Student's rampage leaves 10 dead

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/21/sch...ing/index.html

Officials: Student's rampage leaves 10 dead
Witness describes gunman grinning, waving
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Posted: 2:00 AM EST (0700 GMT)


Red Lake High School students console each other Monday after the school shooting

An FBI official speaks of the "terrible tragedy" in Red Lake, Minnesota.


(CNN) -- A student on Monday killed two of his grandparents, then went on a shooting rampage at his Minnesota high school, killing seven people and wounding as many as 13 others before killing himself, officials said.

FBI Special Agent Paul McCabe told reporters the dead include a female teacher, a male security officer and four students at Red Lake High School.

"We believe that one of those students is the shooter," McCabe said.

The FBI office in Minneapolis later said two more wounded students had died.

The school, about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities, was evacuated and locked down, McCabe said.

"At this time, we believe he was acting alone," he said, refusing to comment on a possible motive, adding, "It's far too early in the investigation."

The slain students were shot in one room, he said.

"Apparently, he walked down the hallway shooting and then he entered a classroom, he shot several students and a teacher, then himself," said Roman Stately, with the Red Lake Fire Department, who arrived at the high school moments after the shootings.

Authorities discovered about an hour later that the boy had shot and killed his grandmother and grandfather, a veteran of the police force, Stately told KARE-TV.

Stately said the boy used his grandfather's police-issued weapon in the school rampage.

Witness Sondra Hegstrom described the gunman grinning and waving, according to The Pioneer of nearby Bemidji, Minnesota.

"I looked him in the eye and ran in the room, and that's when I hid," she told the newspaper.

Teacher Diane Schwanz told The Pioneer that the shooter tried to break through the door to her classroom.

"I just got on the floor and called the cops," Schwanz told the paper. "I was still just half-believing it."

The shootings occurred about 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), in Red Lake High School, a school of 300 students that is on a sovereign Indian reservation near the Canadian border.

Tribal authorities closed the reservation after the shootings, The Associated Press reported.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty expressed his condolences and offered comfort.

"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," his office said in a statement.

Sen. Norm Coleman said: "Laurie and I send our heartfelt prayers and sympathies to the family and friends of those lost and injured today in Red Lake and to all those touched by this tragedy."



that's some fubar stuff going down there.

Yet another good reason to ban guns

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE .... this is so tragic so sad so depressing so sick

I am mad and feel dizzy reading such things so often ....

Horrible. Absolutely horrible. May the scars emotional and physical heal quickly.

Let us also remember exactly where blame should be placed. The sick bastard who chose to take 10 lives. Putting it anywhere else...well, that's like having a problem with kids drag racing down a 25MPH street at 90MPH and thinking it makes perfect sense to correct the problem by lowering the speed limit to 20.

Adrian

My school had a fair amount of violence but it's much harder to kill ten people with a baseball bat or even a knife than a gun bud.

My rights aren't up for revision every time some little shit kills a whole bunch of people. Especially then, when everyone's hysterical and ready to sell out every right in the BOR on the false hope it'll save "just one child."

This is not the place for yet another discussion on the right to keep and bear arms.

Adrian

you are right it's not an occasion to talk about guns maybe not but on another hand each time there is something like such a tragic event that it's also unfair to say it's NOT the fault of the free use of guns ... how to be that sure ? it's maybe not the gun use itself but the inner violence that it implies .. to have a gun is to somehow legitimate its use ... period ...and like it was said here it's more difficult to kill so many ppl with a knife or a baseball bat ... when a kid lose his mind and become such a violent killer like that a gun is such a terrible weapon ... we all have our nutcases everywhere who are ready to do such atrocities .... this is why I think that if they didn't have the ability to kill that simply it would spare some lives .... how many ppl die because of lost bullets in the usa ? is that a necessary disorder would it be much more with no legal gun? JMO

Hip-hip-hurray, give more guns to Americans pleeeeeease.

If I remember correctly, the deadliest school shooting happened in Germany, a country with strict gun controls.

(and just to be clear -- I am VERY much against guns and VERY much for gun control)

But how many shooting accidents were there in Germany? I doubt it there were more than in the US.