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Jeff Weise

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Jeff Weise
StatusDeceased (suicide)
OccupationStudent
Parent(s)Daryl Allen Lussier, Jr.
Joanne Weise

Jeffrey James Weise (August 8, 1988 – March 21, 2005) was a high school student from Red Lake, Minnesota, who murdered nine people and injured five others in a shooting spree on March 21, 2005. The victims were his grandfather and grandfather's girlfriend at his home, five students, an unarmed security guard and a teacher, and himself, at Red Lake High School.

He left many postings across the Internet on websites such as nazi.org, offering public insight into his thoughts and the hardships in his life that led to his depression and fascination with dark imagery in the months and years prior to the shooting.

Background

Weise was an Ojibwa Native American who lived on the Red Lake reservation in north-central Minnesota with his paternal grandfather, Red Lake Police Department officer Daryl Allen "Dash" Lussier, Sr. Jeff's father, Daryl Allen "Baby Dash" Lussier, Jr., had committed suicide in July 1997 after a day-long police standoff. The senior Lussier had attempted to intervene in that event, but was unable to bring the standoff to a peaceful end.

Jeff's mother, Joanne Weise, alleged to be a violent alcoholic, suffered severe brain damage in a 1999 alcohol-related car accident. As a result, she was forced to live in a nursing home in Minneapolis. Jeff had been living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area with his mother and two aunts, but was forced to move back to the reservation after the accident happened.

Weise expressed frustration with being forced back to the Red Lake region and was considered an outsider by many there. Troublesome behavior eventually led to his expulsion of public schooling, and was placed in a home schooling program in 2004. He was diagnosed with clinical depression when he was 16 and began taking anti-depressants.

He attempted suicide in late 2004, describing his experience in a post made on the website Above Top Secret: "I had went through a lot of things in my life that had driven me to a darker path than most choose to take. I split the flesh on my wrist with a box opener, painting the floor of my bedroom with blood I shouldn't have spilt. After sitting there for what seemed like hours (which apparently was only minutes), I had the revelation that this was not the path. It was my decision to seek medical treatment, as on the other hand I could have chose to sit there until enough blood drained from my downward lascerations on my wrists to die."

Weise attended Red Lake High School, where he remained withdrawn. He allegedly had a history of trouble at school, including getting into fist-fights with students. However, his social studies teacher Wanda Baxter said, "[Weise] was a good listener like any other ordinary student. He was quiet but never a troublemaker."[2] Another teacher described Weise as "a pretty bright kid, but was lazy when it came to school."[3] He was described as shy and a loner by those who knew him, who endured frequent bullying, however he usually did not respond to their taunts. He was known to wear a dark trench coat and black clothing to school all year round; he was also known to have a notebook into which he drew what has been described by one of his friends as "evil and dark... stuff".[4]

The shooting

Main article: Red Lake High School massacre

On March 21, 2005, Weise killed a total of nine people. He first killed 58-year-old Daryl Lussier, Weise's paternal grandfather, and Lussier's girlfriend and police force partner, 31-year-old Michelle Leigh Sigana. Later he shot and killed seven people at Red Lake High School, including a teacher and a security guard. As many as 15 others were wounded in the school shooting. After briefly exchanging fire with police officers following the murders, Weise committed suicide. Two handguns, a shotgun and body armor that belonged to his grandfather were recovered at the scene and believed to have been used in the shootings.

The incident apparently began at home in the afternoon when Weise killed his grandfather and Sigana. Weise then drove his grandfather's patrol vehicle to the high school, propelling it into the building at around 2:45 p.m. CST. Wearing a reservation-police-issued bulletproof vest, likely taken from the stolen reservation police patrol vehicle, he shot a third victim, a security guard named Derrick Brun, immediately upon arriving at the school.

When the police first arrived, Weise briefly opened fire on them before proceeding into the building. Once in there, he was said to be "waving and smiling" as he shot students at random. An attempt to break into an English classroom was thwarted by a teacher who had taken the precaution of locking the door.

