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Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: GigaShadow on March 22, 2005, 07:26:30 AM
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Teen\'s Rampage Leaves 10 Dead in Minn.
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Mar 22, 9:14 AM (ET)
By JOSHUA FREED
REDBY, Minn. (AP) - The suspect in the worst U.S. school massacre since Columbine smiled and waved as he gunned down five students, a teacher and a guard, asking one of his victims whether he believed in God, witnesses said. The teen\'s grandfather and his grandfather\'s wife also were found dead, and the boy killed himself.
Reggie 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, killing a guard.
Then, 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."
The 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 left 12 students and a teacher, plus the two teen gunmen, dead.
The victims included the gunman\'s grandfather; the grandfather\'s wife; a school security guard; a teacher; and five other students. At least 14 others were wounded, officials said.
"There\'s not a soul that will go untouched by the tragic loss that we\'ve experienced here," Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, told WCCO-TV of Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Police 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.
"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.
The shooter was Jeff Weise, a 17-year-old student who had been placed in the school\'s Homebound program for some 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.
Beaulieu said school was canceled Tuesday, but plans hadn\'t been made for the rest of the week.
During 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.
Some 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.
Student Ashley Morrison said she heard shots, then saw the gunman\'s face peering though a door window of a classroom where she was hiding with several other students. After banging at the door, the shooter walked away and she heard more shots, she said.
"I can\'t even count how many gunshots you heard, there was over 20. ... There were people screaming, and they made us get behind the desk," she said.
FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said the gunman exchanged gunfire with Red Lake police in a hallway, then retreated to a classroom, where he was believed to have shot himself.
All of the dead students were found in one room, including the teen believed to be the shooter.
Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who usually wore black and was teased by other kids. Relatives told the newspaper his father committed suicide four years ago, and that his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident.
Some of the injured were being cared for in Bemidji, about 20 miles south of Red Lake. Authorities closed roads to the reservation in far northern Minnesota while they investigated the shootings.
Police officers were posted at the hospital Monday night to keep reporters from entering. When a reporter approached three men walking across a hospital parking lot, one broke down in tears and the others said they had no comment.
It 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.
Red Lake High School has about 300 students, according to its Web site.
The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe, one of the poorest in the state. According to the 2000 census, 5,162 people lived on the reservation, and all but 91 were Indians.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050322/D8902GL00.html
Well at least the ruling by the Supreme Court that minors can\'t get the death penalty won\'t come into play here.
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only in america
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I\'m looking at you, San Andreas. Thanks a lot, pal.
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I bet he listened to Howard Stern too.
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I\'m no expert, but I\'m pretty damn sure that his parent\'s actions didn\'t really help out the kid. One killed himself, the other has braind problems. Poor guy.
And that is where the pity stops.
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y\'know what is really scary? whenever there\'s a school shooting, it\'s always in these suburban white area\'s...even tho they have all these metal detectors in the inner city schools..i rarely hear of any shootings like that in the inner city schools...hmmm
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Uh this was on an Indian Reservation clips. The guy was Native American.
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Originally posted by GigaShadow
Uh this was on an Indian Reservation clips. The guy was Native American.
i knew that...perhaps i should\'ve pointed that out..i was just saying in a general sense...heh i actually thought i was gonna catch some heat for makin\' that comment...i guess cooler heads prevailed...
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The kid was on Prozac... I believe children are misdiagnosed and/or overmedicated for almost everything now a days. When I was a kid if you got depressed your father told you to suck it up and get over it. Problem solved.
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"What the hell is up with all these white kids shooting up the school? They don\'t even wait till 3...... The crazy kids went to school in the little ass bus and had a class at the other end of the building and they used to get out at 2:30...Just in case they went crazy, they would only hurt other crazy kids...And we was all safe...Man, you\'re gonna start hearing white kids going "Man, I wanna go to a black school where its safe"!!!
~Chris Rock/Bigger & Blacker
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Originally posted by GigaShadow
The kid was on Prozac... I believe children are misdiagnosed and/or overmedicated for almost everything now a days. When I was a kid if you got depressed your father told you to suck it up and get over it. Problem solved.
i agree with you 100%....everybody always wants to solve their childs problems with drugs...sheeit just like you said, if i was acting up in school or if my son was acting up in school, there\'s NO reason to try and analyze what the f**k is goin on...s**t everytime i whoop that ass, that seems to get them back on track...
heh heh lol at ash...
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I agree clips - that is what is lacking today - discipline, whether it be verbal or physical. A good ass whooping is usually the most effective remedy for misbehavior.
Instead we have parents actually trying to "roleplay" with their kids instead disciplining them.
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Originally posted by GigaShadow
Uh this was on an Indian Reservation clips. The guy was Native American.
This brings up some relevant issues. The status of many of the Native American Reservations is completely disgraceful. It\'s not to blame anybody, alot of them are still damning the whites for crippling them so much. But the fact is that many of those places are hellholes with a rampant amount of alcoholism, disease and drugs. Many of the Native Americans don\'t do a damn thing to earn an extra dollar which is sad knowing their very energetic and hope filled past.