Red Lake Shootings

Bemidji, Minn. (AP) ― Nearly 40 people knew that 16-year-old Jeff Weise had planned a shooting at Red Lake High School before the teen went on a rampage that claimed 10 lives, according to family members who met with U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger on Monday.

Heffelfinger met behind closed doors with those who lost loved ones in the March 21 shooting -- when Weise killed his grandfather and the man's girlfriend before heading to the high school where he killed seven people then took his own life.

According to those who attended Monday's discussion, the meeting was volatile at times, as family members expressed anger, frustration and tears. Many wanted someone else to be held accountable. Some were upset when they were shown diagrams of what happened inside the school, and were told that Weise had been bullied and had emulated the boys involved in the 1999 Columbine school shooting.

After 10 months of waiting for answers, many Red Lake family members left with no sense of closure.

"It's horrid. I just got a headache," said Barbara Brun, who lost her son, Derrick, in the shooting. "I wasn't this angry before I came. I haven't been this angry since March 21st," she said as she stepped outside the hotel conference room for a cigarette.

According to Brun and others, Heffelfinger told the group that 39 people may have known Weise planned a shooting at the high school, and of those, four or five had more specific knowledge of his plans. Brun said Heffelfinger told the group that Weise had been talking about the shooting since 2003.

"Why didn't someone take him seriously?" she asked.

Brun said her frustration boiled over when Heffelfinger explained that no one who supposedly knew about the shooting plans would be held accountable or charged with a crime. Brun went back into the meeting, and shortly afterward, she and her family members decided to leave for good.

"We all decided enough was enough," said her husband, Francis Brun. "Most of us got a little upset ... really, I expected to hear some evidence."

Then, in small groups, meeting attendees began leaving. Some stormed off -- too angry to talk. Others were fighting back tears.

Kathy Brun, a sister to Derrick, swore as she described the meeting and she said she was mad that Heffelfinger talked about how Weise was bullied.

"It's almost like they want us to forgive that little bastard," she said as she left.

Barbara Brun left without getting the answers she wanted. "Now it's too late, the coward shot himself," she said. "I wanted to find out why. Why? I mean why would this person, or whatever he is, do this type of thing?"

Steven Cobenais, a 16-year-old who was shot in the face, also attended the meeting with his parents, LeeAnn and Llewellyn Thunder. The three of them were upset when they left and drove off without speaking to reporters.

The meeting was closed to the public, and only certain immediate family members, such as parents and spouses, were told they could attend. Several significant others and children who came to the Hampton Inn were allowed in. There were about 40 family members in attendance.

Heffelfinger said afterward that the meeting went as expected -- with family members expressing a full range of emotions.

"We're the federal government. I was not surprised that there would be anger directed at us," he said. "It's a natural phenomenon with grief."

Heffelfinger declined to confirm family members' accounts of what was said at the meeting. Specifically, he would neither confirm nor deny whether he told the group that 39 others knew of the shooting plans.

But he did say that he told family members about a published report by the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education that contains information about school shootings. The 10 points outlined in the report are all relevant to what happened at Red Lake, he said.

"One of those points, is that in most school shooting situations, other people knew about the shooter's plan," he said.

He also said that in general, the law says it's not a crime to simply know that a crime is going to be committed and do nothing.

"Just silence in the face of knowledge that a crime is going to be committed is not itself criminal," he said, adding that his investigation into the shooting is over.

He said he would not issue a public report on the shooting.

The meeting came soon after Heffelfinger's office ended its prosecution of Louis Jourdain, the teenage son of tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr. The younger Jourdain was tried as a juvenile, and his case was held behind closed doors. Victims' families tried and failed to get access to that proceeding, and some were angered that the sentence wasn't revealed afterward.

Louis Jourdain, now 17, acknowledged exchanging threatening e-mails with Weise, but a judge ruled that the younger Jourdain was not directly involved in the shooting.

Heffelfinger said he wished he could have shared information with families months ago, but he couldn't because of that criminal case. Since that case is a juvenile matter, he still can't disclose that aspect of the investigation to family members.

"For the last 10 months, they've been guided by rumor and speculation, and I wanted to bring that to an end," he said, adding that he understands many left the meeting frustrated, even though they received information that had never been publicly released. "I knew ... there was no way that I was going to solve the horror that these people experienced."

At least one couple felt sorry for Heffelfinger.

"A lot of people's rage came out ... he was being ganged up on inside in there," said Lisa Lyons, who attended the meeting with her boyfriend, Elbert White. White is the father of Thurlene Stillday, a 15-year-old student who died. "We were just filled with so much grief when we entered that room."

Lyons said it was difficult to listen as prosecutors outlined the events of March 21. "All that tragedy in so little amount of time," she said.

Heffelfinger planned a similar meeting on Tuesday with members of the Tribal Council and some school board members, he said. That meeting would also be closed to the public.

Mary Kay Klein, an attorney for the Red Lake School District, said the meeting was designed to update attendees about the federal investigation.

"I think there are a lot of concerns that people have, and there are certainly a lot of rumors about what happened and who was involved," Klein said. "I'm hoping that Mr. Heffelfinger can lay some of those rumors to rest. ... That will be an important step in the healing process."

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