After finally being cornered in a classroom, Weise was believed to have exchanged fire with police officers and injured several of them.[citation needed] However, the police department stated that no officers had received any gunshot wounds. Weise then put the shotgun under his chin, and discharged a single round which killed him instantly. It was later leaked that Weise was shot twice, once in the leg and the other in his shoulder, when exchanging gun fire with police.[3]

Weise and the internet

In online posts, Weise frequently dealt with the subject of zombies, under the pseudonym "Blades11". In a short story he published on the internet in early 2004, titled "Surviving the Dead" [4], he includes a detailed description of a school massacre from a victim's perspective, combining it with the theme of zombies. The story is bloody and crude in content and spelling. Grover's Mill, the town in Weise's story, was the site of the landing of aliens in Orson Welles's version of War of the Worlds. Weise also posted at http://www.abovetopsecret.com [5].

Another website he frequented was The Official Mars Website, the online headquarters for the San Francisco Bay Area Horrorcore rapper Mars, where the users are encouraged to post about music, murder, and suicide on its forums. Weise was described by friends and family as an obsessed fan of both Horrorcore music and Mars.

Weise also created violent Flash animations and posted them on the Internet (including Newgrounds) using the alias "Regret". One animation entitled Target Practice depicts an individual who shoots three people with an assault rifle, blows up a police car with a grenade, then shoots a Ku Klux Klan member. It ends when the character uses a handgun to shoot himself in the head. The animation is accompanied by the sounds of gunfire.

An early reviewer of the animation on Newgrounds wrote, "Umm... ok. Was that like a warning message? Hmm dude you need help badly", to which Weise replied, "Lol, you obviously can't tell the difference between Fantasy and reality. This cartoon was made for nothing more than Random violence, and believe it or not there's an audience out there that this appeals to. So don't try judging my Mental health based upon a simple animation, capisce?" Weise's Newgrounds profile also noted that two of his favorite films were Elephant and Zero Day, which were both based on and inspired by the Columbine High School massacre.

Weise's only other animation on Newgrounds was "Clown," in which a clown strangles a man to death, although it was considerably less violent than "Target Practice".

Weise is also believed to have posted messages on the Neo-Nazi Internet forum of the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party under the aliases NativeNazi and Todesengel (German for "angel of death"). The posts revealed an admiration for the ideas of Adolf Hitler, and interests in persuading other Native Americans as to the merits of those ideas. He also had a fascination with the swastika. On one occasion, he fought with a pupil whom he referred to as a "Communist". He also alleged that the school was warned that someone was going to "shoot up" the school on April 20, the birthday of Adolf Hitler and the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, and that the school authorities "pinned" the threat on him.

In one post, dated July 13, 2004, he claimed:

As a result of cultural dominance and interracial mixing there is [sic] barely any full blooded Natives left. Where I live less than 1% of all the people on the Reservation can speak their own language, and among the youth wanting to be black has run rampant...Under a National Socialist government, things for us would improve vastly… and that is why I am pro-Nazi. [6]

Another post read: "I try not to be aggressive in most situations, I'll use force if I have to, but I'm not about to go out and pick a fight. I'm mostly defensive, I'll defend myself if someone tries something but other than that I'm a peaceful person." The posts were dated 10 months prior to the shooting, and as such it is not yet known if they are entirely relevant in understanding Weise's state of mind.

A LiveJournal account apparently created by Weise contained just three entries from December 2004 through January 2005. The weblog was customized to be rendered in black and white, and Weise expressed feelings in his few writings including a desire for change and salvation. He described himself on his user info page as "nothin' but your average Native American stoner" and mentioned that he used marijuana. 1,848 comments (no longer available) were posted to his blog after his murders and suicide.

Aftermath

March 25, 2005: Armed security guards and metal detectors were stationed at all entrances of the school.

March 29, 2005: Sixteen-year-old Louis Jourdain, son of Floyd "Buck" Jourdain Jr., was accused of assisting in the planning of the shooting, and was subsequently arrested on the suspicion of conspiracy to murder. At least a dozen other students were believed to have heard of the attack prior to its occurrence. The school itself was temporarily shut down and computers therein were seized. During this time, a makeshift memorial was set up in front of the school, made up of flowers, dolls, cards and candles.

April 9, 2005: Red Lake High School was searched after police received information that guns still remained in the school, apparently placed there by Jeff Weise.

References

  1. ^ Jeffrey Weise, The Ojibwe News (March 25, 2005)
  2. ^ http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/03/22_ap_redlakesuspect/
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ [2]
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