COLD BLOODED KILLERS (Killers from around the World) (10 page)

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Jeff Weise

RED LAKE HIGH SCHOOL MASSACRE

Jeffrey James Weise was born on August 8
^th
, 1988 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the only child to Daryl Allen Lussier, Jr. and Joanne Elizabeth Weise. His mother was alleged to be a violent alcoholic who would physically and emotionally abuse her first-born son. Shortly thereafter, in 1992, Joanne Weise began dating a Lakota man named Timothy Troy DesJarlait. The two married on June 27
^th
, 1998, and divorced in February, 2000.

On July 21
^st
, 1997, Daryl Lussier, Jr. committed suicide via shotgun wound to the head, after a two-day standoff with the Red Lake Police Department in Red Lake.

On March 5
^th
, 1999, Joanne Weise suffered severe brain damage when a tractor-trailer crashed into her car on a highway in Minneapolis. She and her cousin Elizabeth May Jourdain, were drinking alcohol and driving. Jourdain's was killed and Joanne had to be committed to a nursing home in Bloomington, Minnesota. Consequently, Jeff was placed in the care of his paternal grandmother, Shelda Lussier in Red Lake. He expressed frustration with living in Red Lake, and believed that his life was beyond his control.

Weise’s depression prompted a suicide attempt in May of 2004. Describing his experience in a post made on the website Above Top Secret, he said:

“I had went through a lot of things in my life that had driven me to a darker path than most choose to take. I split the flesh on my wrist with a box opener, painting the floor of my bedroom with blood I shouldn't have spilt. After sitting there for what seemed like hours (which apparently was only minutes), I had the revelation that this was not the path. It was my division (sic) to seek medical treatment, as on the other hand I could have chosen to sit there until enough blood drained from my downward lacerations on my wrists to die.”

Jeffrey was hospitalized in Thief River Falls due to suicidal thoughts. He was hospitalized for 72 hours.

At noon, Weise retrieved a .22 caliber pistol from his bedroom and fatally shot his paternal grandfather, Daryl Lussier, Sr., who was 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, he may have had it in his possession for as long as one year. Weise then stole Lussier's two police-issue weapons, a .40 caliber Glock 23 pistol, and a Remington 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. As he entered the school through the main entrance, he encountered two unarmed security guards who were operating 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 and began shooting into an English classroom, killing three students and one teacher, and wounding three students.

Jeffrey May, a sixteen-year-old sophomore, attempted to wrestle Weise inside the classroom, and managed to stab him in the stomach with a pencil. This allowed students to evacuate the classroom to safety. Weise retaliated, however, by shooting May two times in the neck and one time in the jaw, leaving him injured, but alive. May managed to survive the ordeal. Another student, Chase 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 Weise engaged in a shoot-out with the police that lasted for about four minutes. Eventually Weise 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, lay against a wall in the classroom, put the shotgun barrel in his mouth, and fired, instantly killing himself.

  
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Riyadus Saliheen

BESLAN SCHOOL HOSTAGE CRISIS

Initially, the identity of the attackers was not immediately clear. It was widely assumed that they were separatists from nearby Chechnya. The Russian government had stated that the attackers were an international group consisting of some Arabs and even one local resident. There were thirty-two attackers, five of whom were women, who made the following demands:

* Withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

* The Presence of the following people in the school:

- Aleksander Dzasokhov, President of North Ossetia

- Murat Ziazikov, President of Ingushetia,

- Alu Alkhanov, President of Chechnya

- Aslambek Aslakhanov, or Mukharbek Aushev

- Vladimir Rushailo, Executive Secretary for the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The Crisis – Day 1

       Every year in every school in the Russian Federation, on the first day of September, citizens celebrate a holiday known as the "Day of Knowledge" at school. The children are commonly accompanied by their parents and other family members dressed in their finest clothes. After listening to introductions and speeches from the staff and students, the ‘First Graders’ give a flower to the ‘Last Graders.’ The Last Graders then take the First Graders to their first class. In 2004, on September 1
^st
at School Number One in Beslan, this tradition was deliberately used by terrorists as an opportunity to seize the school and take hostages. The result was hundreds of children and entire families wounded or killed. At about 9:40 a.m., a group of thirty-two men and women stormed Beslan's Middle School Number One, whose pupils ranged from seven to eighteen years old. Most of the attackers wore black ski masks and a few were seen carrying explosive belts. After an exchange of gunfire with police in which five officers and one perpetrator were killed, the attackers seized the school building, taking more than 1,300 hostages.

This number was confirmed by teachers
later. Many hostages were schoolchildren under the age of eighteen. There were also many parents and staff inside. About fifty people managed to flee to safety in the initial attack and alert authorities. Repeated shooting was later heard coming from the school buildings, thought by some to be for the intimidation of security forces. It was later revealed that the attackers had killed twenty adult- male hostages and had thrown their bodies out of the building. The attackers were also outraged by the authorities undercounting the number of hostages.

The attackers moved the hostages to the school gymnasium on the first day, mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices, and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill fifty hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and twenty hostages for every gunman injured.

They also threatened to blow up the school should government forces attack. The Russian government initially said that it would not use force to rescue the hostages, and negotiations towards a peaceful resolution did take place on the first and second days, led by Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician for whom the hostage-takers had reportedly asked for by name. Roshal had helped negotiate the release of children in the 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege. At Russia's request, a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on the evening of September 1
^st
. The council members demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack." U.S. President George W. Bush reportedly offered "support in any form" to Russia in dealing with the crisis.