The Red Lake shootings were a

spree killing A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations wi ...

that occurred on March 21, 2005, in two places on the

Red Lake Indian Reservation The Red Lake Indian Reservation (Ojibwe: ''Miskwaagamiiwi-zaaga'iganing'') covers in parts of nine counties in northwestern Minnesota, United States. It is made up of numerous holdings but the largest section is an area about Red Lake, i ...

Red Lake Red Lake may refer to: Lakes Australia * Red Lake (Western Australia) Croatia * Red Lake (Croatia) (Crveno jezero) Romania *Red Lake (Romania) (Lacul Roşu) United States * Red Lake (Arizona–New Mexico) * Red Lake (Orlando), Florida *Red Lake ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...

, United States. That afternoon, 16-year-old

Jeff Weise Jeffrey James Weise (August 8, 1988 – March 21, 2005) was an American student at Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, Minnesota, who committed the Red Lake shootings on March 21, 2005. He killed his grandfather and his grandfather' ...

killed his grandfather (an

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

tribal police sergeant) and his grandfather's girlfriend at their home. After taking his grandfather's police weapons and bulletproof vest, Weise drove his grandfather's police vehicle to

Red Lake Senior High School Red Lake Secondary Complex, formerly Red Lake Senior High School, is a public state-funded high school in unincorporated Red Lake, in Beltrami County, northern Minnesota, United States. The high school is located on the Red Lake Indian Reservati ...

, where he had been a student some months before. Weise shot and killed seven people at the school and wounded five others. The dead included an unarmed

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

at the entrance of the school, a teacher, and five students. After the police arrived, Weise exchanged gunfire with them. After being wounded, he shot and killed himself in a classroom. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in the United States since the

Columbine High School massacre On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. ...

Background

At the time of the shooting, by some accounts, Jeff Weise was living with his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier Sr., a sergeant with the Red Lake Police Department, run by the

(aka Chippewa) tribal government at the

. The household included his grandfather's 32-year-old girlfriend, Michelle Leigh Sigana. Weise's paternal aunts, Shauna and Tammy Lussier, said he had lived mostly with them for the past several years, and they helped him get treatment for behavioral issues and depression. In 1999, Weise's mother suffered severe brain damage in an alcohol-related car accident and had since lived and received care in a nursing home. Still a child, Weise was forced to move from

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origin ...

to live with his father's family on the reservation. His father had died by

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

in 1997, so Weise was officially placed with his grandmother, Shelda (Gurneau) Lussier. Weise's aunts helped care for him, especially after his grandmother's death in 2003. The reservation of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe is in northwest

and is one of two nationally that are "closed"; only Ojibwe tribal members may live there and own land. Its residents suffer high rates of unemployment, violence, and suicide. Housing is poor, and many students do not finish

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

. Work opportunities are limited on the reservation, which has a population of more than 5,000. A study in 2004 found that a high proportion of students in high school had thought of suicide.

Shootings

The day of the shootings, Weise retrieved a

Ruger MK II The Ruger Standard Model is a rimfire semi-automatic pistol introduced in 1949 as the first product manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Co., and was the founding member of a product line of .22 Long Rifle cartridge handguns, including its later it ...

.22 caliber .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm). Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO. .22 inch is also a popular ...

pistol A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, a ...

from his bedroom and fatally shot his grandfather as he was sleeping; he shot him two times in the head and ten times in the chest. According to Weise's friends, the teenager may have had the gun for as long as a year. He took Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .40 caliber

Glock 23 Glock is a brand of polymer- framed, short recoil-operated, locked-breech semi-automatic pistols designed and produced by Austrian manufacturer Glock Ges.m.b.H. The firearm entered Austrian military and police service by 1982 after it was the ...

pistol and a 12 gauge

Remington 870 The Remington Model 870 is a pump-action shotgun manufactured by Remington Arms Company, LLC. It is widely used by the public for shooting sports, hunting and self-defense, as well as by law enforcement and military organizations worldwide. ...

pump-action Pump action or slide action is a repeating firearm action that is operated manually by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge and typically to co ...

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small pellet-like spherical sub- pr ...

, a gun belt and a bulletproof vest. Weise then fatally shot Sigana, his grandfather's girlfriend, two times in the head as she carried laundry up the stairs. Weise then drove his grandfather's

squad car A police car (also called a police cruiser, police interceptor, patrol car, area car, cop car, prowl car, squad car, radio car, or radio motor patrol) is a ground vehicle used by police and law enforcement for transportation during patrols a ...

, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. CST. As he entered the school through the main entrance, he encountered two unarmed security guards manning a

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, ...

. Weise shot and killed security guard Derrick Brun, while the other security guard escaped without injury. Weise proceeded into the main corridor of the school. Weise began shooting into an English classroom, killing three students and one teacher, and wounding three students. Student Ashley Lajeunesse said that Chase Lussier (no direct relation to Weise's father or grandfather) sheltered her, and was one of those shot and killed by Weise. Jeffrey May, a 16-year-old

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

, tried to wrestle Weise inside the classroom and stabbed him in the stomach with a

pencil A pencil () is a writing or drawing implement with a solid pigment core in a protective casing that reduces the risk of core breakage, and keeps it from marking the user's hand. Pencils create marks by physical abrasion, leaving a tra ...

