High school shooting suspect ends life after killing 9 others

RED LAKE, Minn. -- The boy accused of killing nine people in a shooting spree first shot his grandfather and his grandfather's companion, then donned the man's police-issue gun belt and bulletproof vest before heading to his high school, where he shot students and teachers at random, authorities said Tuesday.\nFBI agent Michael Tabman said Jeff Weise appeared to be acting alone in Monday's rampage, and the motive was unknown. When it was over, 10 people, including five students and Weise himself, were dead.\nIt was the worst U.S. school shooting since Columbine.\nAt a news conference Tuesday, Tabman said he couldn't confirm whether Weise was the same person who made posts to a neo-Nazi site, including one in which the writer billed himself as the "Angel of Death."\nAside from the teen's grandfather, Daryl Lussier, and Lussier's companion, Michelle Sigana, Weise's targets appeared random, Tabman said. An unarmed security guard and a teacher also were killed.\nInitial reports said as many as 15 people were injured in the shooting, but authorities lowered that to seven Tuesday. Five remained in the hospital, including two students with critical injuries from gunshot wounds to the head or face.\nSome of the victims were shot at close range, medical officials said.\nReggie Graves, a student at Red Lake High School, said he was watching a movie about Shakespeare in class Monday when he heard the gunman blast his way past the metal detector at the school's entrance, where an unarmed guard was killed.\nThen, in a nearby classroom, he heard the gunman say something to his friend Ryan. "He asked Ryan if he believed in God," Graves said. "And then he shot him." \nThe boy survived.\nThe death toll at the Red Lake Indian Reservation in far northern Minnesota made it the nation's worst school shooting since the rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999 that ended with the deaths of 12 students, a teacher and the two teen gunmen.\n"Right now we are in utter disbelief and shock," said Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.\nAt least three of the victims were shot in the head at close range, said officials at North Country Regional Hospital in nearby Bemidji. One of those victims died, and the other two were transferred to the Fargo hospital.\n"I think there was an intent to kill," Tim Hall, the hospital's emergency nursing director, said at a morning news conference. Three victims remained at North Country Regional, none in critical condition.\nPolice said the gunman killed himself after exchanging fire with officers. Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately said the gunman had two handguns and a shotgun.\n"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," Gov. Tim Pawlenty said.\nWeise, whom authorities described variously as 16 or 17, had been placed in the school's Homebound program for a 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.\nThere was no immediate indication of Weise's motive. But several students said he held anti-social beliefs, and he may have posted messages on a neo-Nazi Web site expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler.\nA writer who identified himself as Jeff Weise of the Red Lake Reservation posted the messages under the nickname "Todesengel" -- German for "angel of death." An April 2004 posting by him referred to being accused of "a threat on the school I attend," although the writer later said he was cleared.\nTabman said it hadn't been determined if the writer was actually Weise.\nRelatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who usually wore black and was teased by others. Relatives told the newspaper his father committed suicide four years ago, and his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident.\nDuring 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.\nSome pleaded with the gunman to stop. "You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?'" Sondra Hegstrom told The Pioneer of Bemidji.\nThe reservation, about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities, is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state. According to the 2000 census, 5,162 people live on the reservation.\nIt 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.