Red Lake: Time For More Discussion, Now!

Can This Really Be True?

Twenty Students Knew About Murder Plot, Police Say



For several weeks, I've been frustrated that some major stories have fallen through the cracks, as the result of an unusually busy news cycle. The cold-blooded murders of ten people at Minnesota's Red Lake Reservation tops the list of underdiscussed domestic developments.

From a bombshell report in today's Washington Post, officials are now telling parents that as many as 20 students, may have had knowledge of the murder plot. Four may have been involved in planning the killing spree instead of Jeff Weise merely acting alone.

This suggests a criminal conspiracy that dwarfs what happened in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Remember how that story dominated news and talk radio for weeks? Why did this one disappear in a day or two? It's even more alarming.

America needs to focus much more attention on what is going on at this reservation and what we can do to help. This is too much to believe.

For another angle on this story, please see my previous piece exploring where Weise might have acquired his neo-nazi sympathies.



(Washington Post- Dana Hedgpeth- Dan Eggen- 2 April 2005)

RED LAKE, Minn., April 1 -- As many as 20 teenagers may have known ahead of time about plans for the shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of 10 people on the Indian reservation here March 21, tribal and federal officials said Friday.

Capt. Dewayne Dow of the tribal police told a group of parents, teachers and staff at a three-hour school board meeting that authorities believe as many as 20 students were involved.

One law enforcement official said the FBI believes that as many as four students -- including gunman Jeff Weise and Louis Jourdain, a classmate arrested Sunday -- were directly involved in planning an attack on Red Lake High School, and well over a dozen others may have heard about the plot.

"There may have been as many as four of these kids who were active participants in the plot," said the official, who declined to be identified discussing an ongoing investigation. "The question is, how many other kids had some knowledge of this or had heard about it somehow? We think there were quite a few."