. May's diversion allowed students to flee the classroom to safety, but Weise shot him two times in the neck and once in the jaw, leaving him seriously injured. Witnesses said Weise smiled as he was shooting at people. One witness said that he asked a student if he believed in

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

. This is believed to have been a reference to a widely publicized exchange during the 1999

between

Dylan Klebold Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold (; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) were an American mass murder duo who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. Harris and Klebol ...

and Columbine survivor Valeen Schnur. At around 2:52 p.m., Weise returned to the main entrance, where he killed two students and wounded two others. The police had arrived quickly and engaged him in gunfire. FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe said the shootout lasted for about four minutes. None of the police officers were injured. After being hit three times in the lower back, right leg, and right arm by police gunfire, Weise retreated to the classroom where he had shot and killed the teacher and students. Remaining students in the class witnessed him lean against a wall, put the shotgun barrel to his chin, and fire, killing himself. The shootings lasted nine minutes. Weise fired a total of 59 shots during the shooting spree; 14 at his grandfather's home and 45 at the school. He fired 37 rounds from his grandfather's Glock handgun, 14 from his Ruger handgun, and eight from the shotgun.

Fatalities and funerals

A total of ten people, including the perpetrator, died in these events. * Daryl Allen Lussier Sr., age 58, Police Sergeant and Jeff Weise's paternal grandfather. * Michelle Leigh Sigana, age 32, Lussier's girlfriend. * Derrick Brian Brun, age 28, Security Guard. * Neva Jane Wynkoop-Rogers, age 62, English teacher. * Alicia Alberta White, age 14, student. * Thurlene Marie Stillday, age 15, student. * Chanelle Star Rosebear, age 15, student. * Chase Albert Lussier, age 15, student. * Dewayne Michael Lewis, age 15, student. * Jeffrey James Weise, age 16, student/perpetrator. The night after the shooting, many people of the community gathered at the high school gymnasium for a healing ceremony. They performed traditional Ojibwe ceremonies and prayed. Within days, preparations started for funerals on the reservation. Tribal members drew from Ojibwe traditions as well as Catholic rites. They "collected bundles of sage, to be given as gifts and burned during funeral ceremonies." Families picked personal items to be placed in the caskets.

Related events

* Buck Jourdain, Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, said that the shootings were "one of the darkest and most painful occurrences in the history of our tribe." * Louis Jourdain, the son of the Tribal Chairman Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr., was arrested in connection with the shootings on March 28, 2005 and charged with

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agr ...

to commit murder. He was charged based on several email messages which he exchanged with Weise related to plans for the Red Lake High School shooting. The government dropped the conspiracy charge; however, Jourdain pleaded guilty to transmitting threatening messages through the Internet. * Derrick Brun, the killed security guard, was recognized for his bravery, with special recognition by President George W. Bush. * Jeffrey May, a sophomore injured while trying to attack Weise, was highly praised. He was featured in ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

''.

Aid to victims and families

Minnesota has a state fund that aids victims and their families. In addition, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa established a memorial fund; it reached $200,000 in donations from across the country by April 2005. Initially, the tribe made 15 grants of $5,000 each to victims and their families, including one to Weise's relatives. A tribal spokesman noted his family was not eligible for state compensation and said that they carried "a double burden." The grant was to help pay for Weise's funeral and burial. On July 21, 2006, the Red Lake school district reached a settlement with the families of the massacre victims. The school district agreed to pay $1,000,000 total to 21 of the victims' families, the maximum amount allowed by Minnesota law. Of the settlement, $900,000 was to be immediately granted to the families, and the remaining $100,000 to be set aside for future distribution.

Perpetrator

Jeffrey Weise was labeled an outsider in the Red Lake community and had recently been placed in "homebound" schooling for breaking school rules. He was remembered as a quiet kid that normally wore a black trench coat and gel in his hair. Weise had grown up with a difficult and disrupted family life; his parents were a young unmarried couple who separated before he was born. His mother, Joanne Weise, was 17 years old at the time of his birth. Joanne's family insisted that she give up her son to the father, Daryl Lussier Jr., who was a few years older than her. Weise did not live with his mother again until after he was two years old, when she reclaimed him and took him to live in Minneapolis. In later online postings, Weise wrote that his mother had become an

alcoholic Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomina ...

who was sometimes physically and

emotionally abusive Psychological abuse, often called emotional abuse, is a form of abuse characterized by a person subjecting or exposing another person to a behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumati ...

