5:22 p.m. March 21, 2005
RED LAKE, Minn. – A student went on a shooting spree Monday, killing his grandparents and five people at his high school on an Indian reservation. The gunman himself was later found shot to death, authorities said.
It was the nation's worst school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999.
Before the shootings at the school, the suspect's grandparents were shot in their home and died later.
Six people died in the mid-afternoon shooting at Red Lake High School in far northern Minnesota, including four students. Also killed were a teacher and a security guard, FBI spokesman Paul McCabe said at a news conference in Minneapolis.
He declined to talk about a possible connection between the suspect and the couple killed at the home, but Red Lake Fire Director Roman Stately said they were the grandparents of the shooter. Stately told several media outlets that the grandfather was a police officer whose guns may have been used in the shootings.
All of the dead students were found in one room. One of them was a boy believed to be the shooter, McCabe said. He would not comment on reports that the boy shot himself and said it was too early to speculate on a motive.
Fourteen to 15 other students were injured, including two critically, McCabe said.
The school was evacuated after the shootings and locked down for investigation, McCabe said.
"It will probably take us throughout the night to really put the whole picture together," he said.
It was the nation's worst school shooting since two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves on April 20, 1999.
It was also the first fatal school shooting in more than four years. The last shooting, on March 5, 2001, happened in San Diego County, where a 15-year-old student killed two classmates and wounded 13 others at Santana High School. The gunman, Charles "Andy" Williams, was sentenced to 50-years-to-life in prison.
Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, has about 300 students, according to its Web site.
The reservation is about 240 miles north of the Twin Cities. It is home to the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians.
Really sad thing about this is the fact that another site had the story talking about how it has been "four long years since the last fatal school shooting". How sad is it that 4 years between school shootings is considered a long time?
