Jeffrey James Weise (August 8, 1988 – March 21, 2005) was an American mass murderer who committed the Red Lake shootings on March 21, 2005.
On March 21, 2005, Weise killed his grandfather and his grandfather's companion before going to the reservation high school, where he murdered seven more people and wounded five others. He died by suicide before he could be captured by the police. Weise struggled in school due to frequent relocations, bullying, disruptions in his personal life and truancy.
In May and June 2004, Weise attempted suicide and was briefly hospitalized. He was under treatment for depression, and had been prescribed Prozac as an anti-depressant. His case revived the public discussion about the use of Prozac for children and adolescents; the Food and Drug Administration had published a warning about it in October 2004 as a factor in increased suicides and violence among youths.
Life
Weise was born on August 8, 1988, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the only child of Joanne Elizabeth Weise (born April 15, 1970) and Daryl "Baby Dash" Allen Lussier Jr. (November 22, 1965 – July 21, 1997), an unmarried Ojibwe couple from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota. The Ojibwe permit only their tribal members to live on the reservation, which is located in northwest Minnesota 250 miles north of Minneapolis; it is one of two "closed" reservations in the country. The couple separated before the boy was born.
In November 1988, Joanne's parents forced her to give up three-month-old Jeff to the care of his father, who lived with his parents and family in Red Lake. In June 1991, when Jeff was nearly three years old, his mother reclaimed the boy. She took him to live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area. He later claimed in online postings that his mother was an alcoholic and had physically and emotionally abused him.
In 1992, Joanne Weise began dating a man who allegedly also abused Jeff. After having two children, the couple married on June 27, 1998.
On July 21, 1997, when Jeff was eight, his father died by suicide by shooting himself. He had been in a standoff with the Red Lake Police Department for some days in Red Lake. His grandfather, Daryl "Dash" Lussier Sr. (September 3, 1946 – March 21, 2005), a sergeant in the tribal police force since 1965, had tried to intervene but was unable to bring about a peaceful end.
On March 5, 1999, when Jeff was ten, his mother was in a car accident, in which a tractor-trailer crashed into the car that her cousin was driving. The women had been drinking. The cousin died in the accident and Joanne suffered severe brain damage. In 2000, she and her husband separated; they completed the divorce in May 2004. Their custody arrangements covered only the children they had together and not Jeff.
Following his mother's accident, Jeff was placed in the custody and care of his paternal grandmother, on the Red Lake reservation. The boy had to leave Minneapolis, where he had lived for nearly eleven years. Two of his paternal aunts said they were also involved in his care; one lived with her child at their mother's during this period.
Jeff's grandmother and her husband were separated. He shared a house with his companion and their son. According to the family, Jeff became close to both of his grandparents. By 2003, his mother had moved to an assisted-living facility; she had recovered enough from her accident to work part-time, and had regained speech. Weise chose to stay with his grandmother rather than rejoin his mother and move again.
Schools
Due to his disrupted family life, Weise attended numerous schools as a boy: Pearson Elementary School in Shakopee, Minnesota, from kindergarten to fourth grade; Bluff Creek Elementary School in Chanhassen, Minnesota, for fifth grade; and Red Lake Middle School for sixth through eighth grades. In 2002, Weise was forced to repeat the eighth grade because of failing grades and truancy; he enrolled in a special education program at the school called the Learning Center. Beginning in middle school, Weise was frequently taunted and bullied by other students.
High school
Weise became close to his paternal grandfather, Daryl "Dash" Lussier Sr., and his younger companion, Michele Sigana, who had given him his own room with them. The family said Weise had a good relationship with both.
In September 2003, Weise enrolled at Red Lake Senior High School in Red Lake. Teachers and fellow students remembered him as withdrawn, and he reportedly had a history of troublesome behavior. At times he was referred to be homeschooled. His grandmother said he had not been in school for five weeks before the shooting.