Mar 20, 2006 11:36 am US/Central
Report: Weise Wanted To Exceed Columbine Tragedy
St. Paul (AP) ―
The teenager who killed nine people on the Red Lake Indian Reservation tried to recruit accomplices to increase the body count, and considered staging his attack on a crowded school day such as prom or the first day of school, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Jeff Weise, 16, considered an attack that would have used the school's gym as a central "killing zone," the newspaper reported, citing two anonymous sources with knowledge of a yearlong federal investigation.
The sources requested anonymity because of legal reasons surrounding the case and because the investigation is not technically over, the newspaper reported.
Karen Bailey, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Minneapolis, said Monday that the office had no comment on the report.
On March 21, 2005, Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's companion off-campus before driving to the reservation's high school. At the school, he killed a security guard, a teacher and five students before shooting himself.
Details about the initial plot came from a map in Weise's bedroom and a review of more than 900 pages of e-mails and text messages between Weise and several fellow students over nearly two years, the Pioneer Press reported.
Although investigators have said that as many as 39 students had some degree of knowledge about Weise's thoughts, only one, Louis Jourdain, was charged with a crime. Jourdain, the son of tribal Chairman Floyd Jourdain Jr., is serving an unspecified sentence after admitting exchanging threatening e-mails with Weise.
According to the Pioneer Press's report:
--Weise wanted recruits to help him plan the shootings as well as get weapons.
--The teen thought about carrying out his attack on April 20, Adolf Hitler's birthday and the anniversary of the 1999 shootings at Columbine. He wanted to exceed that tragedy.
--Weise wanted to station armed accomplices at the school's exits and in main hallways, where they could shoot students running for safety.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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