. In 1992, she started dating Timothy "Troy" DesJarlait, and they married in 1998 after having had two children together. Weise moved around often because of his mother, and attended several different schools during his adolescence. In 1997, when Weise was eight years old, his father Daryl Lussier Jr. died by suicide at age 32, shooting himself after a days-long standoff with Red Lake tribal police. Lussier's own father, Daryl Lussier Sr., was a sergeant with the tribal police and was involved in the standoff. In 1999, when Weise was ten, his mother was in an alcohol-related car accident and suffered severe brain damage. She had to be committed to a nursing home for rehabilitation. After separating from her in 2000, DesJarlait divorced Weise's mother in May 2004. He took custody of the two children he'd had with Weise's mother, but did not opt to take custody of Weise. Weise was placed in the custody of his paternal grandmother Shelda (Gurneau) Lussier, who lived on the Red Lake reservation. He had to leave Minneapolis, where he had lived most of his life, to live with her and other paternal relatives in Red Lake. His maternal grandmother, Rita Weise, also lived on the Red Lake reservation.

Motives

Police investigators began searching for a motive behind the shootings. According to their findings and media reports, Weise was often

bullied Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an im ...

or teased in school by classmates. A tall youth weighing 250 pounds (115 kg), he was known to wear dark eyeliner, as well as a long black

trench coat A trench coat or trenchcoat is a variety of coat made of waterproof heavy-duty fabric, originally developed for British Army officers before the First World War, and becoming popular while used in the trenches. Originally made from gabardin ...

and other black clothing to school year round. He was referred to as a " goth kid" by many of his classmates. He did not usually respond to taunts. Some fellow students thought of him as a loner, but he had his own circle of friends. Weise expressed frustration about living in Red Lake, and felt his life was beyond his control. During these years, he got close to his grandfather, Daryl Lussier Sr., who gave him a bedroom of his own. Lussier Sr. lived with his companion Michele Sigana. Weise was said to have a good relationship with his grandfather. Although Weise had been separated from his mother and stepfather for years by the time of their divorce in May 2004, he attempted suicide soon after, and again in June 2004. At that time, his aunts and the Red Lake Medical Center arranged for Weise to be taken to a hospital for psychiatric treatment, where he stayed for three days. Weise was prescribed

Prozac Fluoxetine, sold under the brand names Prozac and Sarafem, among others, is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It is used for the treatment of major depressive disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorde ...

as an anti-depressant, to be continued as treatment together with counseling. His doctor had increased his dosage a week before the shooting, to 60 mg a day of Prozac. Weise's aunts, with whom he lived much of the time at Red Lake, said they had arranged for his medical care and were concerned about the increase in his dosage. His actions reopened the debate about Prozac use among children and adolescents. In October 2004, the

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

(FDA) had issued a warning about its use, but it is still the only anti-depressant that is FDA-approved for children. Lorene Gurneau, a relative of Weise's paternal grandmother, said she and other family members thought Weise had never gotten over his father's suicide in 1997. In addition, his mother's car accident in 1999 had left her brain damaged and in a nursing home, which meant that he had effectively lost both parents by the age of ten. When his mother's ex-husband refused to take custody of him, he felt like he didn't belong.

Internet activities

Weise was discovered to have been quite active on the Internet. According to ''

The Smoking Gun The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Mos ...

'', Weise created two violent Flash animations for the flash website

Newgrounds Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. It hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania. ...

, using the alias "Regret". One animation, entitled "Target Practice", features a character who murders three people with a

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

, blows up a police car with a grenade, and kills a Klansman. The 30-second animation ends with the shooter putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. Weise had created another Flash animation, entitled "Clown", in which a

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

kills a man by eating his head. A

LiveJournal LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary. American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, a ...

account, apparently created by Weise, contained three entries posted between December 2004 and January 2005. The

weblog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

was customized to be rendered in black and white. In his posts, Weise expressed his desire for change and salvation in his life. Weise was a fan of the music genre known as

horrorcore Horrorcore, also called horror hip hop, horror rap, death hip hop, or death rap, is a subgenre of hip hop music based on horror-themed and often darkly transgressive lyrical content and imagery. Its origins derived from certain hardcore hip h ...

, and was particular a fan of rappers such as

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, Jimmy Donn and

Prozak Steven T. Shippy, better known by his stage name Prozak, is an American independent rapper and film director from Saginaw, Michigan. He's a member of the group Project:Deadman with Mike E. Clark as well as the group Bedlam with Madness and Stap ...

. He was known to frequent the Mars website. Jimmy Donn's song "Game Over" (which is a song about a school shooting) was said to be one of Weise's favorite songs, and Weise owned Jimmy Donn's album ''The Darker Side.''

Legacy and memorials

Siblings of the victims and survivors participated in the 2018 School Walk Outs, which were designed to show respect for shooting victims seen nationally but especially in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and Red Lake.

References

External links

Red Lake Schools website

Red Lake Net News

Earth Sky Web
Jeff Weise, "Target Practice" (animation)
Newgrounds

News articles

"Ten killed in US school shooting"
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

'', March 22, 2005. * Karnowski, Steve. "Shooting suspect apparently posted messages on neo-Nazi site," ''Duluth News Tribune'', March 22, 2005
"The Depressive and the Psychopath"
''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

"Native Americans Criticize Bush's Silence"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', 25 March 2005
"Tribal leader's son charged with conspiracy"
''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...