The Tragic Life and Death of Jeffrey James Weise

On March 21, 2005, Jeff Weise, a 16-year-old Chippewa Indian, entered Red Lake High School in northern Minnesota and went on a shooting rampage, killing 10 people and injuring at least five others. He then turned the gun on himself, making it the worst U.S. school shooting since the 1999 tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

Jeff Weise's Troubling Life

Weise was born on August 8, 1988, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to an unmarried Ojibwe couple from the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Due to frequent relocations, bullying, disruptions in his personal life, and truancy, he struggled in school. In November 1988, his mother was forced to give him up to the care of his father, who lived with his parents and family in Red Lake. In June 1991, when Weise was nearly three years old, his mother reclaimed him and took him to live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. He was physically and emotionally abused by both his mother and her boyfriend.

When Jeff Weise was 8 years old, his father committed suicide after a daylong standoff with the police. His mother, who remarried, was involved in a serious car accident that left her brain-damaged. Jeff moved in with his grandmother, who later left his grandfather, a tribal police officer.

It was later discovered that Weise had shared multiple online comments expressing his discontent with living in Red Lake and feeling like he had no control over his life. He portrayed the reservation as a place where people prioritize alcohol over friendship, where women neglect their own children for relationships with men, and where he could not escape the self-destructive path he felt he was on.

In May 2004, his depression led him to try to end his life by cutting his wrist. However, he changed his mind and posted his thoughts about it on the website Above Top Secret, stating that it was not the path he wanted to take.

"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 dicision [sic] to seek medical treatment, as on the other hand I could have chose to sit there until enough blood drained from my downward lascerations on my wrists to die."

Jeff Weise at School

At Red Lake High School, Jeff was considered smart by teachers, but the students described him as "odd." He wore black all the time, a Goth, and drew swastikas in his notebook. He seemed to have no friends at school, but he had been frequently communicating with a neo-Nazi organization online. His log-on name was a German word meaning "Angel of Death."

The Shooting

After Weise's second suicide attempt in June 2004, he received treatment at a medical facility outside the reservation, which included counseling and a prescription for Prozac.

His dosage was increased to 60 mg a day a week before the shooting, and his aunts expressed concern about this.

Weise's actions reignited the debate over the use of Prozac among children and adolescents, as in October 2004, the FDA had already issued a warning about the drug's association with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and violent behavior.

On the afternoon of March 21, 2005, Jeff went to his grandfather's house and shot him and the grandfather's girlfriend. Jeff then took his grandfather's shotgun, two handguns, and a bulletproof vest and drove his police cruiser to Red Lake High School. In a 10-minute shooting rampage, Jeff killed seven more people, including a security guard, a teacher, and five students.

After engaging in a brief shootout with the police and being injured three times, Weise then retreated to another classroom and died by suicide using a shotgun.