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.