2008 Woodie Awards
10 dead, 7 wounded in Minnesota school shootings
Issue date: 4/8/05 Section: World
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After walking through a metal detector prior to entering the school, Weise shot and killed security guard Derrick Brun. He continued into the building and fired at 62-year-old teacher Neva Winnecoup Rogers and other students, stated Minneapolis news source WCCO.
Students took refuge in classrooms, with Weise following, shooting erratically. Thurlene Stillday (15), Chase Lussier (15), Chanelle Rosebear (15), Alicia Spike (14) and Dwayne Lewis (15) were killed.
FBI Special Agent in charge Michael Tabman told CNN that earlier that day Weise murdered his grandfather Daryl Lussier, former officer at the Red Lake Police Department, and his grandfather's girlfriend Michelle Sigana with a .22-caliber gun.
In addition to the ten casualties, seven people were wounded - all males younger than 18. An ambulance transported six of the injured to the North County Regional Hospital in Bemidji, Minn.
One more student died in the emergency room from a shot to the head, bringing the total fatalities to 11. Two others, in need of neurosurgery and facial surgery, were transferred to Fargo, N.D. None of the others are in critical condition.
Tabman and other authorities contend that Weise possessed three guns during the episode, including a shotgun and a police-issued pistol he stole from his grandfather.
WCCO calls the shootings the worst since the 1999 Columbine tragedy in Littleton, CO when two students killed 12 classmates, one teacher and themselves.
Red Lake, Minn, 240 miles from Minn-eapolis, is home to approximately 5,000 members of the Ojibwa, or the Chippewa, tribe. The Red Lake Senior High School consists of 300 students from the Indian reservation.
"Our community is devastated by this event," said Floyd Jourdain, chairman of the Red Lake Ojibwa Nation, to CNN. "We have never seen anything like this in the history of our tribe. Without a doubt, these are some of the darkest days for our people."
According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, some of his classmates saw Weise as "weird" and "anti-social." One student claimed that he had not been to class in the days leading up to the shootings.
