go through with the plan and that he did not believe Weise would either, the Times reported.

Two ninth-graders told the Star Tribune that when the shooting started, Louis Jourdain yelled that the shooter was Weise before anyone in the library saw the gunman.

Published in USA Today, March 29, 2005

School gunman was shot twice

WASHINGTON — The 16-year-old gunman in the Red Lake High School killing rampage was shot twice by police moments before the teenager killed himself, according to a sheriff's deputy who saw the bloody crime scene.

"As he rounded a corner, he was met with gunfire from a tribal officer," according to a written account by the deputy, James Goss of the Polk County sheriff's department in Minnesota. "They exchanged gunfire until the shooter was hit in the hip and leg by the officer."

A government official who has knowledge of the investigation confirmed that the gunman, Jeff Weise, had at least two apparent gunshot wounds that did not appear to be self-inflicted.

Weise at one point "started shooting through doors of ... rooms. He shot out the glass of one room, then placed arm through the glass and shot blindly into the room," Goss wrote.

"The entire school was covered with blood," Goss wrote. "There were bullet holes everywhere."

Weise went to the school in the tribal police patrol vehicle belonging to his grandfather, who was killed in the rampage. When he arrived at the school, Weise jumped out of the moving vehicle, causing it to ram into the double doors outside the entrance, the e-mail said.