RED LAKE, Minn. — Authorities were trying to determine Tuesday what caused a teenager to gun down his grandfather, put on the man's police-issue belt and bulletproof vest and drive his marked squad car to a high school, where he began shooting his classmates at will.
Jeff Weise, 16, killed nine people and wounded seven Monday before trading gunfire with a police officer and apparently shooting himself. His motive still wasn't clear Tuesday, but the FBI said the shootings appeared to have been planned in advance.
Weise's victims include his grandfather, Daryl "Dash" Lussier, 58, father of four adult children and two young children under the age of 10; his grandfather's companion, Michelle Sigana, 32; school guard Derrick Brun, 28; teacher Neva Rogers, 62; student Alicia White, 15, the oldest of six children being raised by their grandmother, she played basketball on the freshman team; Thurlene Stillday, 15, one of five children in her family; Chase Lussier, 15, a young father who helped to care for a son born just months ago. Some students say he died a hero, pushing a girl out of the way before he was shot. Two other students killed were identified in media reports as Dwayne Lewis, 15, and Chanelle Rosebear, 15.
It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since the Columbine massacre in April 1999 that ended with the deaths of 12 students, a teacher and the two teen gunmen.
The killings on this northern Minnesota Indian reservation began at the home of Weise's grandfather, who was shot to death with a .22-caliber gun, according to Michael Tabman, the FBI's special agent in charge for Minneapolis. Sigana was also killed at the home.
Lussier had worked as a tribal police officer for decades. Weise drove his grandfather's squad car to the school, where he gunned down Brun at the door and spent about 10 minutes inside, targeting people at random.
Hearing the shots, students and adults barricaded themselves into offices and classrooms and crouched under desks, authorities said. Weise asked one student whether he believed in God before pulling the trigger, one pupil said.
In addition to the nine he killed, Weise's victims include two 15-year-olds who remain in critical condition at a Fargo, N.D., hospital with gunshot wounds to the face.
"Right now we are in utter disbelief and shock," said Floyd Jourdain Jr., chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa.
Authorities were investigating whether Weise, who dressed in black and wrote stories about zombies, may have posted messages on a neo-Nazi Web site expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Using the handle "Todesengel" — German for "Angel of Death" — the writer identified himself as Jeff Weise of the Red Lake Reservation. In April 2004, he referenced being accused of "a threat on the school I attend," though it says he was later cleared.
In an article posted Tuesday on www.nazi.org, the group "refused to wring hands" over the shootings, instead saying that "such events are to be expected when thinking people are crammed into an unthinking, irrational, modern society."
Investigators are not sure exactly what set Weise off, but fellow students at Red Lake High said they saw what looked, in retrospect, like warning signs.
About a month ago, his sketch of a guitar-strumming skeleton accompanied by a caption that read "March to the death song 'til your boots fill with blood" was displayed in his English class, said classmate Parston Graves Jr.
Graves said Weise had also shown him comic books he had drawn, filled with well-crafted images of people shooting each other. "It was mental stuff," he said. "It was sick."
Weise, who routinely wore a long black trench coat, eyeliner and combat boots, has been described by several classmates as a quiet teenager.
School board member Kathryn Beaulieu said Weise had been placed in the school's Homebound program for a policy violation. She did not elaborate.
Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who was often teased by others. They said his father committed suicide four years ago and his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home after suffering brain injuries in a car accident.
School was canceled for the day as investigators scoured the building for clues.
High school principal Chris Dunshee said Weise "would not be what I would call a habitual troublemaker" and that he wasn't aware of a lot of teasing. "I didn't really, I guess, feel that he was teased to the point where something like this would happen," he said.
At the Capitol in St. Paul, several hundred people attended a prayer ceremony for victims of the shooting where religious leaders joined Indians in drumming and chanting.
"Once again our people have been hit . . . but our people are strong," said Ona Kingbird, a Red Lake tribal member. "We'll come out of it."
Gov. Tim Pawlenty expressed his condolences for the families of the victims and said it appeared the school had "very rigorous security."
But a school secretary and a cousin of the slain security guard said that Brun and a female security guard who fled from Weise did not carry guns. Brun's cousin, Nancy Richards, said Brun also did not wear a bulletproof vest.
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.
Contributing: Brian MacQuarrie, The Boston Globe; Jodi Wilgoren, New York Times News Service