March 21, 2005: The Massacre
At noon, Weise retrieved a .22 caliber pistol from his bedroom, and fatally shot his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier, Sr. (a Sergeant with the Red Lake Police Department), two times in the head and ten times in the chest as he was sleeping. It is not known how Weise obtained the pistol, but according to his friends, it is believed he may have possessed it for as long as one year. Weise then stole Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .40 caliber Glock 23 pistol and a Remington 870 12 gauge pump-action shotgun. He then fatally shot Michelle Leigh Sigana, Lussier's girlfriend, two times in the head as she was carrying laundry up the stairs.
Weise then drove his grandfather's squad car to Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake, arriving at around 2:45 p.m. Central Standard Time (19:45 UTC). As he entered the school through the main entrance, he encountered two unarmed security guards who were manning a metal detector. Weise shot and killed security guard Derrick Brun, while the other security guard managed to escape without injury. Weise then proceeded through the main corridor of the school. He later began shooting into an English classroom, killing three students and one teacher, and wounding three students. Jeffrey May, a 16-year-old sophomore, attempted to wrestle Weise inside the classroom, and had managed to stab him in the stomach with a pencil. This allowed students to evacuate the classroom to safety, however Weise retaliated by shooting May two times in the neck and one time in the jaw, leaving him injured, though not fatally. Another student, Chase Lussier (no relation to Daryl Lussier), was rumored to have jumped in the line of a shotgun blast to save another student.
Witnesses say Weise smiled as he was shooting at people. One witness said that he asked a student if he believed in God, a link commonly believed to be reminiscent of the events that took place during the Columbine High School massacre.
At around 2:52 p.m. Weise returned to the main entrance where he killed two students and wounded two others. FBI special agent Paul McCabe stated that Weise had engaged in a shoot-out with the police that lasted for about four minutes. Weise eventually retreated to a vacant classroom after sustaining one gunshot wound to the abdomen and one to the right arm. None of the officers were injured. Weise then laid against a wall in the classroom, put the shotgun barrel in his mouth, and fired, instantly killing himself.
Read more about this topic: Red Lake Massacre
Famous quotes containing the words march and/or massacre:
“Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“It is hard, I submit, to loathe bloodshed, including war, more than I do, but it is still harder to exceed my loathing of the very nature of totalitarian states in which massacre is only an administrative detail.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)