Family: Weise Wasn't A Loner.
(WCCO) Relatives of the boy suspected of committing a killing spree on the Red Lake Indian Reservation Monday said he wasn't a loner, as other students have described him, but a kid who slipped through the cracks.
The FBI believes Jeff Weise, 16, initiated a mass shooting by killing his 58-year-old grandfather, tribal police officer Daryl Lussier, and his grandfather's girlfriend in their home. Investigators say Weise continued his spree at Red Lake High School, leaving seven more people dead, seven others wounded and ending with his suicide.
Weise's aunt Tammy Lussier said she discovered the bodies of her father and his girlfriend at their home, and she said she has lived with Weise. She still couldn't believe her nephew was the same boy accused of committing Monday's killings.
"He didn't mean to do it. He didn't mean to hurt anybody," Lussier said. "There were no signs. I was with him (Monday) morning before it happened, and I couldn't see (any) difference in him. ... I didn't see anything coming."
Kim Desjarlait, another of Weise's aunts, agreed. "For it to suddenly come out for it to be Jeff that did this major shooting ... there were no signs. There was nothing to say, 'Hey, we need to talk.'"
Some of Weise's relatives said he led a troubled life as a teen and said he was in and out of mental health treatment centers. But Lussier said he was definitely not the loner other students have described to the media.
"(Others) did torment him, but he was not a loner," Lussier said. "He had his friends, he had his very close friends. He had few, select friends, but he was not a loner."
Lussier said, "He trusted very few."
WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby asked Lussier how she wanted her nephew to be remembered.
"I want him to be remembered as the kind, gentle boy we know him as," Lussier said. "We'll remember him that way, but I don't know (if others will)."
"I still know in my heart that this is a good kid," Desjarlait said. "I don't know what happened."
Weise grew up in the Twin Cities. When he was eight, his father committed suicide. He moved to the Red Lake Indian Reservation to live with grandparents two years later, after his mother suffered serious brain damage in a car accident.
"When his mom got in the car accident, he was sent back to live in Red Lake," Desjarlait said. "He didn't have a voice to say, 'I don't want to be here, I want to be back with my mom.'"
Desjarlait thought that loss of control might have led Weise down a destructive path.
Weise's best friend said the teenager was obsessed with "horrorcore" music, a genre that features over-the-top, almost cartoonish lyrics about death, suicide, killings and gore.
Posts attributed to Weise appeared on a neo-Nazi Web site and on a message board for fans of reading and writing macabre stories.
A Web journal purportedly authored by Weise revealed suicidal thoughts and featured an image of musician Kurt Cobain, who killed himself with a shotgun.
"Right about now I feel as low as I ever have," read one entry from Jan. 4. Another entry from January read, "I'm starting to regret sticking around, I should've taken the razor blade express last time around."
Student Willie May described gruesome drawings Weise created. "Wicked drawings of school shootings," he said. "Drawings of people hanging there dead, drawings of dead bodies, drawings of people killing people."
Weise also drew a picture of a skeleton that was hanging on a school wall, classmates said, featuring the slogan, "March to the death song 'til your boots fill with blood."
Classmates said the suspect joked about school shootings, not knowing he might have been serious about committing them at Red Lake High School.
Student Morningstar May said she froze when she heard gunshots Monday. She said a friend pushed her behind a file cabinet to safety.
"I was in my classroom and all I heard was, 'boom-boom-boom,'" May recalled. "I just thank the boy who was with me, because I never would have known what to do if I was by myself. ... I probably would have gotten shot."
Student Ashley Morrison said, "All you could hear is, 'No, Jeff, don't, please don't,' and then there was screaming and a couple more shots, and there was no more screaming. We knew someone died."
Morrison said she called her mother on her cell phone as she hid behind a desk in a classroom.
"He was trying to get open the door and he was banging on it and he just couldn't get in there," Morrison said.
Her mother recalled, "I heard popping noises (over the phone) and I didn't know (what was going on). 'Mom, he's shooting the door. Mom, come and get me. Mom, I'm scared.'"
Alicia White, 14, did not survive the shooting.
"It's still hard to believe, still hard to accept, but I have to," her father, Rodney White Jr., said. "She was a beautiful little girl. She liked everybody. She had a lot of friends."
The FBI confirmed 10 dead, including the suspect. Five of the victims were 15 years old or younger. A security guard and a teacher were also killed.
Five students remain hospitalized Tuesday.
Three are listed in fair condition at North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji, Minn. One was shot in the hip, and two were shot in the chest.
Two are in critical condition at MeritCare in Fargo, N.D. One was shot in the head, and the other was shot in the face.
Two other students were treated at North Country Regional Hospital and released.
(WCCO)
