Teen's killing spree leaves 10 dead
March 22, 2005 - 3:00PM
A teenage boy went on a shooting rampage on a US Indian reservation today and killed 10 people, including his grandparents, seven victims at his high school and then himself.
Traumatised witnesses said the teenager was "grinning and waving" as he fired. As many as 15 people were wounded in the rampage at Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe.
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It was the worst school shooting in the United States since the Columbine massacre in Colorado in 1999.
Terrified students sheltered under desks and pleaded with the young gunman to stop.
"You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?" Sondra Hegstrom said using the first name of the shooter.
The dead suspect, whose full name has not been released, fatally shot his grandparents at their home on the reservation. He then moved on to the nearby Red Lake High School.
Six students, including the gunman, were killed at the school, along with a teacher and a security guard, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said at a news conference in Minneapolis.
Hegstrom described how the gunman smiled and gestured at one student and then swivelled to shoot someone else.
"I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when I hid," she said.
An local official identified the shooter's grandfather as Daryl Lussier, a longtime officer with the Red Lake Police Department. He said Lussier's guns might have been used in the shootings.
The shooter had two handguns and a shotgun.
"After he shot a security guard, he walked down the hallway shooting and went into a classroom where he shot a teacher and more students," said Roman Stately of the Red Lake Fire Department.
Students and a teacher at the scene, Diane Schwanz, said the shooter tried to break down a door to get into a room where some students were.
"I just got on the floor and called the cops," Schwanz said.
"I was still just half believing it."
Ashley Morrison, another student, took refuge in a classroom. With the shooter banging on the door, she dialled her mother on her mobile phone as shot rang out.
"'Mom, he's trying to get in here and I'm scared'," the girl's mother quoted her daughter as saying.
Schwanz was the teacher in that room.
She said, "I just got down on the floor and (said), 'Kids, down on the ground, under the benches!'"
She said she called police on her mobile phone.
All of the dead students were found in one room.
One of them was a boy believed to be the shooter, McCabe said.
He said it was too early to speculate on a motive.
"It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," he said.
It was America's worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.
The last fatal school shootings that had involved a student also happened in the state of Minnesota in September 2003, when two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring.
Classmate John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, awaits trial in the case.
AP
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/22/1111253993550.html
March 22, 2005 - 3:00PM
A teenage boy went on a shooting rampage on a US Indian reservation today and killed 10 people, including his grandparents, seven victims at his high school and then himself.
Traumatised witnesses said the teenager was "grinning and waving" as he fired. As many as 15 people were wounded in the rampage at Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe.
.
It was the worst school shooting in the United States since the Columbine massacre in Colorado in 1999.
Terrified students sheltered under desks and pleaded with the young gunman to stop.
"You could hear a girl saying, 'No, Jeff, quit, quit. Leave me alone. What are you doing?" Sondra Hegstrom said using the first name of the shooter.
The dead suspect, whose full name has not been released, fatally shot his grandparents at their home on the reservation. He then moved on to the nearby Red Lake High School.
Six students, including the gunman, were killed at the school, along with a teacher and a security guard, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said at a news conference in Minneapolis.
Hegstrom described how the gunman smiled and gestured at one student and then swivelled to shoot someone else.
"I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when I hid," she said.
An local official identified the shooter's grandfather as Daryl Lussier, a longtime officer with the Red Lake Police Department. He said Lussier's guns might have been used in the shootings.
The shooter had two handguns and a shotgun.
"After he shot a security guard, he walked down the hallway shooting and went into a classroom where he shot a teacher and more students," said Roman Stately of the Red Lake Fire Department.
Students and a teacher at the scene, Diane Schwanz, said the shooter tried to break down a door to get into a room where some students were.
"I just got on the floor and called the cops," Schwanz said.
"I was still just half believing it."
Ashley Morrison, another student, took refuge in a classroom. With the shooter banging on the door, she dialled her mother on her mobile phone as shot rang out.
"'Mom, he's trying to get in here and I'm scared'," the girl's mother quoted her daughter as saying.
Schwanz was the teacher in that room.
She said, "I just got down on the floor and (said), 'Kids, down on the ground, under the benches!'"
She said she called police on her mobile phone.
All of the dead students were found in one room.
One of them was a boy believed to be the shooter, McCabe said.
He said it was too early to speculate on a motive.
"It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," he said.
It was America's worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.
The last fatal school shootings that had involved a student also happened in the state of Minnesota in September 2003, when two students were killed at Rocori High School in Cold Spring.
Classmate John Jason McLaughlin, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, awaits trial in the case.
AP
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/03/22/1111253993550.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 1:29 AM
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